One ounce, one piece windscreen and potstand that rolls up to fit inside a Snow Peak Trek 700 Mug. Uses braided stainless steel wire for support instead of tent stakes. No parts to fuss with, strong, light and very stable. Same concept as the tent stake design but integrated the potstand and used braided wire instead.

The wire was nylon coated so the discoloration is just the melted nylon coating, please ignore it, I didn't bother stripping it off first.




I tested this on my home gas oven/stove and boiled 16oz. of water 5 times in row on med-high heat (way more heat than any alcohol stove produces) and the braided wire held up perfect. Here's some more pics:



Rolled up inside mug, note that the wire does not need to be loosened or removed, the way it is laced allows it to loosen with the rolled windscreen:



View from the bottom (that's the bottom of the 700 mug on the potstand wire, very stable!):



View of the side showing joining and lacing:




Materials:

1. Windscreen 28.8 grams - .012" Aluminum Sheet 13 3/4" X 4 1/8". Twenty-six 1/8" bottom air holes punched every 1/2", 1/4" up from bottom edge, starting at center of material which is 6 7/8" in from either side. Eight 1/16" lacing holes, 2 1/2" up from bottom edge punched every 1 23/32" (1.72") from center.

Note: when punching holes from the center remember to half the distance on either side of center for your first hole on each side of center, this is because you'll be punching one hole on either side of center and if you don't half it, you'll end up with twice the distance on the holes next to center.

Two 1/8" deep slits cut into each end edge to join the ends. Rolled around a spray paint can when finished to form it into a cylinder.

2. Potstand 0.4 grams - 35" of braided stainless steel bead stringing wire from craft store (Beadalon 0.18" thick, 19 strand flexible, 26 lb. breaking strength). Laced to form a square grid and ends knotted together at first and last holes. The lacing pattern is important because it does not bind as much as other ways, so when the windscreen is rolled the wire shifts around and loosens as the circumfrence shrinks, but pops back into place when opened.

Lacing pattern (assuming the seam where the ends meet in the windscreen is the front and facing you):

1. Tie a bowline knot in one end of the wire. Now, with the other end in your hand, start at first hole on right side of the seam where the ends of the windscreen meet.

From the outside go straight in and across to the opposite hole in the rear, pulling through all your slack, so that the bowline is snug up against the outside of the windscreen.

2. Now go to the right out of the rear hole into the rearmost-side hole and from there across to the opposite rearmost-side hole, pulling through all the slack.

3. Again go to the right out of the rearmost side hole and into the the left-rear hole and across to the opposite front-left hole.

4. Again go to the right out of the front-left hole into the closer left-side hole and across to the opposite closer right-side hole.

5. Finally, tighten up any loose areas and tie off the ends using the bowline you tied in the beginning of the wire and a couple half-hitches or tautline hitch in the trailing end.

The wire is so light that you can carry an extra 35" backup just in case. I have not experimented with other braided wire, but I'm sure there are others out there. I thought about using a .025 7 strand because it would hold up to the heat better, but this thin 19 strand stuff is surpassing my expectations, so I haven't bothered.

Edited by jhaura on 07/14/2006 17:08:27 MDT.

HI. Excellent minimalist design ! I believe creating a good windshield is very important. Slightly conical pot helps with the design and airflow. I have just finished a similar design though not as lightweight as yours which I'll post here soon. Great work. I hope you don't mind if I make a version of your design !

Edited by ianwright on 07/15/2006 07:48:31 MDT.

Looks great. Some issues I have with many "windstands" is that they are a bit fiddly and a pain to deploy. I usually prefer stoves with a built-in stand, but this screen looks like I can finally use some other stand-alone burners with ease. Seems to be a straight-forward 'unroll and start cookng'. Thanks for the photos and instructions for this very nice design.
-Mark

Mark, thanks for the feedback. Yes it is very quick to deploy. Ease of use and hassle free was my main objective when making this piece of gear. Somehow the idea of using tent stakes for the potstand didn't make sense in the multiple use gear scenerio: need to cook, get two stakes, shelter falls down?

If you can strip the nylon coating off the wire before lacing, this makes it unroll and join much easier. When the nylon coating melts it creates little hard blobs along the lacing and it can add fiddle factor.

Be sure to adjust the height of the lacing holes to accomodate your burner flame height.

Best, Jhaura

Ian, cool, glad you like it. I'm still experimenting with the air gap between the windscreen and pot, right now I use 1/4". Let me know if you find a better gap width for use with alcohol type stoves. I'll keep an eye out for your post! If you make one like this one here, post pics in this thread so I can check out your unique take on it. Thanks, Jhaura

Very nicely done. easy, simple...

I'll be bookmarking this ;)

Hi again. I'm new at this and have only made 3 different stoves. From my experience the air inlet holes are an issue, do I have many small holes or fewer bigger ones? All around the base or just some of the way around the base? To me the idea of using a conical shaped pot and wind shield is the best so I am always looking in the kitchen section of shops to see what they have. I want to make almost exactly your design but the wind shield would be made from another pot modified. It would then easily store in the pot. My first design was pretty much that, but the pots were square (tapering from top to bottom)which was surprisingly good.

Me again !

If the wind shield is laid out flat then it would 'arc' I'm sure. Did you determine this arc by slowly rolling the pot by hand on the wind shield material while at the same time drawing the arc ? Know what I mean !?!