Cooking in the winter and the summer

[merlinfire]

So I've been making preparations and have gotten into what some might call the "mundane things", the parts that are not as glorious and romantic, not fun stuff for novels. Just every day stuff. One such thing is this: cooking. I have a wood-burning stove in the basement that I am getting up to snuff. It should serve well enough for heat during the winter and looking duties as well I hope.

I have essentially two questions.

1) How can I best prepare the stove for cooking duty? The obvious thing seems to be "set the pot on top of the stove" and that will be that, but are there better ways? Some kind of tool that could help with cooking on the top of this potbelly stove?

2) What about in hot weather? In winter we'll need the heat, running the stove to cook is incidental to the need to heat the domicile as it is, so no problems there. In the summer we can't be firing up the fireplace in the house every time to cook. I thought maybe a grill outside, but then I'll end up having to make a lot of charcoal myself I figure, what would be your summertime cooking arrangement, in a long-term event?

[Arklatex]

Campfire cooking is a big part of my long term plan. I have Dutch ovens and other cast iron cookware. You can setup a grill grate over the fire as well instead of worrying about charcoal. Soups and stews can be made over a fire with a tripod type setup to hang the pot from.

[Inor]

One thing I would consider, especially in your part of the country, is have a look at a rocket stove. They are EXTREMELY efficient with wood. I have a Silver Fire rocket stove and when were living in Minnesota I tried boiling some water with it when the temp outside was -15. I was able to get a pot boiling with just a handful of twigs. They are great things. You can also build your own very cheaply if you do not want to buy a pre-made one.

[Deebo]

Lesson learned this weekend, buy a quality water heating device.
Im shopping for a perculator now.
As inor stated, rocket stoves are awesome.
My cooking at home in "an event" would be grilling with the propane grill.

[merlinfire]

looking at rocket stoves, they almost look like a small forge in design

[merlinfire]

Suggestions on best commercially available rocket stove for the money?

[RubberDuck]

I have seen several stupid priced for the yuppie survivalists
they are such a simple design with little effort you can make one an be further ahead

[Inor]

Suggestions on best commercially available rocket stove for the money?

I have this one:

http://www.silverfire.us/survivor-rocket-stove-p10

I did a ton of research before I bought it because it is on the spendy side. But it is head and shoulders above anything else out there in my arrogant opinion. I have used ours in -15 temps and it works great.

[Inor]

I have seen several stupid priced for the yuppie survivalists
they are such a simple design with little effort you can make one an be further ahead

The one thing you cannot make is the cast iron top. That is what put it over the top for me for buying vs. building.

[RubberDuck]

for my cinder block rocket stove ill be dropping off at camp will just use gas stove topper found at any hardware an lots of junk stores.
like gthis one
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160914/e84103405b65a5d73f48456142582afd.jpg

or this guy's design he sells them on our local craigslist for $75
but so simple to make
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160914/c32f28e05d0f8c9e04809f1da0b6a46f.jpg

[Deebo]

wow, the design on that looks better than the one I was going to make. Mine was to be L shaped, I like the V shape better.

[RubberDuck]

i like his shape cause it self feeds so you dont have to keep moving the wood in sfuff it an let it go. There is a inside the tent rocket mass heater I found that is same idea.
https://youtu.be/rvPnP1eGUKw
I would tweek this some an put a angle to the feed side.
also keep in mind this can be scaled way down to 4 inch pipe an a five gallon metal bucket or even smaller to a 1 gallon metal bucket depending on the shelter you want to use it in.

[Deebo]

I have a four foot piece of 4 inch and the rebar all ready, hell, I think I even baught the high temp paint.
Im glad I didn't cut the square tubing(pipe) yet, cuase now, I will prob make three instead of two.


I will keep looking, I bet it doesn't need a raised area in the feed tube, like a L shape shows..

[Deebo]

Not to change subjects, but I did build a gasifier, out of quart sized paint can, and a soup can, and you would be surprised howlong a handful of twigs will burn.

[RubberDuck]

Not to change subjects, but I did build a gasifier, out of quart sized paint can, and a soup can, and you would be surprised howlong a handful of twigs will burn.
here is another image of that top onehttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/d353208b1cb5d9e1962a5e79ec4bd00d.jpg

[RubberDuck]

started looking at some ideas I did just get a smsll stick welder dirt cheap so I will have some winter projectshttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/33966ade8f6f2716c52fdde3ca03d94a.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/1cbdced0c5d9a40695114e128b064fe1.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/c90beaf2cff9d2797d807a1ca7ea745e.jpg
i like these simple brick designs too
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/5898321511e6804789130bade30ab1f6.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/6251bfff0ef7de06b85e121656fe588f.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/390b818526cad6a86ddd5a2d5794cc16.jpg

[Coppertop]

Those are some pretty cool ideas. lots to think about.

