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Post by gandeeman60 on Sept 28, 2018 12:31:05 GMT -8
So, I'm new to the forum, and this may seem strange for a first post, but here's my story. I took up backpacking two years ago at the age of 56, and I'm totally hooked. My wife would say obsessed.
Recently while recovering from back surgery I got to watching YouTube videos by a guy named Hiram Cook. He specialized in building, buying, and testing stoves, mainly alcohol, but some wood. Basically I laid around for three weeks watching the guy boil water. It wasn't until halfway through I realized that while he left behind an impressive collection of informative videos (for those of us who are in to that sort of thing), he hasn't posted a video for two years. He just dropped off the face of the earth.
I see where people have left comments on his videos asking where he is, if he's going to make any new ones, etc., and he never answers. Anyone know anything about this guy and if we might see another series of boiling water videos? Probably a stupid thing to think about but I just became fascinated with it.
In four years he posted over 700 videos, so I don't know, maybe he just got tired of it.
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Post by Lamebeaver on Sept 28, 2018 13:06:05 GMT -8
Maybe he's out backpacking.
There's something really cool about making a functional piece of equipment that actually works out of a cat food can and a paper punch.
It's also hard to beat a simple isopro stove when it comes to simmering, ease of use and BTUs.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Sept 28, 2018 16:25:54 GMT -8
No idea about Hiram Cook. But I agree with LB—I love knowing I can make a functional stove with a bit of trash and a darning needle (that’s what I used to put the holes in the ones I made). I never made a stove that worked half so well as my WB stove, but I like just knowing I need never be stuck without one.
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mk
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Post by mk on Oct 5, 2018 10:47:40 GMT -8
Pretty sure I could put some nifty holes in my hand trying this project!
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Oct 7, 2018 12:42:28 GMT -8
Pretty sure I could put some nifty holes in my hand trying this project! Oh, yeah :D Just don't test the stoves while wearing a bathrobe, okay?
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crawford
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Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.--Edison
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Post by crawford on Oct 8, 2018 16:55:12 GMT -8
Don't know about Cook, but it isn't all that uncommon for some folks to just stop making vids. Life gets in the way and such. Some come back to it. If you like checking on videos as your recover I might recommend Intense Angler (he dropped of for a while) for some nice DIY stuff and Homemade Wanderlust for just nice vids on the trail.
Happy recovering and even happier trails.
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mk
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Post by mk on Oct 9, 2018 7:05:32 GMT -8
Just don't test the stoves while wearing a bathrobe, okay? I remember that story!
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Oct 9, 2018 10:16:25 GMT -8
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2018 10:39:49 GMT -8
If you are interested in backpack stove another guy to check out is Zelph. He has a website where he sells them and talks about them. Recently some jerk has been trying to advertise shoes in the threads, but there is a lot to read in the old threads, and he is always making new products. www.bplite.com/Another guy who is into them is Tinny. His company is the Mini bull Design. He is very talented and is always trying new ideas too. www.minibulldesign.com/ProductCart/pc/home.aspBe careful reading about these little stoves and talking about them. You will start making them and end up with a couple dozen, and you will like them all so much that you won't want to get rid of any. I know.
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Post by JRinGeorgia on Oct 25, 2018 16:18:20 GMT -8
Basically I laid around for three weeks watching the guy boil water. Great line... ! Zelph makes great stoves. Another series of videos to check out is Stick's Blog, focused on ultralight equipment, though he stopped making them this summer.
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Post by gandeeman60 on Oct 26, 2018 4:14:17 GMT -8
Just don't test the stoves while wearing a bathrobe, okay? I don't even have to hear the story to know that's a great piece of advice that should be followed!
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Post by gandeeman60 on Oct 26, 2018 4:15:02 GMT -8
I might recommend Intense Angler (he dropped of for a while) for some nice DIY stuff and Homemade Wanderlust for just nice vids on the trail. I'm a dedicated Homemade Wanderlust subscriber...just watched her finish the CDT.
