Whilst browsing thru the local plumbing supplies shop I found what looked like an ideal candidate for the job : a 100mm PVC pipe joiner used to join lengths of storm water pipe. It's ID is a couple of mm wider than the standard gas cannisters and it has a lip 1/2 way down the inside that the cannister can sit on in either the inverted or upright position. So I grabbed one for $3.50 and after a bit of a fiddle with the stove and connected cannister decided to go with a 4 leg stand with equal-sized cut-outs with the over-all design hopefully quite light while still being strong and stable.
Tools were pretty basic : my dremel multi-tool fitted with a small cut-off wheel (a fine toothed hacksaw or panel saw would also do), an electric drill and an 8mm twist bit and countersink bit, a tape measure and a permanent marker & some sandpaper.
First job was to mark-out my cuts : my joiner had a threaded section at the top (but some don't though) so this needed to come off first, then at the other end of the joiner I marked-out the 4 leg positions...each leg centre at 9cm spacings as the circumference of the joiner was about 36cms. Leg bases were 2cm wide at at the top 4cms and the leg cuts going right to the base of the internal lip meaning 4 quite large panel were removed allowing good access for burner adjustement and shaving-off a fair bit of weight. Once 4 leg cut-outs were done I used the cordless drill and 8mm drill bit to drill-out some weight-reduction holes for the 4 legs and around the cirumference of the stand taking care no to drill thru the internal lip. A bit of a run-over all the holes from the outside with the countersink bit in the drill and a rub-over with some sandpaper and it was almost done.
One final task was to fit-up 4 small tabs of 2mm sticky-back foam just above the internal lip and these allowed a good friction hold on the inverted gas cylinder....but it would also work fine without these as the base of the cannister just sits on the top of these foam tabs. A quick fit-up of the Moonwalker and all looked good....the leg cut-outs gave me plenty of room to get even my big paw in to adjust the stove, there was about 50mm of clearance between the stove fitting and the ground and if you wanted to use this holder with the cannister in the normal upright position then that worked too allowing you to keep the cylinder base off cold ground or mud/dirt etc. It felt pretty light but quite sturdy despite all the holes and big cut-outs and weighed just 57 grams on the kitchen scales so I think this will be a good addition to my winter backpacking kit.....and being so easy to make I'll knock-up a few more for spares. The pics below are pretty self-explainatory : and these are seriously easy to make if you're a bit of a DIY'er. Cheers
S358
100mm PVC pipe joiner :
Threaded section off & basic leg cut-outs completed :
Holder with weight reduction holes & foam fitted :
Nice & light :
Inverted and upright cannister position options :
