I spent my New Years Eve with my fiancee making a caldera cone. Party on!



I got instructions from this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VerP7-aiEBw.

It was quite easy but I didn't follow every step. I made a few modifications. For one thing I made the intake holes at the bottom much larger than the ones at top. I figured more intake and less exhaust would mean hotter. I could always drill more holes at the top if this isn't true. Any thoughts?

Joseph

BTW I will take it outside tomorrow morning and take the temperature and see what kind of boil times I can get compared to a regular wind screen. I also need to weight it. I need to buy a scale. :(

Joseph

At 35 degrees and 17 mph wind I was able to boil 2 cups of cold water(no idea of temp.) in 5 minutes 31 seconds using 3/4 oz. of denatured alcohol.

Under the same conditions an Esbit tab boiled the 2 cups of water in 5 minutes 49 seconds.

I am thinking the Esbit tablet might be the way to go. I will have to try them out on my next overnight.

I will also build another caldera cone for my AGG 3 cup pot. I think that would get a faster boil time.

Joseph

Interesting project. How are you connecting the cone at the seam?

I recently purchased one of the UL cones that fits inside my SnowPeak 700 and really like it. I found the geometry interesting so I put together a spreadsheet to calculate the variables for different sized cones. I may consider playing with variants for fun but I don't really see any significant opportunities to improve over the Caldera design.

Nice project!

Never mind the caldera... I'm IMPRESSED that your fiancee actually spent New Year's Eve with you on a MYOG project! You are one lucky dog! Happy New Year to you both! :)

Don,

Here is a link to the insturctional video I used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VerP7-aiEBw

In the video it explains how to connect the cone at the seam and also how to select different slopes of the caldera cone. I chose more slope because I only had a foot and a half long piece of flashing. Where as the cone in the video was made from a two foot piece of flashing.

I have seen the UL cones but I didn't know they would fit inside the pot. That would definitely be a plus as I don't know where I will put my cone in my pack. BTW do you think the UL Cone would be more fuel efficient than a standard tight fitting windscreen?

Joseph

Yes, I feel lucky. Thanks Ben and happy new year.

Joseph

Joseph, its hard to say if its more efficient than a normal wind screen or not. My intuition says yes but I don't have data to back it up. The way I see it the advantages are:

Packs in the pot
Serves as pot support and wind screen
Very efficient (although less than a full caldera)
Very stable setup - unlike most other alky setups I've used

The price is very reasonable at $25 for the cone and the stove. After taking a few trips with mine I may upgrade to the ti version to add a little durability and allow the option to burn wood if necessary.

DM