Home-Made Brasslite Type Stove
The Brasslite Stove series
by
Aaron are works of art.
This is the chronicle of making my own
Aaron
has posted directions for making a stove on his site. He calls the
directions "Make Your
Own." The directions are not simple, and Brasslite warns
the builder up front that it is not all that easy.
This page is a compilation of my efforts to make a Brasslite type
stove. I have built several workable stoves, but only the latest one
is actually nice looking.
The directions on the Brasslite page above are for a pressurized stove
similar to the first Brasslite versions (solo and duo). My efforts
were oriented toward a stove like his most recent, the GramWeenie.
This project is not inexpensive. If your desire is a great looking
and inexpensive Brasslite, then buy it from Aaron. However, if your
desire is to understand the work involved, or just to challenge
yourself, then I would suggest trying the project.
On the directions from Brasslite, there is a complete set of
materials. I spent about $30 on materials for brazing, $10 for the
brass shim stock, and $5 on stainless steel mesh which I obtained from
Aaron. His supplier sells a minimum of 3 square feet at about $10 a
square foot. My thanks to Aaron for helping me out with
this.
According to the directions, one needs to find boric acid. The drug
store is suggested as a source. I went to 3 drug stores without any
success. Finally, at a hardware store, I found boric acid sold as
"Roach Prufe."
In
the photo above, are most of the materials needed to make a brass
stove. From the left, they are:
Brass Shim Stock
Denatured Alcohol
Two inch (5 cm) diameter pipe
Ceramic Pad for brazing
Acid Bath (Spanex)
A quarter oz of easy silver solder
Scissors, Titanium pick, and small brush
Clamp
Roach Prufe (boric acid)
Two plastic containers
Not shown is the heat source. More on that shortly.
The first step in the construction is to cut the pieces of brass.
The stove burner consists of three pieces of brass. Once they were carefully cut out, for the stove I wanted to make, I needed to drill four air holes in the rectangle and a central hole in the top piece. You can just see the 7/8 inch panel punch I used to cut the hole in the top. This knockout punch can be obtained at McMaster Carr as item 3447A61 when the brass is ordered. I used a standard drill for the smaller holes, because I did not have a knockout punch small enough. A paper hole punch will not cut this thickness of brass.
The
next step is to anneal the pieces. Dip them in the alcohol/boric
acid solution, burn the alcohol off and then anneal. Essentially,
from this point on, the Brasslite instructions are more than
adequate. Using the pick to spread melted solder works well as does
heating the part of the metal that one wishes the solder to flow
toward.
Here is a visual summary of the stoves I worked on and two of the
Brasslite stoves:
On
the far right is a brand new Brasslite TurboII-D with a double wall which
I just obtained. Next to it is a TurboII, now discontinued, but the first
Brasslite I actually had in my hands.
Starting on the left are my attempts to make stoves. Far left is the
alpha version. I was able to form the can and top, but while brazing
the bottom on, I burned a hole in the wall. I had begun to build
that burner can with a propane torch. The side seam worked pretty
well, however, when time came to put a bead of solder on the inside of the
lip, I found that the propane torch kept going out, probably because of
carbon dioxide in the bottom of the can. I then used an acetylene
torch set quite cool for brazing and was successful with the top.
However, the heat got away from me and I melted the brass when I was
working on the base.
With the second stove from the left, I had a usable model. I used
too much silver on the bead at the bottom, and I used some galvanized
(instead of stainless steel) wire mesh for the pot support. I kept a
small ring of material on the base to act as a heating ring. I used
this stove on my November
2003 AT overnight section hike. It is a working model, but
fairly ugly. I burned a small hole in the side near the top at one
point and I poked a hole in the top with my pick.
Version #3 was an experiment that did not go well. I decided to
attach the top like the bottom. But when the time came to attach the
stainless steel pot support, the top came loose from the sides everywhere
I heated the metal to attach the pot support. This little stove
works, but it is not very nice on the eyes.
My fifth attempt is not seen. I decided to try to use MAPP gas
instead of the acetylene torch. However, when I attempted to braze
the side seam, I melted the brass. The torch put out so much heat
over such a large area, that I could not control it.
The final, fifth stove, fourth from the left above, worked out very well. The burner went together like it should. I left a rim on the bottom to hold a tiny bit of alcohol for starting the stove. I used much less silver, as my technique was down much better by now. I cleaned the works more frequently and was able to keep the brass looking nice. I was able to braze the pot support on with little mess or fuss. The top is warped, but this does not seem to affect use. It works very nicely. It is pretty enough to be proud of. I could have bought it from Aaron for half of what I spent finding out how to do it, but it is from my own hand. And that means something to me.
Here
it is in my Antigravity 3 cup pot with pot handle, syringe, wind screen,
and matches. It boils a cup of 55 degree water with 10 cc of alcohol
in the stove and 1 cc in the pre-warmer. It's height is perfect for
putting the top on the pot and throwing it into the pack, protecting the
stove from crushing forces. It should last for years; maybe longer
than me. I like it.
If you have any questions about building a Brasslite stove which you can
not figure out from the Brasslite directions, please feel free to write me
at rickATimriskDOTcom.
Happy trails. Happy building.
Risk