I avoided the canister stoves for awhile, mainly because the inefficiency of running a stove without a windscreen. After a lot of research last year, having tryed out an alcohol stove, and the need to lower my carried weight of my simmerlite white gas stove... I finally dove into an upright canister stove for hiking with 2 people. For solo hikes I've moved onto the BPL esbit wing stove and Trapper mug combo, but that is neither here nor there. Backpackinglight.com is one of the best places for lightweight gear research. I combed over article after article on canister stoves and finally I came to own a Coleman F1 Ultralight. The main reasons I selected this particular stove is that it appeared to be the best balance for my purposes, it was capable of an extremely high heat output with fast boil times, it was light weight at 2.65oz, and was the only one (other than the heavy jetboil) that was able to boil water in BPL's test under direct wind. The other unique article I found while I was doing my research was this article on the windscreen which I will be showing you how I made it from this article. BPL Article
Skills Required
Safely using a knife and common sense.
Tools and Materials Required.
Hobby Knife (Razor blade or scissors will work, but a razor is preferred for clean cuts)
Pie Tin, Regular size
HD Aluminum foil strip, size depends on the specific pot that is used for cooking.
The Steps
Step 1, The pie tin
Step 2, Cut pie tins edges off unless your pot is larger of course.
Step 3, Make sure you have about 1/2" or so around your pot.
Step 4, Center and trace you stoves legs with a generous cut everywhere except on the side near the burner. This is the weak spot on this particular model and you want as much material between the burner and the leg opening.
Step 5, Label out your legs if they are awkwardly spaced, and after tracing it should look something like this.
Step 6, Cut out generous width leg holes, paying attention to not lengthen the holes towards the burner unless it is completely necessary to fit the stove legs in...
Step 7, Insert the legs in the holes, and trace out the burner head. Once again it's better to cut little bits off later so that the burner head fits snugly through the hole and there is plenty of material between the burner and the stove legs.
Step 8, If the burner head still doesn't fit, retrace the burner head and trim, trim again till the burner head fits snugly through the hole.
Step 9, Checking for a good fit on the burner head.
Step 10, Mark and cut the hole for igniting the stove. Pay attention to not take material away from the space between the legs of the stove and the burner head... I swear I'm done saying it, but some models have a very small gap and this can cause a premature failure of the heat reflector portion of the windscreen.
Step 11, Test fit to make sure the stove control knob is on the opposite side from the ignition hole.
Step 12, Draw a rough line at about a 1/4" or so from the pot.
Step 13, Use your fingers and roll the edge over. If you can avoid cutting the thin material and just pinch the rolls over it will be a more rigid design.
Step 14, Test fit the parts...
Step 15, Make a windscreen out of HD aluminum foil or some sort of thin metal. If using aluminum foil fold it over on itself at least 3 times to the height required to fit your pot.
This particular one I made with the Heat Reflector and Windscreen weighs 0.3oz. The great thing with this particular design is that you get the increased fuel efficiency by reflecting the heat from the burner and forcing all of the heat close to the pot. In essence quicker boil times at lower burner settings, and wind is no longer a problem with the canister stove. The other bonus is the heat reflector reflects the heat up and away from the canister.
Warning this could void your warranty, cause the canister to over heat, explode, injure someone or even cause death. This blog post is for informational purposes only, using this information could potentially cause harm or death. Use at your own risk.
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