Kit Mods

[Brixton]

I have a lot of stuff for various hobbies This stuff, climbing, sailing etc. and quite often find that after parting with my hard earned reddies the bit of super kit is not quite right. So I end up attacking it with a file or scissors.
Do you guys have any top mod tips what you've done to your stuff?
Here's my latest mod

I chopped an inch of the end of my cutlery so it'll fit in the Trangia
and
I've glued an allen key onto the burner lid as it always seems to be too Bleedin tight whenever I come to undo it.

 

[greg2935]

just an aside: I've found the lid of a trangia always sticks if you have burned most of the meths in the burner (if you look the meths looks "thick" and syrup like), and then close the lid.

I think (i.e. I'm guessing) that the thickness comes from the additives they put in to stop people drinking it. So the meths evaporates while it burns but the additives just build up.

I had some filter paper that got rid of the colour in the meths and I found it burned cleaner (less black soot on the pot), and the lid did not stick anymore. Unfortunately I cannot get any more filter paper so am trying to find other ways round this.

As for modding kit, I'm modding a pattern to use buttons, zips and snaps instead of velcro on a double layer ventile coat for winter with a wool lining. It is getting very heavy so am starting to think I may have overdone the insulation and only useful in the bleakest of winter!

 

[greg2935]

Next thing to mod will be Neil's excellent thai hammock to add a mozzi net that can be zipped off as needed.

 

[AJB]

Hi Greg,

I would be interested to know more about the meths filter. What kind of paper have you tried? Have you tried multiple coffee filters? If you find a solution please post it. I seem to remember reading a thread about getting meths without the dye but I can’t find it now and I don’t think they said where they got it from anyway.

When I was with the MoD, there was a rumour you could get the dye out of issue petrol by filtering it through a sliced white loaf in a stocking! But I never tried it (my stockings are too precious )

AJB

 

[Goose]

The blue combat gas! Memories
I believe a filter system using fullers earth(cat litter) can remove dyes from fuel...........

 

[PC2K]

i heard a rumor that you can get rid of the additives by putting charcoal in to bottle with meth and shake it.... Sounds like it can actually work, but i never tryed it. Guess i'm leasy and burn the stuff right out of the bottle.

 

[marcja]

Must share this with you guys, it's hardly a top mod but I need to share my grief with someone. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry after seeing how it had turned out!!

I had a PLCE bergen in DPM, and thought it would look nicer if it were a nice shade of green. So along I went to B&Q and found a tin of holly green gloss. I proceeded to paint the whole thing and now I think it looks terrible I'm hoping that another coat might do the trick.

Never mind eh, you learn from your mistakes

Marc

****EDIT****

ANyone know where I can pick up a cheap one????

 

[NickBristol]

So along I went to B&Q and found a tin of holly green gloss.

Maybe creosote or wood stain would have worked better... could soak into the fabric a bit more than gloss?

Not sure I'd want to be near any naked flames for a while after tho

 

[addyb]

I've never had those kinds of problems with my Trangia. But, I did read somewhere that meths in Europe aren't quite as clean as North American ones. That might explain the syrup-y goop inside yours.

As for kit mods: Come to think of it, I've never really done anything. I guess the reason for is that where I live (BC, Canada) bushcraft/hiking is such a common thing, every town has three or more outdoors stores, so a person will never not find what they are looking for. I'm not trying to be a braggart, it's just my general opinion.

Here's the website of one of the major outdoor clothing stores in Canada. It's called the Mountain Equipment Co-Op, each store is about the size of a shipping warehouse, and there's one in almost every province in Canada. http://www.mec.ca

You guys might find it useful, there's kit advice, as well as the ability to purchase.

 

[Lithril]

I had some filter paper that got rid of the colour in the meths and I found it burned cleaner (less black soot on the pot), and the lid did not stick anymore. Unfortunately I cannot get any more filter paper so am trying to find other ways round this.

Any ideas of the type/grade/porosity of the filter paper, at the moment I work in a lab so can get different filter papers quite easily?

 

[Ahjno]

When I was with the MoD, there was a rumour you could get the dye out of issue petrol by filtering it through a sliced white loaf in a stocking! But I never tried it (my stockings are too precious )

i heard a rumor that you can get rid of the additives by putting charcoal in to bottle with meth and shake it.... Sounds like it can actually work, but i never tryed it. Guess i'm leasy and burn the stuff right out of the bottle.

Neither methode will work guys.

Petrol:
With this method you only dye the slice of white loaf (which could be cool in it's own way - compare it with a white carnation which you put with it's stem into a small bottle of (colored) ink), and make it highly flammable when you light it before the fuel evaporates - maybe a new sort of fast food (I won't eat it though).

Meths:
Sounds like it could work because when you've got the runs, the medication you'll use contains charcoal ... same thing when you feel sick and have to throw up.
The charcoal adsorps (or absorps - maybe one of the lab techie guys can tell the difference) the toxics which cause the illness.

When you add charcoal to your meths it will not remove the dye (or even the lethal additives) from it. That would be to easy!! 'Cause you'll than end up with allmost 100% alcohol ... for a relative low price.
If this method would work, the government would lose a major som of tax income which are on the normal alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, whiskey, etc.) - because everybody would drink the cheap stuff (in some sort of lower alcohol concentration - 100% alcohol would cause death IIRC).

