Hi folks,
Well it?s time to get onto the next project. When we travel and camp out in the bush, we always take a wood stove come fire pit with us. Cooking on gas is just not the same and it really does kill the atmosphere. Sitting next to a fire with a glass of red wine watching the sunset is one of the real pleasures in life. Many people who travel often carry a fire pit made from out of date gas bottles. It appears that it is almost a right of passage into retirement to show off your masterpiece. I constructed my first cooker about 10 years ago. It was a complex beast with removable legs, a tilting grate, ash tray and of course a chimney. It has served me well over the years and was exceptionally good to cook on. It only had one major problem- it?s weight. It was constructed from an old, heavy duty bottle and every component added to the stove was from a solid gauge of steel. Even the legs were constructed from water pipe which added to the weight. The chimney was also an issue as it was difficult to store due to its shape. When we purchased the caravan about 5 years ago, I decided to refine the design to make it simpler and much lighter. The second cooker was a big improvement in relation to weight and it was much more compact. As you can see from the photo, the legs are light weight and are held in place with Lynch pins. The grate on top of the fire is adjustable and two removable pins allow 4 height settings to be achieved. The major drawback of this design is the 12mm holes that are drilled into the base to allow the fire to breath. This allows a small amount of ash to fall onto the ground which can be regarded as a problem when camping in some areas. There is, of course the potential for fire with this design. Other aspects of the stove work exceptionally well. It is very compact and is a pleasure to cook on. With this in mind, I am going to attempt a new build with a slight design modification in mind. This should overcome the ash issue. There may be a few of you out there who may be interested in the process, so I?ll drag you guys along as I build it. My wife picked up a few old gas bottles up in Sydney and I can?t wait for her to get home so that I can get started. Once the new stove is built, I can give the old ones away.