Hello everyone. Just wanted to say thanks for a great site, it's been extremely useful to pick up tips and tricks over the last few months, and thought it was time to share some of my labours.
I picked up a tatty Swiss army cooker a while back, the Meta-50, which I have to say is an extremely well designed piece of kit. What makes it better than the Trangia type ranges IMO, are the sloped sides to the pots, which give you more horizontal area to collect heat from the fuel, making it more efficient. With a coke can meths burner, I got a rolling boil from 1 1/2 pints in just under 5 minutes on a pretty cold evening.
What I wanted to do, was couple this system with a wood gas stove I'd made out of a paint tin and a baked bean can. The problem was that I needed to raise the top wind shield to accommodate the height of the paint tin. So with my trusty dremmel, I started to hack in on some bit's I'd earmarked for the task. In this case a stainless steel pot I got from the pound store.
In the process, I added a couple of other additions, like the skewer rack made out of coat hanger wire, and slightly modding a collapsible steamer to use charcoal on.
It all seems a little over the top I guess. One of the concerns I had with just using meths, was being able to simmer stuff, or have some sort of control over the heat produced. Anyway, I thought I'd show you all the same....
The stove(s) packed. There is a leather strap which holds it all together not shown.
With the frying pan off.
Unpacked.
Set up, without the pans.
With the steamer/coal grate.
The collar mod. This works really well, the lip left on the steel pot rim actually locks onto the top windshield, making it all quite sturdy. You can pick the whole thing up from the top.
Wood gas stove configuration.
With the meths burner.
Finally, the set up allows me to have three separate stoves at the same time.
Thanks for looking.
I picked up a tatty Swiss army cooker a while back, the Meta-50, which I have to say is an extremely well designed piece of kit. What makes it better than the Trangia type ranges IMO, are the sloped sides to the pots, which give you more horizontal area to collect heat from the fuel, making it more efficient. With a coke can meths burner, I got a rolling boil from 1 1/2 pints in just under 5 minutes on a pretty cold evening.
What I wanted to do, was couple this system with a wood gas stove I'd made out of a paint tin and a baked bean can. The problem was that I needed to raise the top wind shield to accommodate the height of the paint tin. So with my trusty dremmel, I started to hack in on some bit's I'd earmarked for the task. In this case a stainless steel pot I got from the pound store.
In the process, I added a couple of other additions, like the skewer rack made out of coat hanger wire, and slightly modding a collapsible steamer to use charcoal on.
It all seems a little over the top I guess. One of the concerns I had with just using meths, was being able to simmer stuff, or have some sort of control over the heat produced. Anyway, I thought I'd show you all the same....
The stove(s) packed. There is a leather strap which holds it all together not shown.
With the frying pan off.
Unpacked.
Set up, without the pans.
With the steamer/coal grate.
The collar mod. This works really well, the lip left on the steel pot rim actually locks onto the top windshield, making it all quite sturdy. You can pick the whole thing up from the top.
Wood gas stove configuration.
With the meths burner.
Finally, the set up allows me to have three separate stoves at the same time.
Thanks for looking.
