Making a fire piston by hand.

[Pappa]

I'm cosidering trying to make a fire piston, and as I don't have access to a lathe, I suppose making it with hand tools is the only option available to me.

For materials, I was thinking either wood or a combination of wood and antler.

Has anyone had any sucess (or failures) trying this out?

Pappa

 

[Willowbark]

Not made one myself, but a friend tried different woods. Box was fine, but oak didn't work at all. The wood was too porous and did not allow sufficient compression.

Good luck

 

[rich59]

That sounds an interesting project. I have tried making one out of a medical syringe - a 2ml is probably about the right size. Just plugged the outlet with bluetak (the downward pressure kept it from blowing out). I put a bit of paper in. OK it was not perfect, but I did get the paper to turn brown once.

I have tried with a metal tube about 4-5mm diameter inside. Just put a plastic bung in the bottom (again the downward pressure keeps it in). The top end is more tricky. I have considered a rubber ball of appropriate size but I haven't found the suitable material yet. Maybe I could cut it out of a car tyre. A tip of carrot served as a rough and ready piston end on one occasion. I got a puff of steam out of it on my best try. On my worse the carrot just sludged.

I had a go forming a conventional wooden plunger with string whipping to form the seal. Quickly found I had to recess the site of the whipping. Had a problem with the under string of the whipping causing the round profile to be distorted and haven't progressed further.

Give us a blow by blow account of what you try.

 

[george]

It's difficult to get an accurate hole drilled in the main tube and hard to polish the bore of the main tube too. I wonder if a section of bamboo as a liner inside a more roughly drilled and shaped piece of hardwood would give a sufficiently smooth bore.

A piece of appropriately sized hardwood dowel should do as a plunger with a groove for the thread seal carefully cut into it.

I've not tried making one yet, but it is on my "to do list" so I'd be interested in how you get on.

george

 

[Pappa]

It's difficult to get an accurate hole drilled in the main tube and hard to polish the bore of the main tube too. I wonder if a section of bamboo as a liner inside a more roughly drilled and shaped piece of hardwood would give a sufficiently smooth bore.

I like the sound of that. I think I might try using a section of antler tine for the main body of the fire piston and line it with bamboo or elder wood perhaps (??). I could experiment with different hardwoods for the plunger.

I'm quite busy at the moment, but I'll see if I can make a start over the next few weeks, and let you know how I get on.

Pappa

 

[Ed]

I wonder if a section of bamboo as a liner inside a more roughly drilled and shaped piece of hardwood would give a sufficiently smooth bore.

I used bamboo to make a fire piston about a year ago (may have been 2). The first problem i found was that the bore tapered (sometimes in and out again) depending on how the plant grew. So i wrapped wet and dry (of different grades) arround a dowl and slowly evened out the bore until it was perfect and smoothe. I used a wooden plug on the end which was epoxied in to give a seal. Unfortunatly a single piece of bamboo I think was a little too pourous as it wouldn't work at all, but I fitted the bamboo inside a larger piece (again sealed with epoy) and this seem to do the trick. I could never get ignition on the first strike .... rather you have to strike, quickly remove the piston to let oxygen into the bore, put it back and strike again.... normally took about 4 strikes to get ignition... I did note it was getting hotter and hotter each time..... not great, but it did work

Ed

 

[led]

If you don't mind it not being made out of wood, there's a good tutorial on building one here: http://www.trackertrail.com/survival/fire/firepiston/firepiston2Ron.html

 

[Big John]

I spent many evenings trying to make one but without success. My first effort was by whittling down a piece of wood to form a piston with a handle, it took hours, then using another section of the same piece of branch drilled a hole in it and used fine sandpaper wrapped round a dowel to finish and pollish the bore. I used a rubber 'o' ring (they had a good size selection at my local hardware shop) to seal the piston in the bore which appeared to work quite well.

There was a reasonable amount of compression, and I did get a whiff or two of burning, but it only lasted a couple of strikes before I stapped the piston rod, it was heart-breaking!

Not to be beaten I moved on to drilling the hole completely through the wood for the bore to aid pollishing then glueing an end plug on, and using dowel for the piston instead of spending hours with my knife - but still with no success, I think I needed to be much more particular about the type of wood I was using - that's my excuse anyway!

I've often thought of shelling out the £40 to buy one, but can't get the image of that snapped piston rod out of my mind!

Good luck Pappa,