Hexi Stove WoodBurner - The Bare Burner

[Bare Grrls]

I would dearly like a honey stove or similar compact wood burner. Although these are great value for the quality of the build and design, personally I cannot justify the price for my sort of usage.

I like my hexi stove and often supplement the hexi tab with some twigs or whatever is to hand. It is a very neat and reliable device and can be bought and fuelled at pocket money prices.

My mod to this classic is fairly simple. With the stove unfolded on soft ground, push 4 metal 90 degree "angle iron" tent pegs into the ground at each corner. My hexi cooker has a plate with a hole to accept the kidney shaped cup which fits around a standard issue water bottle. This holds the rectangular shape at the top to some extent and so a kettle or other pot can be supported. Make the sides with aluminium sheet, recycled from beer tins or pie tins - the heavy sort that ready made meals come in. These slip between the tent pegs and the burner.

Now you can personalise it by making the ventilation holes to your satisfaction with a penknife or a pair of scissors. The material is that easy to shape - but watch out for sharp burrs and edges. On mine, I have made "crenilations" around the top to let out smoke and flame and a single rectangular hole at the bottom of the aluminium plate. I fit another piece of aluminium over the hole to make a slider to adjust the air flow.

The pegs can splay, so I have drilled holes at the top and threaded I think stainless garden wire through the holes. This gives some more strength. More holes at the bottom would allow more wires, criss-crossed if you like or to take metal rods such as ordinary tent pegs to add rigidity or to support alternative burners at different heights inside.

So, there you have it for a few pence you can convert a hexi stove to a "Bare Burner". If you get fed up with it you still have your hexi stove and your tent pegs. If you want to protect your hexi stove from the greater heat, cut an insert from some beer can and perforate it for a new floor for the burner.

The stove boils a kettle easily and the embers make a good controlled heat source for cooking or to kight a bigger fire. If you want the embers closer to your pot, push the tent pegs a bit further into the ground and use a smaller piece of beer can.

As a new forum member I don't believe that I can add photos yet but if anyone is interested, I can post them later.

 

[Dormouse]

I was just going to say, "bung some photos up" when I read your last sentence!

 

[Tengu]

I would like some too. Funny, I was just thinking up a similar mod.

 

[Bare Grrls]

Thank you for your interest. If I become a trustie I will post a few snaps. The avatar should give you a good idea and I will attempt to put another as my profile photo.

The only real change to the tent pegs was to square off the tops with a hacksaw and hammer in a bench vice so the cup holder fitted. From the profile photo you will immediately see that no metalworking skills are involved. I have also tried to put another photo by my signature. This shows an extra bit of beer tin to use on the front to get some more draw when lighting. Also, some pocket secateurs that you can get from garden centres, gift shops etc. There has been comment on how handy secateurs are for making twigs the right size but are too heavy to pack. These pocket ones are handy but not particularly powerful and not really an improvement on a knife.

To make it easier to assemble, don't make the rectangles of beer tins too big. They are meant to just slip down the inside of the tent pegs and hang from the wires at the top.

Other than that it is just fooling about with wire and making holes in beer tins which can be done anywhere there is a supply of beer tins. The local park is a great source of these. I still have not worked out a use for the old syringes there. Such bounty!

If you put wires through holes in the tent pegs about 6 inches down, it makes the burner more rigid but fiddlier to assemble. If you secure the burner in place by supporting it with wires underneath running between the pegs then it will stand up fairly solidly without being stuck in the ground and resist collapse when everything expands. However when dealing with burning material, boiling water, frying bacon etc. especially in a wood, I prefer to secure it into the earth.

So, it is very adaptable and you can fool about modifying it with a penknife to your heart's content. I dare say with a carefully made concentric beer tin insert it could be made to flare off wood gases ...