Deebo, Can you post pics of your gasifier? The only ones I have seen (not much research at this point) look complicated

[Deebo]

No picture, because it was "sooty" and I threw it away.
I can try to build another one, but my work "screw off time" is very limited now.
It was very basic, a one quart paint can, with a soup can with holes punched into the bottom in row.
I will try to find the video on youtube that kicked it off.

[Deebo]

https://youtu.be/lb_CzP44ka8
this looks just about like mine.
I didn't use pellets, I used sticks and leaves, and got a heck of lot of burn time.

[Deebo]

here is another image of that top onehttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160915/d353208b1cb5d9e1962a5e79ec4bd00d.jpg

So, it does have a "tray" in the burn chamber.
Was just walking the shop yard, and thinking " I NEED to finish those rocket stoves and sell them".

[Deebo]

Since I want to sell the two two I make, I will cut them, but have my welding buddy weld them up for me.

[Deebo]

Was sitting in living room and thought, that gasifier is in the cupboard. I found it.
Will upload the pictures at work Tom. Maybe even a video.

[Baglady]

looking at rocket stoves, they almost look like a small forge in design

I assume you have access to wood, since you have a wood burning stove? We have a wood burning heater. Every year you need to check your stove pipe to make sure it is solid, and doesn't have any holes. If your not sure, make a small fire out of paper to begin with, and inspect your pipe.
I've been told to burn a coke can in your heater, and that it will "clean" out any resins...don't know if that's true or not.
We cook outside with wood too. So, I guess the best advice to give you would be to make sure you have several cords of wood. We burn about 4 cords each winter.

[Deebo]

2679
holes drilled in bottom of furniture polish can.

[Deebo]

2680
Holes drilled in top area of can can, and set into the lid of paint can

[Deebo]

2681
Assembled product, this is about 5 years old, used only once, been banged around and in cabinet.

[RubberDuck]

Oh I see . I thought it was a gasifier to run generators
like these.
which look complicated
https://youtu.be/a6e3CprVTi8

https://youtu.be/oWeRWGQK5gA

[hawgrider]

Oh I see . I thought it was a gasifier to run generators
like these.
which look complicated
https://youtu.be/a6e3CprVTi8

https://youtu.be/oWeRWGQK5gAExactly. When I hear gasifier I think the same.

[Arklatex]

Deebo built a solo stove, which does use gasification to be more efficient. But I was also thinking what the meatchicken guys were thinking.

[RubberDuck]

Bear River Rocket stoves
https://youtu.be/YIu7KmfuuM8

[hawgrider]

Thats got to be the granddaddy of all rockets stoves right there.

[hawgrider]

2681
Assembled product, this is about 5 years old, used only once, been banged around and in cabinet.
So how did your experiment go when you built and test ran it? Did it live up to your expectations?

[Deebo]

So how did your experiment go when you built and test ran it? Did it live up to your expectations?

Hawg, I was very surprised at the burn time, and HELL yes it was above my expectations.
I built it at work, because im a fire junkie, so for it to even work was great.
I will try to shoot a video this weekend, but it always says it "too large to upload" from my phone. I can send it to youtube.

[hawgrider]

Hawg, I was very surprised at the burn time, and HELL yes it was above my expectations.
I built it at work, because im a fire junkie, so for it to even work was great.
I will try to shoot a video this weekend, but it always says it "too large to upload" from my phone. I can send it to youtube.

I might have to give one a try.

[slewfoot]

I have a sun oven. https://www.sunoven.com/ we have cooked a lot of meals in this . Of course here in Florida we have a lot of sun.

[Kfilly]

How much wood do you have access to? I bought a small rocket stove for my BOB. I did not like it as it was about a pound, and it was a freaking jigsaw puzzle to put together and take apart repeatedly. I was worried about having to do that with winter gloves on so I gave up on that stove for that purpose. Anyway, the model I had was a MSP (My Survival Pack) titanium wood stove. They have several options available on their website. These are small stoves, but they can hold up to about 70 pounds. They are made out of titanium which should last a very long time. They burn small sticks, and they crank out some wicked heat. They also have a gasification feature which means they burn off a portion of the smoke they make. It would be good to have an option like that in the summer so that you are not blowing through a lot of firewood. I believe a 1.5" diameter is the maximum size they take through their rocket feed port. If planning to use for a bug out location, put it together and leave it together. Heck, you could get about three of them for the price of the Silverfire model someone else posted. I had the Core 4 Recon. Robust as heck. You could cook multiple things by having more of them or use multiple units on Dutch ovens.