I keep half of a Lightload towel in my cook pots. I use it to simply dry the pots out since all I do is boil water in my pots. The LightLoad towel works great as a pot lifter though and only weighs in at 0.25 oz!

After Fred's post, I remembered a supplier that I looked at in the past: Elemental Container. I requested a sample part to evaluate (see below). Its close, but no cigar. It is an aluminum bottle with a screw top lid. The volume is 21 oz. and it weighs 70grams. The three main problems are 1) even with a seal in the lid, it is not water tight, 2) The aluminum is uncoated and 3) The upper lip of the can is rolled inward not outward. A bottles with lid would cost $3.60 if purchased by the case (56 units).
A new seal could be fashioned out of a silicone disk. It is possible to anodize the bottle. I am not sure what to do about the inward rolled lip. Fix these issues and add some ridges and this could be a killer pot. Best regards - Jon

Edited by jonfong on 06/09/2012 16:19:54 MDT.

The use of "Elemental" container as a cook pot is viable one, since I know of at least one resourceful lad (pastprimitive.com) who sells them unridged , as pots and seems to be doing fine..

I did try to put ridges in the original aluminum containers that I get from -

newdirectionsaromatics.ca .. and did not have too much success.

Even after annealing the can, I was not able to put even, consistently deep, ridges into the sides of that can, no matter what I did; I pressed and grunted and called on the metal gods (mostly "Zeppelin" and "Motorhead") for assistance... to no avail..

I seem to remember seeing one of the "Elemental" containers in a hospital once..
(I think they use them for sending sealed plastic jars of "Bio-material" out
for testing, Stool samples and such...), and at that time it seemed that the aluminum was not as much "rolled" into existence as much "Hot" pressed like the "aromatics" cans which might make them just as hard to ridge...

Worth a try though...
Regardless a little more detail on the lids of the Fosters ridged cans I made, might clear the air on how they seal in the liquid..

In the following pic:

The "aromatics" container is on top, with original lid screwed on, (a "Minibulldesign"
beercan lid sits to the right for "scale"), lower left is the cut-off threads (top of aluminum container) sitting on top of Minibulldesign" beer-can ring (I usually use my diy rings, but for these pics his rings are just so much prettier..), bottom right is a top view of screw on cap , which after the center is cut out, will become the "screw" band to keep cut-off can bottom, in place, as lid for the whole unit..

The beercan-ring gets pressed into the cut-off threaded top of can and its edge is rolled over the bottom in a way as to seal it between the beercan and the beercan-ring , preventing it from ever coming out.. after that the whole she-bang is pushed into the fosters can and T H E N the ridges are rolled in, otherwise the can might collapse accordion style .(Yeah, I have learned that lesson over and over..)

Next pic , the "screw band" beside the upside down "aromatics" container bottom , which is now the lid , which can be held in place by the "screw band" for liquids transport..
(you can see the bead of thinned silicone I applied to the outside edge of lid which does the sealing)

Hope this makes things clearer , as I am not sure the same functionality (never mind the expense of anodizing the insides) can be gotten from the "Freund" container cook pot. ("Freund" is another supplier of the "elemental" style containers.

I came across this video a while back, seems easy enough though Ive never tried it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Tiffin-Box-from-Tuna-Cans/

I wasn't able to come up with a good way to make ridges before leaving, but I use a piece of fleece sewn into a tube as my cozy. It also doubles as an "oven mitt." That is how I handle the pot without a handle.

Hey what is the trick for doing the interlocking lids on the plastic containers?

Thanks,

George

Here are two example of the ziploc carry cases and the parts needed ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GwKotGlElY&feature=plcp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc4nSoLOwDU&feature=plcp (about one minute in)

Once the center of the lid is removed ( you can also use a knife to cut out the center)
slip the resulting , threaded ring onto a ziploc container with a "snap-on" lid, on to the original screw-on container that you got the lid from to make the ring.

It is also possible to stack two of the smaller ziploc containers , one upside down
on the other , with both of the centers cut out of the lids, and simply glue (3M 90 Hi-Strength Spray Adhesive) one lid to another , thus allowing you to screw the containers into one another...