Universal stove jack-Fit all tent stove pipes

A DIY universal stove jack that can accommodate various pipe sizes. The single large jack has various fold-down masks for smaller pipes.

“It can cost almost nothing, only the shirt off your back or preferably from someone else’s back if you get the cotton shirt from the opportunity shop (thrift shop for those over the big ditch).”

Background & Introduction

All my DIY tents are provided with a light DIY stove jack to allow for the use of a tent stove. They are lighter and softer than traditional jacks. This means that my tiny tent stove (with a small stove pipe and capacity for outside cooking) can be used for comfort and cooking in a tent when the weather is wet or cold.

For more hard-core winter snow camping a larger stove, such as a large downdraft tent stove, is desirable, particularly with a larger tent with more occupants such as my pyramid with a vestibule. Consequently, a universal stove jack that fits all stove pipe sizes greatly improves the versatility of a winter tent.

I have used various rigid metal stove jacks and then more recently soft ones made from cotton that is impregnated and then coated with RTV silicone rubber. The heat resistance of this composite material is good to 300C. It also can be sewn/glued into part of a tent panel so that it can be formed as an integral part of the tent as it is sewn together (described later).

The next innovation, in the current post, was to find a way of making the stove jack universal, so that it could accommodate any stove pipe diameter and the weather flap.

The DIY universal stove jack

My initial approach was to make the universal stove jack from a DIY composite silicone rubber/cotton (silcotton). Before sewing it into the tent panel and then into the pyramid tent. I glued and sewed on an additional laminate of silnylon to cover the silcotton. The plan was that this silnylon could have other smaller diameter stove jacks glued on or ripped off as required (This particular silnylon forms suboptimal bonds with silicone rubber that allows it to be ripped off with some considerable effort).

Stick-on or hinge-down supplementary smaller stove jacks?

I have learned that a permanently affixed weather flap is essential for an absent-minded backpacker (like me) to ensure that the flap is always there when packing or packing up. A glued/sewn silcotton flap was the obvious solution. As I contemplated the shape and design of the flap, it came clear to me that a series of similar flaps could be made like a notepad and be attached to the tent. “I could not leave them behind and every size would always be available along with the weather flap. I thought that this would be much better than a stick-on device.”

I formed a jack with 50mm hole in half of one sheet of silcotton. The other half would become the weather flap when folded over. The 40mm jack was formed in another sheet and all were glued together to then be glued and sewn to the tent over the large embedded stove jack.

Each of the supplementary jacks had thick silicone rubber rings formed around the cut holes. This provides more separation of the cotton from the hot pipe and extra thermal protection for the cotton. The rings also make these jacks more rigid so that they can bear the high wind loading of the stove pipe during storms.

To provide wind stability for the bottom portion of each additional jack, I glued on silcotton tie-out toggle to each corner so that they could be held down with silicone rubber bands that are attached to the tent seams below the jack. The same toggles on each flap can be used to anchor the unwanted jacks and flap up to the tent apex when required.

[Add a photo of the universal stove jack on the pitched tent]

Conclusion about universal stove jack

The universal stove jack makes a versatile, light and flexible way of using a range of tent stoves, or no stove in one tent and the multiple stove jacks and the weather cover will always be there when and if they are needed.

Tim