You do know that burning that insulation gives off highly TOXIC fumes and residue. Usually your hacks and tips are spot on, this one not so much. Stay safe
Fiberglass is not flammable. All you're actually burning is the alcohol. The fiberglass is simply used as a way to cheaply soak up and hold the alcohol while it is burning. As far as the smoke, I wouldn't recommend breathing the smoke from any fire large or small.
@@WayPointSurvival fiberglass is most certainly flammable. Ever see a housefire. No insulation is left. According to niosh, osha, and the building trades council, fiberglass is also friable( not a misspelling) during fire, giving off particulant matter. Check the niosh manual.
Brilliant! I was looking for something like this for alternate way to boil cook secretly in urban “black out no electric “ but flames not allowed by landlord or military or city orders curfew .
@@barbaralong2212I bet carrying a extra cup or can and make a lid out of another cut off lid ( screw for center of lid ) you can place it under and put a lid on it to put it out
OK James, tell me truth. How do come up with all this stuff? I've never seen anyone come up with as many hacks as you and that speaks volumes!! As usual that's pretty darn clever!!! Great video as always 👍
@@WayPointSurvival God is the OG of hacks, seeing as how He created the systems in the first place! But He’s turned me on to some things throughout my life that, while not earth shaking on a big scale, definitely helped me out on a small scale. PBS used to run a show called Rough Science about the survival level application of High Level Educational Science in very difficult circumstances. God’s turned me onto small devices that only had a single application but really made a huge difference at the time that I needed them. He’s a hack genius for sure!
I came across a similar hack yesterday. Instead of a tea ball, used a small round tin stuffed with insulation and has a wire mesh screen from an old strainer. Works the same. I like it better because it sits flat on the ground. Still have to use a pot stand.
Actually that brings up an interesting idea. I got a couple bird feeders (the square ones 4x4x1.5 i think, where you can slip in a sleeve of pre-made bird seed). The metal is too far apart to be useful (to stuff with insulation anyways) in this case, but if we could add the same mesh (say reusing a strainer or salvaging a oil splash guard, i'd avoid the metal screen but if someone tested and that worked i'd reconsider) add insulation, fold in thirds and close, insert with a large round tin lid on one side (to separate from the ground), and close it, might get a similar thing for a semi on-the-go combination stand and stove. Though you have to burn the plastic off first before starting. Though for about a dollar at Dollar General you can get a sink strainer, turn upside down and stuff it and you might get a similar effect once you put on top of an appropriate canister. Though i'd probably take a gel-fuel container or something and do something similar. Don't know, but if the insulation didn't burn up and the alcohol will work, brings up several useful ideas to try.
This is an awesome hack. I have a tea ball that I found just laying around. It's not the mesh style like that one is, it's more solid stainless with holes in it. Been hanging on to it for a while trying to figure out what to use it for. Guess I know my answer now.
Based off a video from Robert Murray Smith carbon felt would likely be a much better option than fiberglass (see his video on the forever wick). It's commonly sold as soldering shields or welding blankets, true not as readily available as insulation but should be considerably safer. Also when used in a pipe as he does it works with vegetable oil. Possibly in the teaball as well.
@Vicki M couldn't say for sure but a lot of times vegetable oil needs to be started with a drop or 2 of alcohol. Pretty sure he normally uses methanol with the lab dropper. After it's lit the flame heats the oil altering the viscosity and allowing it to wick and continue burning.
I think it's a decent idea but the execution could probably be improved. I'd probably find some way of hanging it on the stove rather than the cup. I'd also probably find a way to make the bottom solid to direct more flames to the top. Be fun to play around with it.
@@ShojoBakunyu It's called experimentation. A solid bottom would direct heat up and make for more efficient heating. That mesh isn't doing much for air flow.
great video. i would change the fuel holding medium to be more like a Zippo lighter. cotton balls compared to the insulation. and maybe find a container to put around the tea ball to enclose it when not in use.
This guy's channel proves that necessity is not necessarily the mother of invention. He keeps inventing new solutions for problems that already have very effective existing solutions.
Great design James! You just keep coming up with gadget after gadget for me to build! Love the simplicity of this. I’m going to go ahead and ask “what’s next”? I know it’s just a matter of time before you amaze us again!
Unique idea. IDK if I would use it other than a havfta situation but it's another option I hadn't thought about. Insulation is very versatile and useful for many survival applications. I use it in my fancy feast stove instead of paying the ridiculous prices they want for carbon felt
Another interesting hack. I'm curious if you could extinguish the flame by picking up the cup - with a gloved hand - and dipping the hanging ball into an empty tin can. I think lowering the cup momentarily atop the can should extinguish the flame.