The only way the get rid of the color (and thus less black soot on the pot, caused by the added dye - which seems an acceptable argument) is to use filtration paper (very fine grade).

NOTE: This method WILL NOT remove the lethal additives
To remove these you'll need an extended laboratorium ... and for that price you'd better buy a normal beer at Sainsbury's.

NO - I didn't experiment myself (come on, you guys should know me better by now )!! This same question was raised during a chemic class at school, some 10 years ago. The teacher showed us how the dye was removed with several experiments.

Hope this helps!

 

[Lithril]

Just being picky but 100% Ethanol (alcohol) is VERY difficult to make, most high purity lab samples are around 99.7% (told you I was being picky )

I'm pretty sure that the additive thats used to make it dangerous is Methanol which would be easy to remove by distillation. As for the dye, not sure, I'll nab some different filter papers from here and have a go.

 

[BlueTrain]

I mentioned in another post that I frequently modify things to suit myself. Usually that involves stitching things down, cutting things off and whatnot. One modification involved one of my packs.

I have an olive green PLCE bergen that I have had for about three years. I like it because it has lots of pockets and is easy to pack. It is an improvement on the older so-called Para bergen. But I didn't think it was perfect.

One thing I didn't care for is the trussed up feeling you have with the waist belt and chest strap all fastened, even if it makes it easier to carry the load. I don't know how to fix that but what really bother me was the pressure on my lower back. After experimenting a little, I inserted a curved piece of metal that I found among my personally owned junk, wrapped in padding, into the very bottom of the back pocket. Even though it is now a little heavier, it completely eliminated the pressure problem I was having. I have the feeling, not necessarily factual, that this is a common problem with internal framed rucksacks.

Another thing, the free end of the waistbelt adjustment pulls to the left, which is an unnatural movement for me, though I manage.

 

[Ahjno]

Just being picky but 100% Ethanol (alcohol) is VERY difficult to make, most high purity lab samples are around 99.7% (told you I was being picky )

I'm pretty sure that the additive thats used to make it dangerous is Methanol which would be easy to remove by distillation. As for the dye, not sure, I'll nab some different filter papers from here and have a go.

Did I told you, you are really picky???

Personally I don't think distillation works either, the stuff added to it, is specially selected to be hard to remove (see text above concerning tax / duty, etc.)

Wikipedia Different additives are used to make it both unpalatable and poisonous in such a way that is hard to rectify through distillation or other simple processes (methanol is common for this use in part because it has a boiling point close to that of ethanol, and separating it by distillation is more expensive than the taxes on beverage alcohol). It is also often dyed blue or purple with an aniline dye, although in Australia and New Zealand fluorescein is used instead.

Keep us posted with your findings with those different filter papers! (Although I personally don't care about the soot ... )

 

[spamel]

Why do you all want to remove the anti-drink additives, hmmm? To stop sooting my foot!!! Just add a bit of water to the fuel and it will reduce sooting. 5-10% should do.

And stop trying to make a killer brew from meths you lot!!!

 

[Lithril]

Why do you all want to remove the anti-drink additives, hmmm? To stop sooting my foot!!! Just add a bit of water to the fuel and it will reduce sooting. 5-10% should do.

And stop trying to make a killer brew from meths you lot!!!

Water works well but also results in a slightly cooler flame.... ok I'm picky and impatient, now stop assassinating my character

 

[innocent bystander]

Just being picky but 100% Ethanol (alcohol) is VERY difficult to make, most high purity lab samples are around 99.7% .

You can get to 100%, but as soon as you open the seal, it draws moisture from the air. IIRC. Which i probably don't..

 

[Ogri the trog]

The only filtration story I have heard is that six slices of white bread can filter the abrasive from Brasso, which leaves the spirit which was reported to have been drunk by sailors desperate for some kind of alcohol. Don't fancy trying myself though, even if I have consumed some wierd concoctions in the past.

As far as kit mods go,
I'll modify stuff to suit my personal requirements almost without thinking about it. I'll add straps or ties to whatever I feel needs it or cut them from places where they interfere, I also prefer things to be multi-purpose. I've taken to using a walking pole (old bikers knees) and the top of the handle now doubles as a camera monopod, and a rifle rest. As soon as I can find a thin enough vessel, it'll be a cane flask as well for a bracing tipple on the hills!

I am also becoming more and more engrossed in reading about the "make-it-yourself" lightweight hiking gear on some of the american websites that is just crying out for me to have a go.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Brixton]

one of the major outdoor clothing stores in Canada. It's called the Mountain Equipment Co-Op,

I bought a pair of Jumars ($20.00 Canadian dollars) from one of their stores in the mid eighties and still get letters asking me to vote on the chairman of the Co-Op.
The postage must have outweighed the profit they made by now

 

[Brixton]

.

, I inserted a curved piece of metal that I found among my personally owned junk, wrapped in padding, into the very bottom of the back pocket. Even though it is now a little heavier, .

The Karrimor 'Alpiniste' range of rucksacks use this very system.
Might be worth checking out their spares dept as the piece of metal is not only wrapped in padding but it might be lighter