[Stoves] ND TLUD Basics

[neiltm at uwclub.net]

Thank you all for your replies, I need more time to do justice to 
investigating what Paul and others have directed my attention to, so will 
have to come back later on most of these considerations.  But just for 
now:

I would indeed still like to understand more about air ratios and overall 
air volume to stove size for getting a non eye-watering burn with near 
zero moisture fuel as a starting point, so Julien Winter's work sounds 
interesting, and I would be happy to be pointed to anything online if 
there is anything.

I've had clean non eye-watering burns with the Chinese ND camp stoves 
sometimes, but not often as it seems designed primarily for robustness of 
the fire and adaptability to fuel of varying moisture content, so I find 
it hard to imagine taking a different stove camping now.  With Tom Reed's 
woodgas campstoves it was easier to achieve a non eye-watering burn 
because he clearly prioritised clean emissions, and it was nice not to 
have soot on the pans, but in use with more marginal fuel it could also 
be eye-watering, and in general was less tolerant of the fuel variations 
inevitably encountered in the wild.  If I was building my own FA-TLUD I 
would have a great starting point in those stoves, but would like to find 
that useful starting point with ND.

One problem of course is acquiring an endless supply of tins (cans) with 
which to try different possibilities.  I have a peko-pe type stove with 
concentrator, but no chimney, that delivers a good cooking flame. It is 
also a fantastic char producer, with little or no ash at the end of 
pyrolysis, which I appreciate for supplying the BBQ. The concentrator 
hole is cut in the base of a Kodak tin which contained 5.5inch aerial 
film that I acquired in the 1970s when I used to work with this, and I 
have precious few of them now!

I looked at building one of Paul's Champion stoves, but the prospect 
seemed a bit beyond my current skills and resources, so am looking for 
the most basic two can design, although if there is a feasible way to 
vary the primary/secondary air ratio during the burn this could be the 
ideal solution. I get from Paul that varying the primary air is the way 
to go. Frans's idea of a 'perforated bandage' sounds like something I 
have wondered about if it could be turned against side primary air holes 
on the inner can, but haven't been able to think of a way of controlling 
that with the outer can in place.  So I'm looking more for a fixed air 
design, that might be optimal for the consistent dry fuel I can achieve 
easily at home, but to get a better idea of what I'm doing in order to 
perhaps then have a selection of inner cans that I can select for 
different heat outputs/and perhaps more commonly experienced moisture 
contents of wood found/stored outdoors.

As soon as I can I will take some shots of my current revisited from 9 
years ago tincanium stove and to include the flame.  

Thanks again for the ideas so far.

Best wishes,  Neil Taylor (in England)