Gear

Very nice looking Clones, Doug.  Very cleanly made.

Doug > This time I did not try curving the tabs and thus...they didn't split. Success!

It worries me a little that you're having marginal success.  If the little extra working to form the curved joint is causing the tab to fracture, then I'd suggest the uncurved tab won't have a long life, as any stressing during use will push the metal over the edge, and it will fracture.

I'd look seriously at annealing the tab area before you make any fold; as I said, experiment with scrap to see how much you need to heat the metal to soften it, and whether this improves the strength of the folded tab.

Doug > So I pried on it with my thumbs (with three layers of scrap under the  tab).

That's actually how I do it, too...  The suggestion of a can in the instructions was intended to make it easier for people who aren't as adept with their hands...

Derek > I did find it hard to assemble both tabs at once. I solved this by cutting 5mm off the bottom tab.

You can lift the tip of the tab (forming the "shepherd's crook" shape I mentioned above).  This makes it easy to slide the slot into the tab.  This is discussed in the instructions.

Asda BBQ sounds good; I'll go looking...

CP - Thank you for the compliment.

I'm not too worried about the splitting. And I am not experienced/comfortable with heating alum to just the right temperature anyway. The only "torch" I have is the kitchen stove!

I cut a "V" in the middle of the top tab today so the clone can bend at that point. I'm also taking a small Acco clip for backup in case the tabs snap off. (Do you have them in the UK? See photo.)

If it all goes bad on my upcoming trip I'll come home and anneal away.

I've turned to storage. I rolled up the clone, stuck it head first into a three ball tennis ball plastic can, put in the pot lid, the stove, the (removed) silicone wrist band, and then the pot head first. The bottom of the pot sticks out about two inches and it's loose. Not ideal, but kinda compact.

I'll stand it up in the corner of my pack and put clothing around it.

captain paranoia wrote (see)

Derek > I did find it hard to assemble both tabs at once. I solved this by cutting 5mm off the bottom tab.

You can lift the tip of the tab (forming the "shepherd's crook" shape I mentioned above).  This makes it easy to slide the slot into the tab.  This is discussed in the instructions.

The different length tabs and the shepherd crook shape are solving different assembly problems. The shepherds crook helps to locate a particular tab. The shorter tab allows one tab to be located and then attention can move to locating the other. If they are the same length the first can easily come out of location whilst getting the second correct.

Sailing dinghy's have the same system, to help hanging the rudder on its 2 pintles whilst the wind and waves move things about.

> The shorter tab allows one tab to be located and then attention can move to locating the other.

This isn't a problem I recognise, and don't really understand.  I simply place one end of the Clone against the other, with an offset, and align the slots and tabs roughly by using thumb and finger of each hand, one hand at top and one hand at bottom of the Clone, and then slide the ends of the Clone over each other so the slots mate in the tabs.

You must be trying to mate the joint in a way that has never occurred to me.  The sloping edges of the tab and slot guide the joints together.

> I cut a "V" in the middle of the top tab today so the clone can bend at that point.

That's what I suggest if you're using Ti foil.

I've played with my gas cooker to heat/anneal/melt aluminium.  I think you'd figure out how much you needed to heat it fairly easily, using bits of scrap foil.

captain paranoia wrote (see)

> The shorter tab allows one tab to be located and then attention can move to locating the other.

This isn't a problem I recognise, and don't really understand.  I simply place one end of the Clone against the other, with an offset, and align the slots and tabs roughly by using thumb and finger of each hand, one hand at top and one hand at bottom of the Clone, and then slide the ends of the Clone over each other so the slots mate in the tabs.

You must be trying to mate the joint in a way that has never occurred to me.  The sloping edges of the tab and slot guide the joints together.

> Maybe the difference is down to how tightly I roll the clone to store it in the beer can.

That might be it.  With tightly-rolled clones, I tend to do the 'finger/thumb shuffle' on either side to unroll the clone.  I think... but it's a while since I packed one so tightly, having concentrated on Flissures recently.

Incidentally, I bought a 3 tennis ball tube at the weekend (just like sierradoug's).  The reason it seemed quite sturdy is that it's quite highly pressurised.  It opened with a pretty loud pop!  And the rim of the aluminium lid is quite sharp, and would need tidying before I'd want to drink out of it.  And can't be taken off if you want to keep using the handly lid.  So maybe it's only useful as a carrier, which makes it less useful than other solutions.

