Scrap metal and cooking / eating

[onfire]

Hello all,

My first post after watching and reading with interest for a while, I hope you don't mind me asking for help straight away.

I have really got into making things rather than buying them ... largely due to the increasingly large part that Bushcraft has begun to play within my college course - I am the lecturer, but you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise! So far I have made a large tripod for cooking over the fire, lots of baked bean tin stoves, meths / pepsi can stoves, woodgas stoves and billy cans. The students have also made lots of pepsi cans and bean tin stoves ... and brews on the stoves and kelly kettle are a popular part of our weekly outdoor activity days:

I made Billys from Wilkinson coffee tins:

and was happy that there wouldnt be any poisoning from boiling water in them ... I am now a bit aware of making assumptions though.

I am on the verge of cutting up 3 gas bottles to make cauldrons so the students can cook over fires on their canoe expedition in May - but I am a bit concerned about cooking and eating out of them ... is it just straight forward stainless steel, or is it plain steel but OK to cook / eat from, or is the inside coated with something that will poison us????

All tips would be gratefully received, thank you

 

[launditch1]

They wont be made of stainless steel.Mild steel as far as i know is ok, both Toddy and Wayland on here have gas bottle cauldrons.
I dont know if they done anything to them though?
Welcome by the way!

 

[Rob_Beek]

I cook beans in the can in the fire. It's not done me any harm yet. However, i did read somthing somewhere about some cans being laminated internally.

I'd be interested to know, the only reason i do it is to save on washing up/water.

I suppose if you heat it enough anything toxic/harmfull would burn off?

 

[warthog1981]

Some gas bottles have a coating on the insides of them which can make you ill best thing I can suggest is make them and find some one who does sand blasting or bead blasting its the easiest way to get them to bear metal and season them once this is done

cheers Russ

 

[onfire]

Hi,

Thanks for the responses so far - I wouldnt have thought of the sand blasting ... great idea! I will get them vented this week hopefully and cut up soon enough!

 

[Tengu]

Onfire, `just` what do you teach?

 

[JohnC]

I recall Wayland has some cauldrons made in this way, I'm sure he'd be able to tell you how he sorted them, if you pm him.

 

[Wayland]

Yes I have three, here are a couple of them.

Two of the bottles needed no work on the internal surface the other did have a coating of some kind (unidentified).

I removed the coating with a flap wheel on an angle grinder but sandblasting would have been easier. If you do you might still want to polish the inside a bit before seasoning them

You can find my complete instructions here

 

[onfire]

Hello,

Thank you again for those ideas - I have seen your website Wayland. and was using that as my 'template'! Thanks

 

[rik_uk3]

What do you teach, D&T?

 

[jdlenton]

coor if he teaches D&T i want to work there !!!! i would presume its a post 16 out door course of some kind but I could be wrong. it would be interesting to find out.

 

[onfire]

I run the BTEC Public Services team for a tertiary college. I am in the classroom for lessons 3 days out of 5 and spend the other 2 doing outdoor activities and expeditions. The outdoor activities range from coasteering, climbing, hillwalking to canoeing, kayaking and bushcraft.

Alongside the main BTEC course we run a Tutorial and Enrichment Programme where the students undertake a range of activities under different topics - such as Sustainability, which involves the students making baked bean tin stoves, for example, to highlight recycling / reusing as well as the commercial pressure on us to buy when we might just as easily make.

The course undertakes 3 expeditions in the year - one hill walking, one canoeing and the third as a fundraising activity. We also get out and do voluntary projects with the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Hope that helps explain things a little

 

[jdlenton]

thats cool some of my students are looking at a public services course after they finish there GCSE's this year. As a fellow educator i am very happy to help with any question. I help run the DofE at school so many of the things you do we either offer now are are in the pipeline to be rolled out in the next few years. anything you need just ask.


J

 

[onfire]

Hi, thats very kind of you to offer - I assume you teach D&T then??

I did reasonably well at CDT at A-Level ... until my major project let me down a bit (or I let it down...) but I get the construction department to make me bits for the course now. I am a bit faddy really, and follow things until I work out how to do them, then I tend to switch attention to a new challenge.

When I first arrived our students were the worst in the campus, but 5 years later they are quite the reverse. We have around 40% go straight on to join a uniformed public service and we have Gold DoE going through for the first time this year

Likewise, if I can be of any help dont hesitate to ask.

 

[rik_uk3]

I run the BTEC Public Services team for a tertiary college. I am in the classroom for lessons 3 days out of 5 and spend the other 2 doing outdoor activities and expeditions. The outdoor activities range from coasteering, climbing, hillwalking to canoeing, kayaking and bushcraft.

Alongside the main BTEC course we run a Tutorial and Enrichment Programme where the students undertake a range of activities under different topics - such as Sustainability, which involves the students making baked bean tin stoves, for example, to highlight recycling / reusing as well as the commercial pressure on us to buy when we might just as easily make.

The course undertakes 3 expeditions in the year - one hill walking, one canoeing and the third as a fundraising activity. We also get out and do voluntary projects with the Brecon Beacons National Park.



Hope that helps explain things a little

Sounds like a great course for the youngsters