Ok don't laugh ......Yet
I have made stuff before but with all the great stuff I keep seeing here, I thought I would ask my close friends for some pointers.
I am going to make a billie kit and have most of the raw stuff needed, my question is
1. what the easiest way the measure the can for drilling the air holes around a tin. so they are equal.
2. pan grip or removeable handle?
3. joining metal together - welding, solder or rivets etc?
Don't worry Globetrotter, the dumbest question is the one you don't ask - at least this way you get an answer.
Easiest way to get equi-distant holes is to wrap a length of paper around the outside and mark the circumference. Then remove it and fold to get the number of hole centres, replace the paper and mark the holes.
If your handle is permanently attached, it'll heat up - its not a bad thing, just something to take into consideration.
Use whichever method of joining that you can do best, if you can weld it, great - if nuts and bolt are your thing then thats great too. Soldering is probably unrealistic for something over an open fire and rivets are an aquired skill to get a good seal. Keep in mind that if you have unsealed joins on the food-side of your billie, it can trap and harbour old food and lead to problems.
For a few personal takes on billie kits, I like to have low holes on one side and high holes on the other - this makes me think that if I get the wind blowing from the right side, it'll assist in combustion. You might wish to have a large hole through which to add fuel without removing the billie off the top. Also consider the wind direction for the placement of the fuel hole, if you add fuel to the cold side of the fire, it'll take longer to heat up to ignition point.
You can buy pot grips for a few quid that will save a lot of messing about.
Be careful, making billie kits is addictive, I must have about 6 now, each a supposed modification on the last but I've still not found the perfect kit for me yet.
Good luck and show us your results.
Ogri the trog
