Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 5Inner burn pot air holes
This is the tricky part. Get ready to do some stainless drilling!
Mark holes first with a sharpie marker or metal punch.
If marked with sharpie marker just go slow with drill at first. Make sure the drill is biting into the metal, then go full speed and punch the hole quickly. Too slow and the bit will never make it through. The stainless gets heated by the bit and odd things happen. You have a "window of opportunity" of just a few seconds. DeWalt bits make it pretty easy. I was able to get into a fast hole punching motion easily.
Refer to the pics for the hole configuration. These are CRITICAL.
Lower holes are in the most optimal configuration ( I believe). The stagger allows for a nice secondary burn when the pellets get low.
The top "afterburner" holes are offset somewhat to give a little "swirl" to the burning gases.
Single holes can work fine too. Larger holes work well also. They are very hard to drill in stainless though. Some more work and testing on top hole configuration is needed.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
See the 4 screws spaced evenly in the pot below the top air holes?
These center the inner burn pot inside the outer 6 quart pot. Makes things line up perfect when you drop the small pot into the larger one. You will see these screws better in the next step.
It's just a little trick to save time and ease alignment. You can cut the sharp heads off with Dremel if you like.
Mark holes first with a sharpie marker or metal punch.
If marked with sharpie marker just go slow with drill at first. Make sure the drill is biting into the metal, then go full speed and punch the hole quickly. Too slow and the bit will never make it through. The stainless gets heated by the bit and odd things happen. You have a "window of opportunity" of just a few seconds. DeWalt bits make it pretty easy. I was able to get into a fast hole punching motion easily.
Refer to the pics for the hole configuration. These are CRITICAL.
Lower holes are in the most optimal configuration ( I believe). The stagger allows for a nice secondary burn when the pellets get low.
The top "afterburner" holes are offset somewhat to give a little "swirl" to the burning gases.
Single holes can work fine too. Larger holes work well also. They are very hard to drill in stainless though. Some more work and testing on top hole configuration is needed.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
See the 4 screws spaced evenly in the pot below the top air holes?
These center the inner burn pot inside the outer 6 quart pot. Makes things line up perfect when you drop the small pot into the larger one. You will see these screws better in the next step.
It's just a little trick to save time and ease alignment. You can cut the sharp heads off with Dremel if you like.
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
Thanks for the very good instructable!
The burn goes along fine even with those small side holes. Only a tiny bit of ash is left once it's done. You could do about 4 one hour burns before needing to clean the pot out.
Plus, with only side holes, the inside of the stove stays clean.
I think most of the commercial TLUD type stoves have a solid bottom too.
Going to try less holes again on the next burn pot I build. I just did a small stove from a paint can and a 1 1/4 quart stainless pot. It burned for a solid hour with only 7 of the 1/8" holes on the bottom of the burn pot.