I like the inventiveness of using different things and thinking outside the proverbial box. The down side is it will not pack small. It will still be a ball whereas cat can is open to pack things in. Which leads me to suggest hanging other stoves as you did the teaball on a hanging pot all off ground.
Very cool . The better half used to collect tea balls and I old kitchen gadgets. Should still have a box of them. Thanks for sharing the info. Have a great evening
Interesting concept. 👍 If you use a can with top and bottom lids removed you could focus the heat better, improving your boil time. Alot of heat dissipates without some kind of barrier to keep it moving along the cup.
This looks really great for some conditions and environmenmts. PLEASE, PLEASE include a disclaimer indicating that this is potentially dangerous in high wildfire risk areas. This is not a criticism of you, but an acknowledgment that some people dont think before they attempt to do what they see others do on TH-cam.
Thank you for this video. Looks like an ingenious idea. May I suggest carbon felt in place of (shudder) fiberglass? IMHO, fiberglass belongs in a contained space, to serve as insulation. Again, thank you for this video.
Dang it now that itch to go thrift store shopping is getting worse lol thank you brother and awesome videos. Omg your in Ohio??!!holy crap! I’m in Lancaster and I go down southern Ohio a good bit at times well hot dog!
Wow ! James, that was the most innovative technique that I have seen in a long time. Thank you so very much for sharing it with us. God bless you and those you love !
I have been sharing your videos and passing the knowledge on to those who are interested , you are an incredible resource , every thing that you have shown and researched in your videos is so doable ,so easy to make , I'm blown away , thank you for your videos
So good idea however a can steel under the ball might be helpful try it a slight larger can say to the wire support's might get faster boil. Felt and cotton like a Zippo might work as well. One other thing for maps a 2-1/2 gallon Ziplock bag work's great and you can use a sharpie or gel pen to mark the bag
As a physicist I couldn't resist. I had asked what the difference would be if alcohol or other flammable liquid would be if simply poured into an container VS one with batten and a screen etc. The container with 70% alcohol burned well and 14 seconds longer VS the fancy container. But another experiment was conducted over my lunch in the lab...... I placed 1 oz of hand gel, and it was very stable with an extra 31 second burn time. All had 70%,isopropyl content..... Carter Canada
That certainly is a slick trick for sure. I had never heard of a tea ball until I watched this video, and I'm 45 years old. I thought of an idea you may be interested in, if you're up for a challenge, and if there is a way to do it then I'm sure you are the man that could. Bear with me as I build through this quick story and to the point... In a recent incident, a man was unaware of the consequence of cutting hay and then bailing it the same day. If you do not know, fresh cut vegetation will gain heat, something like having a fever after an injury. The vegetation needs a day or two, at least, to die off and cool down before being bailed or else all that heat tied up tightly and packed together can cause heat friction to catch it fire and it will smolder. Barns have been burned down and even animals killed from barn fires due to ignorance of the danger or neglection. What is my point? Well, I know it is a very long shot, but I wonder if it would be possible to purposely build a fire using fresh cut vegetation and tie it tightly together. I know that is a very long shot and practically useless, but I'm thinking it is not impossible and could be the only chance a person may have in some rare life-threatening situation. If someone were near tall weeds and without a lighter/matches but had a knife and some twine. Cut down alot of weeds, roll it by arm, tie it down tight and exercise some patience on the sideline with some dry leaves and a 'birds nest' under some small twigs...
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion. However, as I used to help farmers bring hay in when I was much younger, spontaneous combustion, as you are referring to, takes a very specific set of circumstances and is a very slow process.
@@WayPointSurvival Thank you for the quick response. I have ALL the ingredients to make several of those...will try it for myself and give a couple of them to my fellow prepper friends. Thank you so much for this pocket sized information...I just love it 😍
a note from my sailing days (yes alcohol stoves very popular there) you can extinguish that fuel with water very quickly as alcohol is absorbed very quickly in water. Nice idea, will make up a little stove for myself. salt is a nice touch.
@@WayPointSurvival will you ever need to replace the insulation, or is it like the sand and alcohol "tuna can" stove that only needs cleaning (rinsing) once in awhile?
This is seriously cool. Plus I love to have some duplicate bug-out or SHTF gear that would probably get left behind if someone broke into my home or car while I was out foraging or something. You really make my day with these creative acts. Thank you so much.
Really Cool James the tea ball you used was mesh on both sides and not the most common the ones you left in the baggie were more common. So do you think this would work with the others that were steel with less holes? /
Very good video. Great idea for camping, where limited fire is strictly enforced. There are no burning coals after use, and with common sense can be controlled. Thank you!
What a crazy great idea and thanks for recommending genuine Fuel Alcohol and not automobile additives. Thanks again and best wishes for all future endeavors.
