How to make my pot lightweight ?

Hi, I have an aluminium pot and frying pan, both coated with non stick. I like them, Clean well, cook well and are reasonably light. However, the single handle is 70g and the pot lid is about the same. Can I cheaply swap these for lighter versions ? The handle is straight, but right angle turn at end. This end slots into a bracket rivetted on the side. The same handle is used for both pot and frying pan. I will attach a photo if useful.Thanks,

Alastair

For a lid, use a bit of aluminium foil. For the handle, if a grabber type one will work you can get the drilled-out Trangia type (or clones) in a lot of outdoor shops. Personally I'd ditch the frying pan; if you are frying stuff then 140g on cooking gear is the least of your weight worries I'd guess.

For a lid on the pot, use the frying pan.

A pan-gripper should work on most pans so you only need one for all your pots.  Another nod for the Trangia one, which is very good.

Pete.

"How to make my pot lightweight?"

Easy....  smoke it!!

{igmc}

Thanks everyone for your help. One thing with the Trangia grip handle is, it may scratch the non stick near the rim of the pot/pan. I suppose that's okay as I  don't use the nonstick part there anyway and the damage will be in that area only. I like the idea of the aluminium foil. Using the pan as a lid would be fine too, though I'm concerned the pan would be too hot to handle and I like to look after my walking gloves. As for handle, I see Gelert do one which is a little cheaper than the Trangia one here , don't know the weight, though for sack of £1 probably safer to go with the Trangia. That's some good ideas which I'll most likely adopt so thanks for your help. Alastair

though I'm concerned the pan would be too hot to handle

But since you'll have a smart new pan-grip to remove it, nae bother!

I'd spend the extra on the Trangia one. I've seen lots of things that are similar, but IMHO none as good.

Pete.

Hi Pete, thank you for your help. If I use the pan as a lid I suppose when I want to remove it I just nudge it a little so that I can get the handle (upside down ) locked onto it. I didn't think of that ! I'll go for the Trangia one. £5 in Tiso,cheapest I can see it without postage.

The MSR ones that come with their titanium pansets  (MSR Litelifter iirc) are even lighter than the Trangia handle and still work well (I have the Trangia one too but always use the MSR). Not sure if they're available separately or not....

Thanks Matt, Yes MSR Lite Lifter available separately. Cheapest I saw is £11 from Tiso. anyone know where I can get it cheaper otherwise I'd probably choose the Trangia one at £5. Thank you, Alastair

If I use the pan as a lid I suppose when I want to remove it I just nudge it a little so that I can get the handle (upside down ) locked onto it.

That's an easy way to do it.  An even easier way is just put the pan on top of the pot the right way up!  It is natural to put it on upside down, but not actually necessary: one of those things I realised having put it on upside down for ages...

Pete.

Simply trim the fat off the pork chops and steaks, and use powdered mash instead of chips. Sorted.

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I personally think a frypan is essential kit for a relaxing break in the hills. I use the 18cm diameter non-stick trangia.

 However, I am starting to feel the pull of gram pinching and looking at every aspect of my kit list to start going superlight. Am looking also to reduce bulk. One of my solutions to cookware is ditching the trangia windshield and stand for the Clikstand from the US. Am also thinking smaller frypan cos don't know if the 18cm will be compatible with the Clikstand windshield and I only really need to cook one homemade burger (the only way!) or 1/2 sausages.

Please advise on use of frypan with Clikstand or just really small and/or light frying pans.

Cheers

As matt C says, the MSR pot lifter is much lighter than the heavy Trangia one, as well as being much smaller (plus it has plastic coated handles which are nice for very cold weather).

I do not go along with using foil for a lid, as I feel this is just too limiting in use (no good for draining pasta etc, or can blow away). What I have done often is to make a lid from coke/pepsi cans, as these are much stronger, and keep there shape well.

If your pot is not too big a drink can lid can weigh as little as 6g, which is pretty good.

I would simply cut a circle of metal (up to you whether you opt for steel or aluminium) roughly 14-16mm larger than the pot (7-8mm each side), and then place the pot in the centre of it. Draw a line around the diameter of the pot onto the new lid, and then using the pot itself (or even a small piece of wood) bend up the edge of the new lid to a right angle. The new lip on this lid will just fold into itself, just like the foil on take away trays, and needs no trimming or extra cutting.

I sometimes use a hole punch (before folding) to make one hole on one side of the lid, and three on the other, to allow steam to escape (so the lid does not 'lift off', and so it can be used for draining pasta etc.

