I was just working on this idea. Here I have epoxied a copper flange to an old can of powdered milk and attached 1 metre of old silicone tube. I was catching the water in a Vargo 450 ml (cool lips) titanium mug. I was just cooling the steam with wetted down tea towels.
I collected nearly 400 mls in an hour. I need to improve the steam condensation. I will purchase a Platypus hydration tube (as that is what I figure folks will carry – & which is a much lighter weight 102 cm PU tubing) which will hopefully shed heat better.
I will also make up a trough so I can cool nearly all its length with water. I expect I will more than double its output. If you needed to do this in the wild (presumably by the sea) you could make a trough in the sand, line it with your raincoat and fill it with water and keep adding cool water – perhaps carrying it in your shoes. You could also bury the collection cup in wet sand and perhaps cover it with something else to further prevent steam escaping – eg your full Platypus bottle. Doubling output would produce more than 2 litres in 3 hours – enough for a day of low activity – so certainly enough to save your life.
I had been imagining adding the flange to your existing billy lid or placing it in an extension ring which sits between billy and lid. Such an extension ring, if I can figure out how to make it adjustable (and fit) would weigh only 15 grams or so and fit with your other cooking things in your billy or pot.
PS: I just made the flange from a piece of copper water pipe using a plumber’s flaring tool. You could cut the flared end from a car’s brake line obtained from an auto wreckers. I used a small piece of ‘Dynasteel Epoxy Putty’ [250C] to attach it. Adding it to your billy/pot would add 5-10 grams and may save your life sometime.
If you are going to add such a (brake) flange to your pot lid or to the side of your frypan lid, you will need to drill a hole that almost exactly matches it, then sand off the surfaces before you apply the Epoxy Putty. If you need to bend the pipe, fill it with sand first. You can plug the pipe with a piece of bent over PU tubing to prevent steam escaping when your are cooking.
However, I now look at the picture and see the beautiful lid the powdered milk can has and realise that lots of people have just such a suitable lid from an old ) large coffee can or etc which could be used to cover over their entire billy. Further you can simply buy the brass fittings to make an outlet of the size required by your hydration tube from pretty much any (eg auto parts store) such as the Champion Hose Tail Elbow pictured (and associated washers/nuts) so that all you will have to do is drill a hole in the lid then carry it with you to save your life in an emergency..
Anyone who uses a wood fuel stove such as a Trail Designs Caldera Cone (https://www.traildesigns.com/stoves/caldera-cone-system) or the Bushbuddy Stove (http://bushbuddy.ca/) or my DIY 2o Gram Titanium Roll up Stove will have a virtually infinite fuel supply (of driftwood etc) for powering the still.
PS: On the Kon Tiki expedition they proved that you could survive indefinitely on a ‘shandy’ of 50% ea water and 50% fresh water so that in normal circumstances you only need to ‘make/find one litre of fresh water per day. Your coffee can lid ‘device” which need not weigh much more than 150 grams (including the hydration tube) will easily do this in one hour per day. A lot better than dying – but ask yourself, ‘How much is your life worth?’ and then ignore my advice if it is not worth much!
First Published Dec 16, 2015
See also:
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/water-filter/
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/survival-still/
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/rivers-in-the-sky-never-die-of-thirst/
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/dehydrated-water/
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/sawyer-water-filter/
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/water-hiking-desalinator/
http://www.theultralighthiker.com/collecting-water/