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Post by gandeeman60 on Oct 26, 2018 4:16:11 GMT -8
Be careful reading about these little stoves and talking about them. You will start making them and end up with a couple dozen, and you will like them all so much that you won't want to get rid of any. I know. Yes...yes, I know. I've made two already, and have the materials to make a third. And I don't even have a cat!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2018 5:31:36 GMT -8
Yes...yes, I know. I've made two already, and have the materials to make a third. And I don't even have a cat! When the "stovie" community started making copies of the White Box Stove, I stocked up on aluminum bottles and started practicing. A few of my friends were getting free stoves on a regular basis as I was worked on perfecting them. After I finally got the knack, I decided that I liked some different designs, and wasted many hours making those. After a lot of testing and tinkering, I found that a couple of factory-made stoves could perform close to the stoves I had made, and so I quit the stove making projects. This was after numerous hours spent making and testing various designs. It was a blast, and time very well spent. I ended up with a box full of little stoves that will only be used to show to friends and will probably never be used for cooking. As I said, it can and will be an addiction. You will love every minute that you spend researching and making these little stoves.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Oct 29, 2018 22:03:53 GMT -8
You should check out Tinny's website ( Minibulldesign Cult and his Youtube channel - Careful! He covers a lot of other obsessions he has, like building recumbent bicycles and solar/windmill electricity generators and such, so it's not all about alky stoves!) if you haven't already - assuming you have a hankering for even more "boiling water" videos. The guy has hundreds on his current channel, and there were thousands on his old channel, which he was forced to switch at some time a few years ago because Youtube thought he had "too many videos" without "sufficient traffic". I own several dozen of Tinny's stoves, from various periods back to something like 10 years ago. (I have several of his M2/M3/M4/M5/M6/Voodoo designs from a number of years ago. Some of these had integrated legs and a potstand, shaped to "capture" a pot. Almost all had "remote feed", which allowed you to "turn off" the fuel flow when you were done.) He used to make some really ornate designs, but he's given up lately, and only makes the "simple stuff" you'll see on his website now. I should really take pictures of my collection. There are even some "one off" designs that he called prototypes, that I bought sight unseen from him at what now seem like exorbitant cost. He gave up making them because 1) they were ridiculously hard to hand fabricate and 2) only nuts like myself were interested in buying them. It was around this time that Tinny renamed "Minibulldesigns" to "Minibulldesigns Cult". He said pretty often in videos that there were only about a half dozen to a dozen 'crazies' out there that bought his 'fancy designs', then sales dropped to zero quickly. I was one of the 'crazies'. MBD M5 - I have two. I modified one. The other's still in a bag - somewhere. A picture I posted back in 2016 of my "modified" M5 with the optional "capture" style potstand and my kludgy leg modification. Closeup: Old Tinny Youtube video review of the M6 "Voodoo" "Moodoo": Back some years ago (circa late 90s to mid 2000s), I spent far too much time making Pepsi can/beer can/energy drink can alcohol stoves. I had what I thought was a lot of success, building hundreds of the things (there's probably still a box of them in the garage!), including "experimental" stuff using Japanese steel cans, inspired by a crowd of Japanese stove enthusiasts of that period. I think I even have a cache of beer cans in boxes that I thought could be converted into a vented "turbo" (bottom air feed) alcohol stove I once saw a video of on Youtube. You can really go completely crazy, to the point that you are building stoves for friends, and guests at your wife's parties, and people start moving away from you slyly, sometimes crossing the street to avoid you when they see you coming toward them. Yes, obsession, in this case with miniature alcohol stoves, which you mostly never even use, is a disease! Sadly, one day I woke up in a sort of heavy, hazy mindset, and heard myself saying, "What the heck am I doing? Where am I? How did I get here?" Had to finally clear away the stacks of pre-cut drink cans, scales and electronic temperature probes from the kitchen counter, along with the stands I'd built to protect the wife's kitchen counters. Even now, I'll sometimes come across a whole slew of this stuff, and a flicker of recognition will steal across my distracted mind for a few seconds before I put the stuff back - or toss it out.
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