Saturday, September 10, 2011

Low budget billy

I found this at a local thrift store a few months ago. Nice and light. I figured for .89 cents I'd take a gamble.

Big enough inside to hold a esbit stove and fuel with room to spare for spices. Good enough to heat soup or some beans during a cold hunting season lunch hour. I plan to add a coffee pot style handle to the side opposite the pour spout. When your spouse is of carribean hispanic descent, you get used to drinking the occasional cup of boiled coffee.
The alcohol burner came from a neighbors trash after a garage sale. Somebody paid $5.00 for the chafing dish it went to and forgot the burner. You can't see the flame here, but it is burning. First I tried rubbing alcohol with no success, which I figured would be the case. Rubbing alcohol has too much water in it. Best results have been with isopropyl dry gas. The perforated metal is a piece I usually use in my forge to stabilize my lead pot when casting bullets. One of these days I plan on building a hobo stove that will be able to use either the alcohol burner or twigs.

Woods

3 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

You can't beat the price, but I grown leery of aluminum.

woodsrunner said...

I too am cautious about aluminum. Like you said the price can't be beat. I will avoid cooking tomatoes or other extreme acid foods in it. If I were going to use it more than a couple dozen times a year, I'd hold out for something made of stainless. For now though the size and weight are perfect for what I want.

Sheryl at Providence North said...

I love garage sales and go around to them every week! Almost everything I own was bought second hand. Can't beat the price!