Tim Tinker

I am tossing around some ideas concerning DIY tent stoves – as you know, so I was delighted to stumble upon this amazing website: https://timtinker.com/ by a fellow Gippsland Senior – we are good for something still after all. As you will see Tim camps in the snow all the time, so his ideas clearly work. Perhaps time to think about some high country snow hunting/hiking trips?

It had not occurred to me that anyone could beat Titanium Goat’s Cylinder Stove (741 grams – but which takes minutes to assemble, and seems rather delicate to me) or that a one-piece  (no moving parts) tent stove could be made which would weigh approx 500 grams (including chimney). but there you are. You will have to read through a number of very informative posts, but it will be worth it, believe me.

The stove uses about 400 grams of wood per hour and produces approx 1,000 watts – quite enough to warm a two person tent to a delightful temperature – even in snow!

Tim has this really ingenious method of rolling an unrolling the chimney:

There is a glitch. I just can’t get WordPress to pint to the chimney Youtube. When you get to Youtube select the chimney video.

Tim has innumerable other good ideas on his website, including food, clothing, DIY tools, candles…it is quite encyclopaedic. look forward to a long read. One very important thing, for example is the use of refractory chemicals to prevent the metal from burning away. Tim is a retired scientist so this is very hard-won, valuable information. He also has an amazing design for a collapsible kettle.

Certainly his stove has prompted me to think more about simply cutting down the helium cylinder to make a stove. That will be a fine idea for a relatively fixed camp as I am contemplating, but I now realise that it would be ‘possible’ to make a transportable slow combustion stove which sets up really easily and which could reliably heat a small tent as well as providing all the cooking I would need – and which need only weigh in the vicinity of 5-600 grams.

I am envisaging pretty much a one-piece stove perhaps around 4″ x 6″  x 12″ inside which you can store the chimney (and other things) and which you would carry in a small bag on top of your pack (attached perhaps like this, or this). I will need to learn a few sheet metal skills including spot welding stainless steel/titanium. there are lots of instructions though on Tim’s excellent website. As I have said before: watch this space.

Some ideas:

1. I think the chimney damper can be a slider.

2. The fuel feed can be either a length of pipe with an air-hole in the top, the air inlet adjusted with a cup or can (as in the 3rd photo above – but it would be harder to add wood), or

3. I would have a rotating or sliding air intake on the front and use a small titanium plate like this 13 gram one on the top which I could remove to add wood, or cook.

4. I will weld three (approx 2″ lengths) of tubing to the bottom rear and front of the stove (at 45 degrees), then use wooden legs to lift it off the ground (so I could dry wood under it, another excellent idea from Tim) – I would have a small bolt half way down the length of this tubing so that the wood does not touch the stove and smoulder – or I could just have three pieces of Easton aluminium tubing – and shorter pipes to slot them into…

Lots to do!

PS: Tim kindly gave me permission to re-post his excellent photographs.

PPS: As per the comments section, you should also check out Tim’s ‘slim oval’ stove: https://timtinker.com/larger-ultralight-tent-stove/

As you can see it is big enough to warm a group:

PS: Tim tells me he will sell one of his wonderful chimneys (or stoves?). You can contact him here: telemarktim99@gmail.com

See Also:

Lay Flat Kettle and Pudding Bowl Stove

Winter Tent Stoves

Seamless Tyvek Tipi

Ultralight Hot Water Bottle

Mostly Perspiration