Oh, and this made me think about the height of the rolled Clone.

If you roll the Clone into a perfect cylinder (i.e. parallel sides), then the maximum height can be measured from the template; it's from the centre of the outer arc, through the centre line, to a line drawn between the two tips of the ends of the inner arc.  If you look at the last page of the template, which prints out all the parameters, it's the value xExtent (near the bottom of the RH column), which is calculated by the print-page fitting logic. (looks a bit closer: provided you're not using the Strata option).

If you roll the Clone into any sort of cone where the top and bottom edges are parallel, then it can be no higher than the length of the side wall (the value sideLength).

captain paranoia wrote (see)

I popped into my local Clas Ohlson at the weekend, and found all sorts of interesting goodies.  It's a stragne shop, with a mixture of Poundland-esque stuff alongside quality stuff (e.g. Silva compasses).

So I picked up a catalogue, and found some interesting things, including an expansive wood bit, like twiglegs' picture, and a hole cutter.  The also had Mora kitchen knives and a hook knife.

They had a lot of boat fittings, too.  Very odd selection of stuff.  GPS compass.

They also have the folding cup

which, I know is nothing new (I have one) but I didn't know this:

Can be used as a lid for opened aluminium drinks cans

so could be useful for those who are using beer cans for pots - to cover the cone  end maybe.  I tried mine and it fits snugly

> I tend to do the 'finger/thumb shuffle' on either side to unroll the clone.  I think...

I experimented with my single-piece Titan clone last night, and rolled it up so it fit into a beer can.  When removed, it unrolled to about the size of the beer can; still quite tightly rolled up.

I did the finger/thumb shuffle*, and mated the slots and tabs without any trouble.

* hold the rolled up clone with a hand at either end, with the thumb on the outside, and fingers on the inside, with thumb on the outer joint.  Use the fingers to unroll the clone until the slot/tab joints are aligned.  Then slide the joints together.

twiglegs wrote (see)

I use this.

someone on here labelled it a "tank cutter" but a google search doesn't find a model like this so i don't know if that's the correct name.

Either way it makes cutting out the dimple very easy.

with my new wrist band I did some tests with the beer can clone. all 500 gram water 12 gram meths tap water at 18 degreeC.

My DIY inward facing jet aerosol burner with a flame gap of 25mm:

 full boil took me by surprise at 7 min 56 sec. The boil in the narrow pot blew the lid off and spilt 20cc of boiling water. The boil continued to 10min 33sec. This seemed very long. My experimental method I note has a possible variation of 10% just by whether I am at the top or bottom of my scale reading of 12 gram of meths.

DIY burner plus large reflector, I consider it too large but it was such a good test yesterday that I could not resist. flame gap 25mm:

7min 40sec first noise, 8min 16sec steam, 8 min 32 sec out just before full boil. I did not like the smell of this test. I do think the reflector was choking the air supply.

DIY aerosol burner flame gap 32mm:

6min 27 sec first noise, 7 min 47 sec steam, 7 min 56 boil, out 9min 8 sec,

I intend to try an intermediate flame gap. I intend to try a different reflector

There was very little sooting on the pot after these tests. There was yellow in the flame and the flame at times rose up the sides of the pot almost to the exhaust holes. At the beginning and end it it was contained on the pot bottom.

The double fold each side of the "handle" hole behaved well. My 20mm window hole with little removeable shutter worked OK. It did not noticeably disturb the flame.

My first efforts at a Clone for a Snow peak 450 cup. Many thanks to CP for the program and Yonky for the material

The latest creation with the alternate joint for multiple pieces. No buldging or undue movement.

The 'alternate joint' being a repeat of the normal slot/tab closure, I take it?  Except that the tabs are on one side, and permanently mated.

I imagine that you could make a 2-piece clone using the 'normal' slot/tab joints at each end (so you'd have two identical pieces).  It would probably need a little more care in steeing up, but should be stable enough once the pan is in place.

I played with a couple of 21p Asda pot noodle pots*, and found that, if I cropped one of them to the first stepped part, and trimmed the resulting rim, they mated together very snugly, so that you could hold the whole thing by the inner cup, without them coming apart.

* same pot as your Tesco noodles: