Basecamp plus stove

[Moondog55]

Firewood will be in short supply for me this winter.
Does anybody here have any experience with the Eco logs sold at Bunnings?
https://www.bunnings.com.au/ekologs-9-7 ... s_p3180161
They are 3 times the price of Redgum but If people are coming to visit I thought i might ask them to pack in a couple of these each; as far as I can tell they are simply compressed sawdust and not nitrated like the American Presto-Logs

[stry]

This is true but they do burn cleaner with a grated base so I will need to balance creosote build up against the fast rate of consumption of wood. Mind you Stry neither Alpine Ash/Mountain Ash or Snowgum leaves coals. I have a small 5mm plate that will/ may just fit right in tho, I'll check the size later today. If you look at the picture of the bottom in the post above you will see that the bottom is dished, the existing perforated rack sits just above this dishing, the plate I have may sit in the same place

5mm plate sitting on the rack or otherwise just off the bottom sounds good to me. Will also extend the life of the bottom. I am no more qualified than the average social pyromaniac, but suggest that having air come up through the base of the fire isn't necessary for a clean burn. Commercial wood heaters meet the required standards with a solid bottom. I agree with you on some types of woods being frustrating difficult to create a bed of coals with. My solution has always been to achieve critical mass in the size of the fire - a bit difficult in your stove. Either way, whatever your wood is capable of generating, it will generate it better if the air can be pulled in other than through the base of the fire.

Creosote appears to be a product of insufficient air, rather than the direction of introducing the air. Run it harder (more air) and it runs cleaner (also less smoke) but uses wood quicker - catch 22

A point that occurred to me that you may already be aware of is the orientation of the flu sections. Intuitively many of us will put an upper section over/outside a lower section. This lets any creosote that is generated run out of the flu over the outside the lower pipe and over the stove, burning and stinking. This can be avoided by fitting uppers inside lowers.

No experience with the Brunnings bricks, but many years ago there was a doodad available that would allow the compression of soaked newspaper into bricks, which could then be dried (eventually) and used as fuel. A lot of faffing around, and personally, I think I would probably lug in some briquettes, if they still exist.

[Neo]

I have a trivet made from a square of reo mesh that slots on top of my gas bottle fire pit. Provides just enough gap between the pit and frypan.

Could use a bit of reo on the base then a flat holed plate to give just that little bit of circulation beneath the coals.

[Neo]

Only a narrow gap so dust it out if/when you have to empty the firebox. Think reo gets up to 10mm dia, or any steel bars would do.

[Moondog55]

Helsport run the flue sections the wrong way for some reason and I can't change it and it would not light or burn with a solid bottom plate; it needs to have the open grate. With the solid bottom plate all I go was smoke and soot build up in the flue. It rained solidly for three days at Mt Franklin and the stove flue will need modification to cope with my winter camp, primarily a rain cap

[stry]

Helsport run the flue sections the wrong way for some reason and I can't change it and it would not light or burn with a solid bottom plate; it needs to have the open grate. With the solid bottom plate all I go was smoke and soot build up in the flue. It rained solidly for three days at Mt Franklin and the stove flue will need modification to cope with my winter camp, primarily a rain cap

Weird Either way, you are going to be several notches up in the comfort scale when you get it sorted . An excellent example of the value of forward planning and pre trip testing.

[Moondog55]

I went to Bunnings and got a 100mm raincap but the cowl top was too large to fit through the webbing space at the peak of the tipi. I am now trying to find an 80mm steel rain cap/cowl but it seems they are only available in PVC which isn't much use on a stove flue

The fact it burned so poorly using a solid plate surprised me as the flue is so small the stove is pretty well throttled down anyway.
I have some smaller bits of stainless here, I can experiment while I am up there to see if there is a happy medium. I didn't take the flueguard/Heat exchange but if I am going to run this little stove hot I'll need both that and some sort of protection screen. I now have a very large hole in one of my old Goretex parkas; the stove gets red hot and glows with even a small fuel load if the air hole is left wide open. Lesson learned; and it was a very old and cheap surplus parka over 20 years old so no great loss

[Moondog55]

Well after a week of strong winds and heavy snow I have mixed feelings about the lavvu.
It is a bit of a compromise size when using the stove, too big for solo and too small for a decent group.
Handles the wind wonderfully well but not our heavy snow load quite so well, but that is partly because I slept so well that I did not wake up as usual to shovel snow in the middle of the nite.
Feeding the stove regularly made it a sauna inside and it uses very little wood in real terms because it was only just below freezing most of the 5 nites I slept in it.
Actually thinking of selling it on but keeping the stove.