Q about working with titanium foil

[Odd Man Out]

PS. What pot are you using. Now I'm thinking you windscreen is outside the Emberlit? Also I'd hate to rob you of years of fun testing stoves!

[LoneStranger]

You guessed correctly, I am trying to put together a multi-fuel set up. Goal is to be primarily wood fired, but have alcohol back up for foul weather or places where fire ban prevents burning twigs.

Right now I'm working with my GSI Kettle which is what I wrap the titanium foil ( on topic! ) around. The idea was to see if I could trap the heat like a cone for faster more fuel efficient burn. The kettle holds the screen outside of the Emberlit which is holding the Starlyte. That creates a solid tube rising above the side of the kettle and open at the bottom.

I crafted a tray to hold the Starlyte at a lower position in the Emberlit, which does provide some wind protection, but really is designed for a more robust Trangia burner. It works well enough without the Toaks windscreen, but could be improved. My problem is that the trapped heat seems to vaporize the fuel. A few minutes in it starts shooting flames out the bottom until it boils it off and then flickers out. Without the screen that fuel burns about twice as long. I have the modified Starlyte with the ring around the edge, but was thinking of laying something on top to further cut down the burn area in hopes that would keep it from boiling off.

I'm sure I will continue my experiments for many years to come, but I'm always willing to cut corners by learning from folks who already know. Thanks

[RangerZ]

Nice stand Cmoulder. I got my Ti foil the other day. If found the pot stand I made with it to be too flimsy so I will probably just sick with aluminum flashing. I did find the Titanium to be trivial to bend. It was like folding paper and did not show the weakness you get when you crease aluminum.

You are correct QiWiz about the venting under the screen. In my case, I have a circle of aluminum foil cut from a disposable pie pan. It has a dimpled surface which makes it stiff despite being thin. The stove and windscreen/pot stand set on this so it acts as a heat reflector and surface protector (I do not leave burn marks on the picnic tables). It also helps to make a consistent stable base for the whole system so there isn't much air leaking under the screen, especially since mine also doubles as a pot stand and the weight of the pot and 2 cups of water presses it down firmly on the foil base. But in the field, an irregular surface could change that. However, in my tests, I found there was not as much difference as I expected when I increased the vents. I still have to crunch the numbers, but there seemed to be an optimum between 14 and 44 holes (my original two data points). But now I'm worried that I may get different results with ethanol vs methanol. There's always more tests to do.

I do the same thing but I use the inner seal from a can of NIDO.