Not having any panda pictures to share I'd thought I'd post up a couple of things I've made, nothing too serious but might be of interest.Firstly, I have a BB 8g stove (which is amazing) but I struggle to light it. Using a lighter I end up burning my finger. I had tried using bits of twig or rubbish I lit and then dunked in but thought there must be a better way. I tried making a wick holder to dunk in and light but the wick would continue to burn after all the meths had. I then realised that maybe it didn't need to be absorbent as long as the meths clung to it and so I came up with the device below
The curly end is dunked in the stove when once it's been filled and then lit, it can then be lowered into the stove to light the fuel. The hook on the end makes it easier to hold, stops me stabbing myself with the end and can also be used to lift the lid off my cup by hooking it through the handle - not when it's lit or straight afterwards as you have to hold the curly end and it would be burnt fingers again. It's made out of an off-cut of 1mm stainless tig welding rod. In action...
The photo was taken in my shed after going out for a bivi on a Friday night. It was just after moving house and the wife had a friend coming over from the Mainland to see the new house. Whist I spent my evening riding and sleeping in the woods she spent hers tidying and cleaning the house. When I got home on the Saturday morning the wife had gone to meet her friend from the boat. I didn't think I should risk going indoors dripping wet and muddy so I hid out in the shed and made coffee and ate my leftover food
The second item is a little jacket for my stove. I was at my machine making something else and I spotted an off-cut of neoprene in my box of fabrics. This stops the stove from rattling when it's packed inside my mug which for some strange reason used to annoy me as I could hear it when riding.
