I made a light grill primarily for fly fishing trips in the Sierra Nevada. On my recent trip to test it out, I only caught fish above the legal fire altitude... so I made some quesadillas with the grill once I was below 9k feet:



The grill weighs 1 oz, which compares quite favorably to the otherwise lightest options I have seen (at http://www.purcelltrench.com/). I used the BPL Titanium Alloy UltraRods, which I cut in half, and thin aluminum tube, into which I drilled holes. The Ti rods weigh 22g total (0.23 g/inch * 8 rods * 12 inches) and the tubes weigh 5g (0.48 g/inch * 2 tubes * 5.25 inches) = ~27g = ~ 1 oz.

I packed it for transport by disassembling, putting the rods in the tubes, and rubber banding it all to a fly rod:



It is definitely a luxury to be able to grill on a UL trip, but I think it's worth it for only 1 oz....

Very nice! I can really see this getting some practical use. I think I'm going to copy your design if you don't mind.

On another note, what rod are you using?

Nice, basically a homemade (and MUCH lighter) version of the Grilliput

Brilliant,

A much cheaper option, although heavier, is to replace the titanium rods with stainless steel bicycle spokes. I have used spokes for some time to support my pot with an alcohol stove and they have shown no signs of strength loss due to the heat. How do the titanium rods hold up to the heat?

Ben Excellent idea!

The commercial Grilliput is nice but just begging for a UL Make Over.

Regards

You can buy Titanium spokes too... but they would probably be much more expensive than the BPL Titanium rods.

Yeah, the grilliput was admittedly my inspiration for this design. I was given one as a gift, after admiring it in Germany and a local REI a few times. It really is designed and executed well, but the thing is crazy heavy (19.6 oz., to be precise). Seems fine for car camping...

I thought long and hard about how to really replicate its stability and features with Ti and Al, and in the end decided to just keep it simple and drill some holes in Al tubes and let the extra length of the Ti bars keep it together. I did another design that used bent Al rods, which double as a pot stand for an alcohol stove. I'll post pictures of that, if anyone is interested…

The rod is a Cabela's Stowaway 3 wt (2.8 oz), and the reel is a Sage 3200 (3.2 oz). I caught this pretty nice fish with the setup in Emigrant wilderness last weekend:

Edited by btomsky on 10/19/2006 18:11:48 MDT.

Nice Trout

How was the weather?

Where were you?

Weather was great during the (short) days, in the 60s and sunny, but pretty cold at night. I had a little thermometer for the entertainment value, and it informed me that it was in the mid-20s when I woke up in the morning. I was under an ID poncho tarp, in a WM Summerlite, and did okay. The absence of bugs was so nice...

I did a 50-mile loop from Kennedy Meadows, from Friday morning till Monday at noon, camping at Emigrant Meadow Lake, Deer Lake, and Summit Creek. It was essentially intended to be a slow-paced fishing trip to get to know that area a little better, since I thru hiked from Kennedy Meadows to Mt. Whitney earlier in the summer and rushed through that section...

That is some nice area. One of my more favorite areas to backpack. Deer lake especially!!

Yeah, Emigrant Wilderness has the beauty of Yosemite, without all the people, permitting, and bear issues. It's only a three-hour drive from the SF Bay Area, so very doable for a long weekend.

The fall colors on my last trip added some unexpected variety:

Some of the best parts of the Sierra, fly-fishing and UL grilling? I just got a weeks worth of deep thoughts from these posts!

Regarding the grill...can I ask how much it would cost to replicate?

The color of the Aspens (?) in the shot remind me that I need to go to the Hope Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra's at that "perfect time" some day.

Calculating the cost of the grill depends on some assumptions. At the least expensive, I calculate that it costs $12.00 = $22.49 * 4/10 + $3. That’s given the following assumptions:
1. You are a Premium Member of BPL, so you can buy the Ti rods for the Premium Member price of $22.49.
2. You have some other use for the 6 Ti rods not needed for the grill
3. You can find the Al tubing for pretty cheap, like I did, approximately $3 for the needed length
4. You are already placing an order for something else at BPL, so you don’t consider the added cost of shipping the Ti rods. (Surely you want something else anyway, right?)
5. You own a drill, drill bits, and hacksaw
6. You don’t count the cost of your time for MYOG UL gear projects…

Those are the assumptions that apply to me, anyway. Obviously if any of them don’t apply to you, the cost will go up up up. Assumption 6 clearly offers the most variability. ;-)

Several months ago I made my grill.

The tubes were two different size Al arrow shafts and the cross pieces were made from Stainless Steel bike spokes. The spokes if you had to buy them were about $1 each. This was the second or thrid version




This was the first version and part of one of my MYOG thread here:
The grill is toward the end of the thread.

Edited by bfornshell on 10/20/2006 00:31:09 MDT.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, another possibility is to use some Al rods. First, I made a simple pot stand by bending the rods:



Then I realized that I could drill holes in it to make a freestanding grill:



This is multiuse as pot stand and grill, and the binder clip also has some uses, like a backup headlamp clip for photon-to-hat connection.

you mean 3 hours without the Friday nightmare getting out of the Bay Area and the lousy traffic through Tracy. Still, it is a nice place to get away for the weekend..Nice photo!

Where did you get the aluminum rods to make the grill? Great job, I can't wait to make one myself!

I got the Al rods for the combination pot stand/grill from Home Depot. Similar rods should be easy to find at any hardware store. The tubing is not as easy to find. It's more of a hobby shop kinda thing than Home Depot....

Benjamin - have you tried using a pot on the grill. Will the TI support the weight?

Thanks

Haven't tried a full cookpot on the grill yet, but I'm also interested to know if it will manage. I'll test it out at home and let you know...