I was wondering ........

[warthog1981]

Has anyone ever thought about using a large stainless steel roasting tin as a fire proof base for a small campfire ? it would make it easy to put out with a little water and make it easy to scattter the ashes ????
And they dont way that much ?

 

[leon-1]

I have been there mate, one of the other things that you want to think about is that the heat from the fire will sterilise the ground, so to protect the ground support your tray of the ground on either logs or rocks.

 

[warthog1981]

so scrape the ground down to bare earth ?

 

[British Red]

What a cracking idea - have a rep point!

Red

 

[Toddy]

Remember my friend Fiona who came to Brownlee? Well when she was living in her car she used one of those old fashioned oval self basting roasting tins for her fire and stove. Like this one.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Ename...Z6276800827QQcategoryZ975QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It was propped up on some stones and the fire lit in the base, she popped a cake rack on the top and cooked on that. Burned charcoal and small timbers, and when she was finished put the lid on to smother the flames. Wrapped up in an old blanket it became a hot water bottle type thing for her feet. In the morning the ashes could just be poured out after the unburnt bids were salvaged for kindling for the next evening.
I've been wondering about it for a stove inside a bigger tepee, but I wonder if you could get away with one of the thick aluminium catering tins with the slide on lids. Would it melt though? The stainless steel ought to be okay but just how heavy would it be? What about a framework/legs too?

Cheers,
Mary

 

[bloodline]

Sounds like a good idea to me I will be using one from now on.

 

[leon-1]

so scrape the ground down to bare earth ?

No mate, the tray should be kept out of contact with the ground, stick a few logs underneath it or stones as either would do.

The earth is what will be holding all the nutrients and be fertile hence you wanting to stop heat conduction through into it. In some places they have designated fire pits so that this does not happen or so that it only happens in one place.

The mobile tray is a good method, as I said all you are trying to do is stop the tray coming into contact with the ground directly.

 

[Lithril]

Failing that it would be easy enough to put 4 holes in the corners of the lip and carry some lightweight legs/poles etc (wouldn't need to be much) and you've can keep it off the ground where ever you are then.... and if you really want to extend, buy a disposable BBQ and keep the grill for cooking use.

Matt

 

[woodwalker]

well really it would be a home made disposable barbecue!

(that you don't dispose of)
woodwalker

 

[longshot]

a set up like that should work fine i've seen such portable fire pits in use. but i've never seen any damage to the earth but i can see the possibility so precautions should be taken.

but to the point they work perfectly fine.

dean

 

[pierre girard]

If we are on a site where damaging the sod is a concern (field or clearing), we take a shovel and dig up four to eight shovel size pieces of sod, set them aside, and replace them after the fire is out and we are leaving the site. Unnoticeable within a very short period of time.

 

[longshot]

Pierre, good thought.


dean

 

[Nemisis]

Expanding on Lithril's idea how about a length of threaded stud bar cut into four and held in place with two nuts at each corner to form stable legs, file rough points on the other end should maker it pretty firm.
Dave.

 

[stuart f]

Hi i just had a thought, what about drilling a hole in each corner of the roasting tray then stick in a small S bend hook. Then take four lengths of cheap small link chain(which you can get from B&Q),one for each S bend hook,bring the chains together and suspend below a tri-pod, the tri-pod could just be some branches you find around camp. Then there would be no need to make legs for it,plus the chains and hooks would take up much less space and weight in your rucksack.

Anyway like i said just a thought.

Hope that makes sense!