[Stoves] Crispin is like aluminium or is it aluminium which is like Crispin?

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Nat

 

 
>every time I think you could not have a more diverse CV you surprise me
with something
>new.  
 
I have a strange CV, I admit. I hide most of it. Especially that bit about
being a security guard at an apartment building and putting wood trim into
fibreglass yachts in Whitby - the most uncomfortable task I ever performed.
 
>You are right about AL having almost as many
>diverse abilities as you do.  With good
>engineering these means better cheaper stoves for all. 
 
I think we should explore the possibilities of using it more. I have
advocated learning from Dale Andreatta's finned pot experiments and try
this: according to the back of my envelope, there is more fuel savings in
melting and recasting Darfur pots with fins than there is in any of the
improved stoves. The wood needed to do it would soon be saved by the
improved pot.

I am about to embark on a design exercise for heating water and will be
using AL castings to see if we can get a local, rapid-to-produce heat
exchanger based on a very interesting idea incorporated in a strange bench
heating burner/stove being promoted in Oregon/Washington for heating cob
houses. It is advocated by one of the original Lorena stove developers which
I guess puts a minimum age on him close to mine.
 
 
>As for AL availability in Africa
>we need only look to the standard mitard aluminium pot which exists in
every
>country we work in. many are made from can and old engine blocks, have some
>great footage of them being made in Senegal.
 
It is one of the great, lasting contributions NGO's make to the local
economy: hundreds of kilos of rolled over, broken and smashed SUV's made
with high strength aluminum alloys. Think of all the Peugeots with their AL
differential cases and those wonderful Land Cruiser 6 cylinder heads. You
can get several pots from each one.
 
The guys in Senegal are good but I have to hand it to the Nigeriens (from
Niger) for sheer skill at making a form in sand from a broken motorcycle
case and then melting it and recasting a new one from the same material.
They use hand cranked fans which run at about 3000 RPM. All locally made in
the sand by copying another one. The is an ox-powered pump called a
FED-Ardetec Pump made in Ndounga, Niger which has many parts cast locally
over a tiny charcoal fire. Just amazing.
 
You know the top of the Stovetec 2-door unit? It has a very thin cast iron
plate which is quite cheap but you have to get them from China, about $1.
Perhaps they could be made in AL from local drink cans. I don't think anyone
could melt one in normal use.
 
Sumpin' to think about.
Regards
Crispin looking for penguins
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