I've been looking at this woodburning stove and wonder if it would be possible to make one myself. Has anyone else had a go at making one? Seems like a good stove?
Should i just order one from the US and save myself a lot of hassle?

Er,
What is it? How is it made? In what situations do you use it? What does it look like? Do you have a link to a description, photo, diagram?

See: http://www.bushbuddy.ca/index.html

This..

(Beaten to it...)

I would have put in a link but my daughter isn't here to show me how!!!

Pricey for a tin can with holes!

Thats why i want to have a go at making one myself!
I'm a metalworker so the drilling,machining,welding wouldn't be a problem. It would just be a case of trial and error to get the dimensions right.
I can't decide if it's worth the time.
Mind you, the thought of carrying only 146gms and free fuel is appealing!

Buy a greenheat basecamp cooker for £18 then punch/drill some holes in the bottom can.
Weighs approximately 130grms without the fuel.
Then again I can't really see the advantage for something like an overnighter. A 100gms gas canister and my 77gms F1 Lite stove come to about 200gms with a guarantee of lightable fuel.
Long treks may be different but a supply of dry tinder and fuel is not exactly guaranteed in our climate.

Hi FGL.
If you google the stove you'll get some good views/reviews of it.
It is made of more than one piece and the theory is that it creates a 'chimney' effect thus generating a lot of heat for a little fuel.
As a bonus my MSR Titan kettle would seem to fit inside it according to one review.

I agree about short trips but i usually manage a 2 week trip and a couple of week trips a year(divorced!!!) and that is what i was thinking about.
The stove was used in the Arctic so our climate shoud'nt be a problem.

Can you not just pile up some wood like boy scouts of old?

I was experimenting with one of these at the weekend. Not exactly lightweight but does the job.

Disnae half make a mess of the pot tho' :o)

I've got one on order - it's due any day now. I'll post a review once I've had a chance to play with it in the wild.

My staple for cooking is my F1 Lite, however I'm a bloke and burning stuff is just cool :) I also like the idea of not having to worry about running out of gas if I extend a trip by a couple of nights.

Andy Howell has some excellent posts on the Bushbuddy in action in his blog:

http://www.andyhowell.info/trek-blog/

Kev,
Podcast Bob sells those at backpackinglight.co.uk.
Bet you knew that.

Aye Mal, I did :o) Mine was a "second" tho', less than £10 delivered.

There is a pattern and instructions for making something very similar to the bushbuddy.
Google 'wood gassifier' or 'wood re-gassifier'.
You should come up with something lie this
http://www.garlington.biz/Ray/WoodGasStove/
or this
http://www.csun.edu/~mjurey/pennywood.html
or this
http://www.woodgas-stove.com/

PM me if you would like photos. It may take me a while to find them out, but I do have a load of piccies that might help you with the build.

Having just got back from the Challenge and seen 2 folks using Bushbuddies, very succesfully I might add in all weathers, on close inspection there's a hell of a lot of neat engineering inside that tin can, than you might believe!

Although the one I sell does the same job, it is more the chunky variety with simple technology (with a price to match). The Bushbuddy very cleverly heats the air first and is quite frankly the rolls-royce of such products.

I was tempted to try and make one myself until I saw the amount of work inside it, and it is well beyond my DIY skills. The person to draw into this thread is Colin Ibbitson, mentioned on Andy's blog. It was a pleasure to see him efficiently rustle up some fab grub (courtesy of my dehydrator), simmer it for 20 mins and sit around a nice fire in the evenings, all on a handful of twigs. Just brilliant!

I think we'll be seeing a lot more about these stoves over this coming summer. It involves a slight change of mindset about camping location and timing, but definately adds pleasure to the pastime. Andy and I will be giving his a blast on our next 'big day out' LOL!

I've got the willpower of a cabbage.
Just ordered one of the little beauties!
Thanks for the replies.

try this site
http://www.backpacking.net/makegear.html
and look under stoves and number 21
mike

Bob's right; the Bushbuddy is the Rolls Royce of wood burning stoves. THe design is very clever and the construction is pretty intricate - so this isn't something you could easily knock up yourself. But it is quite expensive.

I've used my Bushbuddy regularly over the last couple of months and it is now my stove of choice I guess.

There are other, simpler, designs out there though. I found five or six at one point. google around for these and you may well find something that you can adapt for home made use.