Rollup flue pipe for tent stoves and hot tenting
Rollup flue pipe
This article is about my rollup flue pipes or rollup stove pipes for use with tent stoves or hot tenting and can have diameters from 30 mm upwards and any length up to about 3 m.
The innovative features of my roll up flue pipes make them more compact, easier and safer to manage for backpacking. They can be used on an ultralight tent stove such as those listed in my tent stove posts.
Do you think there could be 2-meter long roll up flue pipe in this tiny backpacking bundle that can fit inside an ultralight tent stove?
Note: The innovations in this post have been built upon and surpassed by improved roll up flue pipe methods as described in the following link.
Rollup flue pipe setup
A rollup flue pipe of stainless steel or titanium foils is just like magic for ultralight backpackers. They make a compact ultralight tent stove possible by making the flue pipe so light, compact and convenient.
When assembling my rollup flue pipe at a campsite I have teased any uninitiated bystanders by asking them if they believe that I have a two-meter-long flue pipe in my hand. No is the normal reply. I release my flue pipe from the confines of its storage tube. It is a source of wonder. In an instant, the tightly coiled roll of metal turns into a flue pipe faster than anyone can see. These flue pipes have been around for some time, but “…as you probably have grown to expect by now…”, I have made my own little improvements to this technology to make them more compact and their handling and packing more user-friendly and safer.
Note: I no longer let the stove pipe unroll this way. It was fun, but it causes ‘crinkle damage’ and I now use a smooth telescopic method where the holding rings stay in place throughout the roll-out and roll-up.
My flue pipes are generally smaller than others, to match my small stoves, and I have not seen reports from others who have used roll up flue pipes of 40 or even 30 mm diameter as I have
The small diameters bring with them special challenges when it comes to forming the flue from the initial flatish sheet of foil (that is naturally rolled the opposite way) into a long round tube, but importantly it can be done.
Once formed for the first time the flue pipe needs a ‘good- burn-in’ to give the metal a ‘heat memory’ of this new shape. The initial forming is worth doing very well as botched job initially will result in an ugly flue pipe forever. I agree with others that the breaking in process is best done at home where you have flat surfaces to work on, plenty of time, tools and hopefully a team of spare hands (in gloves) to help you gently wrestle the beast into shape.
“It is hard to believe that such thin foil (the thickness of photocopier paper) can have so much fight.”
Me
After heat forming the flue pipe will be a lot easier to form the next time, but the unfortunate offset to this improvement is that the foil is now much more difficult to put back into its ‘rolled up’ backpacking form, particularly as the rolling process is starting with; sharp edges bristling everywhere, a dirty black soot coating and a spring curve that is not easily flattened. It is easy to put nasty crinkles in the metal that are impossible to remove “…an Australian Prime Minister, who lost his trousers, famously said…… life was not meant to be easy…”
Snail-tail-rolley
Here is some more magic to make the roll-up safe, efficient and easy, I make what I call a ‘snail-tail-rolley’ out of titanium or stainless steel foil. It has a precise circumference that is a little less than the flue diameter to allow it to fit concentrically inside and outside many other round stove components. It has a tangential snail-tail to safely receive the nasty bottom end of the flue pipe foil. This holds the foil safely with sharp edges and corners away from hands and flattens it in readiness for the foil to be rolled up around its outside without significant kinking.
Snail-tail-rolley (left) and the nasty end of the roll up flue pipe (right) stubbornly curling the wrong way to make roll-up possible. Also, note the roll-up key that is welded to the end of the flue pipe.
Safely starting the roll-up of the flue pipe around the snail-tail-rolley. The nasty sharp curled edge is flattened and tamed by the snail tail.
There is more magic with the snail-tail-rolly! When the roll-up is completed, I slip the flue pipe off the rolley and hold it in one hand and with the other hand I carefully grasp the wind up handle that is welded to the bottom of the flue pipe. By counter-rotating both hands the flue pipe can be wound up like a clock spring until it is small enough to fit inside the rolley for storage. I carefully allow the coiled metal to unwind until it is snug in the rolley making sure to do this with control so that the roll-up handle is held firm and does not slash my hand.
The tangential snail tail also makes a gentle spring keeper for the flue pipe rings and the flue mounting socket when they are stored on the outside of the rolley.
The roll up flue pipe for ultralight tent stove safely stored inside snail-tail-rolley. “If you are not smiling at this you might be brain dead, but there is more.”
Flue holding rings and flue mounting socket (top) stored outside of the rolley ready for packing other close-fitting components inside and outside and then inside the ultralight tent stove.
If all my words and photos don’t make sense, this little Youtube video might help. “If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, a video is worth 10,000. Sorry about the quality, just learning.”
Roll up flue pipe with rings on outside, fire starters inside (right side, foil-covered cap showing), primary air port assembly (left side, hidden inside), burner glass mounting socket, fuel tube and burner glass added efficiently over snail-tail-rolley storage tube. A very compact bundle that can fit inside the tiny ultralight tent stove.
Tim