A small strip of extra metal can be glued to the top centre of the lid with JB Weld, so that a ring/grip tie or string handle can be fitted.

I don't have a pic to hand, but if A small key ring type ring is threaded through the metal strip, it will be able to 'stand up' on the pot to make the lid easier to lift (similar to many commercial pots).

The advantages of drinks can lids, are that they can be 90% lighter than the original lid, plus keep their shape so that it is easier to store cooking gear in the pot without losing it.

Finally, some folks keep a retaining strap around their pots/lids, and a very light alternative to webbing are very thin grip ties. Join two or three together, and adjust them to be the exact size of the pot/lid, and you may find that they weight 50-80% lighter than webbing, as well as being very strong and much quicker to fit around the pot.

Just some ideas for you.

I'm sure some of you are not at all surprised I have suggested drinks cans for making things

Don't worry, I won't be suggesting using coke can stoves here........Even if they do only weigh 10 grammes (or 6 grammes for a red bull stove)

Ray, thank you for your post. The diameter of my pot and pan is about 15cm. I followed most of your explanation for how to make a lid from cans, but I have a couple of questions.

"You start with a circle of metal"   -Is this circle made from can tops and if so how do you arrange them and how do you stick them together ?

If I am correct aluminium can tops tend to have a ring pull on them. Is the hole left by the ring pull a problem ? How do you work around it ? 

How do I fold the lid for storage in my rucksack so that it dosen't damage anything ?

A  link to or description of those  "very thin grip ties" you use will be appreciated.

THanks for your help, Alastair

Thr lightweight windshield foil from BPL-UK would be ok for a heat shield or a pot lid methinks. Very shapeable.

Have you thought of trying to find the pot lifter with this product from GSI Outdoors.

I am not sure whether you can get it on its own or where from but I like the look of it. I do know EB sell some GSI stuff but not much of it is online only in the catalogue.

Has anyone tried kettle cooking? I once heard that over in USA some UL types use a kettle. Not sure why myself but the GSI site has a kit called Kettleist and consists of s kettle, bowl, insulated mug with sipguard and a spork or foon plus a half mesh half solid fabric stuff sack.

#look at this.

And this.

Both seem interesting pot lifts but not sure of weight.

I use a AGG pot lifter myself bought from Winwoods as part of the cookset. Check  out its what I use. very cheap and quite light. It isn't even drilled out if you wanted to make it lighter!!

If your pan is big enough to fry in why take a separate frypan? Take the pot and make a v light pot lid instead. Or just buy a new pot quite cheaply that suits yo better.  Try a litech pot perhaps if not too small. There are many brands out there that do a pot with a lid/frypan that is quite light and non-stick. Some have hard anodised non-stick coatings which are quite durable and able to take the use of metal tools too.

Hi Alastair.

I have drawn a rough (very rough) pic of a can below, to show you how and where the cut it.




The top is not used at all, only the large area of metal around the can's side. A beer can size is good for pots up to 12/13cm in diameter, but as your pots are quite large, the only can I know of in this size bracket is something called 'cains Mild' I think.

From memory, it was a jumbo size can of beer (maybe a quart size one) and was sold in Asda stores. It was also very cheap, which made it good for making things (as I don't drink, so the contents were of no use to me lol)
As I have no beer cans here, maybe you might have one you could measure, to see how tall in cm the flat side part is, to see if it is any good.
As for the grip ties, Basically any thin ones, joined together, were lighter than one big strong one!

Hi again Alastair.

I cannot find a new pot lid of mine to show you, but have found a picture of one of my original ones in use. There is even an MSR potlifter in the shot too!

The picture below show a 12cm diameter pot, sat on a wire support, for use with a coke can meths burner. Although the windshield in the pic is a very heavy one, I would normally use a foil one, such as the ones made by MSR.




Hopefully, even though the lid is a bit battered (it is already about four years old in the pic, and would have had weekly use), you will see the idea for using a thin ring as a 'stand up handle. To lay the ring flat, all I do is turn it through 90 degrees to un-thread it a bit from the metal strip its through, and it goes flat

I'm not sure if you live near one but my local Booths supermarket is currently selling a promotional German lager in a 1 litre can inside a 1 litre handled glass. It is not too bad pricewise neither if you are looking at making a pot lid out of one. I've been eying one to make a keg type pot. I've been watching them go off the shelf while I dither as I got put off the idea over the inside coating possbly being toxic if used to boil water. Anyone have an idea on that?