The Boilerwerks pot stand. Atop the Backcountry Boiler to take advantage of exhaust heat (right); paired with the FireFelt to make a stand-alone alcohol stove (left).
After I shipped them out early last year, owners of the first large batch of Boilers had two primary accessory requests: an alcohol burner for wet or fire-ban days and a pot stand to allow a small mug to be heated over the Boiler’s chimney while in use. I developed both last summer and released the FeltFelt alcohol burner, which appears to be performing well. A focus on production of the second large batch of Boilers delayed release of this stand, but last week I finally got them tagged up with the logo and they (along with the FireFelt and a bunch of Boiler spare parts) are now available on the “order” page.
The pot stand:
is .45 oz (13 grams) of waterjet cut 6061 Al
is stable with interlocking legs that fit snugly around the chimney
does not inhibit the feeding of additional fuel through the chimney while in use
can bring 8 oz of water to not-quite-boiling in the same 4-8 minutes it takes the primary vessel to boil
allows Boiler users to heat a small mug of that perfect beverage to complement their main dehydrated meal
pairs perfectly with the FireFelt to make a fully functional, stand-alone alcohol stove for a companion
It feels great to create something new again, particularly when it uses a new manufacturing technique. Waterjet cutting requires no tooling and has short lead times. Music to my ears. :) These are from a short test batch I ran, but I hope to catch a video of the next group.
It’s been an odd several months here at the Boilerwerks. I’ve gotten tons of interest in the Backcountry Boiler from individuals, new and traditional press, distributors, really cool companies who want to collaborate – but I’ve also been wholly paralyzed by a spectacularly under-performing metal spinning shop. (I didn’t track it on the blog, but I had to switch from the local shop to one in Ontario in an effort to meet increased demand. Didn’t go too well.)
I’ve thankfully never been addicted to much of anything (does Minecraft count?) but I imagine that getting in bed with a bad manufacturer is much like an addiction. It ties up A LOT OF MONEY and the further you let it go, the harder it is to escape. While the details aren’t too exciting, the relationship hit rock bottom early this year. I managed to quit the bums cold-turkey, but there was a long period of withdrawal.
The biggest lesson learned: get out early. If a potential manufacturing partner doesn’t have it substantially right by at least the second production sample, they’re either not capable or not willing to do what you want. On the other hand, if you do find a good partner – the laser etching and injection molding shops I’ve been using come to mind – hang on to them. For dear life. (okay, that second link is just my prototyping setup, but the shop was great to work with, too)
But enough sour grapes – the blog is back! And so is the Odyssean journey to get more of these wonderful things made right. By my reckoning, I’ve just escaped some kind of siren-lotus-eater twofer.
I’ve just finished the first run of a much-requested accessory for the Boiler (it’ll be showing up here soon), and next week I hit the road to scout out some new forming and assembly shops for the Boiler.
As I mentioned in both of my posts on Kickstarter, one of the best parts of the whole experience is the cool people I’ve been able to meet as a result. Cindy Gilbert is one of those people.
Cindy heads up the Sustainable Design Certificate program at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and is currently in the middle of a 1000+ mile ride from Missoula, MT to Minneapolis, MN to raise money for sustainable design scholarships. Her project is on IndieGoGo (a crowd-funding platform broadly similar to Kickstarter), and she’s just about 2/3 of the way to her goal of $5000.
Consider supporting her ride and her program. Because: you know all those disposable consumer goods you have, and all that crappy packaging they come in? Industrial designers versed in sustainability can make them last longer, be more readily recyclable, or even make them disappear all together, before they’re even made. They can make it all vanish from the landfills of the future like Michael J. Fox from a Polaroid.
Before the ride, Cindy contacted me about bringing a Backcountry Boiler along, and has since posted a lot of nice stuff about it on her site, LivingPrinciples.org, and Core77. This is all despite the fact that I was extremely slow in digging one up for her. I’m very appreciative of the positive press, but that’s not why I’m inspired.
I’m inspired because her ride and the emails we’ve exchanged remind me that I need to do better. Let’s look at the Boiler. The vessel itself is lightweight, should last a long time, is both partially recycled and infinitely recyclable. The packaging is 100% PCW and can be used as fuel in the Boiler itself. The injection-molded silicone stopper is made in a process that creates little waste, and is probably the only material that can perform its duty at the temperatures it experiences. Oh, and the Boiler runs on the cast-off twigs, branches, and other waste of the forest gathered from the places where the fall. No petroleum, no refining, no shipping or fuel containers.
But what irks me is that the neoprene sleeve and silicone nylon stuff sack are virgin material, when I know recycled versions of both exist. I just haven’t been able to successfully source the material. Now, inspired by Cindy and her project, I’ve given it another shot and am reaching out to companies that do have access to these materials.
And this raises interesting issue. Many of these companies use their sustainability as a point of difference between them and competitors. But the ethic underlying sustainable production isn’t that only a few companies should do it, it’s that they all should do it. So I’m crossing my fingers that cooperation in the name environmental stewardship will trump competitive advantage. And to be honest, I’m optimistic. That’s what seeing somebody ride 1000 miles for their passion does to a person.
Good luck Cindy! On both the ride and the fundraising.
The FireFelt Alcohol Wick for the Backcountry Boiler is now available to order here and ships immediately. From stock – what a great idea – I could get used to that.
The above video shows the wick in use, and this post gives some of the background. It’s pretty slick if I do say so myself.
One note on the amount of fuel used: In the video, I list fuel by weight – it’s the analytic chemist in me – but it occurred to me that few zero people will be using precise scales to measure their fuel on the trail. So everywhere else, I list it by volume. Fluid ounces rather than regular(?) ounces. Kind of confusing. You’d think we would have come up with different names for mass and volume units. Like, say, “grams” and “milliliters.” :)
* and so for the metrics among us: .5 oz (mass) = 18ml (volume), .75 oz (mass) = 28 ml (volume) (good call, Rob)
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I was almost holding my breath late last week as I drove home from the Post Office after shipping the last of the Boilers. I had invested a lot, both financially and psychologically, in the project and there were high expectations among those who had waited a long time for their very own Backcountry Boiler. [...]