Myself i would probably not use this as i have a wood stove and a wood chip stove for emergency but i do like it. Just subscribed because i like your mind.😃
One tip; where ever you plan to use this, be aware; fiberglass insulation contains dried formaldehyde. It's in there to help prevent it from getting moldy inside your walls. After you burn it a few times it will be ok, but the first time it burns the formaldehyde will gas off. This little bit is probably not that harmful ... probably.
The difference between paraformaldehyde, formaldehyde, and formalin. Paraformaldehyde (chemical name is polyoxymethylene) is a powder of polymerized formaldehyde that by itself cannot fix tissues. To be usable as a tissue fixative, paraformaldehyde has to be dissolved in hot water to become a formaldehyde solution.
@@ometec The manufacturing process of fiberglass matting is the same process used to make paper. The glass fibers are mixed in a slurry of hot water to be sprayed out onto a moving conveyer to be dried. The formaldehyde is added to the glass slurry. It also acts as a sizing agent when dry. Maybe you are saying it's not harmful when burned? I don't know, I'm not a chemist.
Years ago we were issued with hexamine stoves & fuel in the Australian Army. Cumbersome things to carry as rations were boil in the bag types. I recall once an officer bringing out a tea strainer - enough for one person & burning a hexamine tablet inside the tea strainer. You normally use 2 to heat your meal & get a brew going. I think I will toss one of these into the incidentals box in my car ............. as you never know, right ?
I love all these crazy ideas for alcohol stoves. It’s like this topic has unleashed people's creativity, and you can almost for sure make one from stuff in anyone's house. I wonder if you lined the bottom with some foil or something like that, would it burn more efficiently, or longer? And I bet if you made a simple wind break you’d cut a good minute off the already pretty fast boil time. I’ve actually seen some mini stoves for sale that use the same principle. A little metal container, stuffed with fibreglass, a wire mesh cover, and a screw cap. No where near as hot, and blows out way too easily though.
Hello James, Sir, thanks for this idea! If you don't mind, let me throw in a few ideas...? About some concern on fiberglass: duct tape tapped repeatedly over itchy spots removes the itch quite well. Though I'd go for rock wool. If you want to prepare these balls in advance and store them for some minor shelf time, you could prepare a pretty amount of pure soap's shavings and dissolve them in heated alcohol (VERY carefully, a process you might do at home with no open flames involved) - after cooling down, you'll be rewarded with burning jelly like for your fondue stoves. Put that jelly into cans (should have a good sealing to keep the alcohol from evaporating) or directly into the tea ball (to store it same way, properly sealed and not into plastic bags). You're good to go when needed. Hope that helps! Keep going, my friend, best to you from Stuttgart, Germany! God bless you!!
@@kylewilkinson6975 in my experience not. While starting to burn, the mixture turns back into liquid and the evaporating alcohol burns. James' tip with the salt will work as well. If you let burn it down to the last glimpse of alcohol, it might happen to smoke due to start burning soap, but that's the moment when you might want to wipe the flame - and reuse the soap later in a new charge. I use 1-2 tablespoons of soap shavings on roughly 200ml/6.5oz alcohol. more soap, less viscosity, less soap, more soup 🤣
Nice idea. To make it extinguishable, you could use the chains to attach it to the pot stand or two sticks, stuck in the ground either side and when you are done, just dump a second empty pot/cup shaped bit of kit over the whole ball and ensure that it sits on the ground. It would then suffocate itself as it uses the oxygen up inside that 'hat'. A neat idea using a tea ball and fibreglass insulation as a catalyst though!!
@@WayPointSurvival yes, I get that. Or pop the whole thing in a small Tupperware container to use again later on the trail? Maybe that defeats the idea though of it being so minimalist to start with.
There again another neat little hack in each of the t-ball in that bag the different sizes I'll bet you they burn different hour or different time and still boil water have a blessed day my friend God bless again very nice video
Interesting. There are a lot of diy alcohol stove builds on you tube without insulation made of discarded cans. Do jot think i would spend the money for this build. However the concept is awesome. A very creative brain box you got there. Thank you for shairing😊
One thing you could probably do is cotton balls soak in wax. Definitely good video never thought about doing that . Definitely will have try it out. I've personally used a lot those solid fuel stoves and portable rocket stoves for when need heat up small pots.
awesome, my immediate idea upon seeing your clever hack, is that I would coal the bottom half of the tea ball with aluminium foil, the fuel burning from the bottom might not be of much use to heat the above can.
A possible improvement: You use denatured Alcohol. AKA: Ethanol with added poisons and colors to keep people from drinking it, so that it can be sold without added taxes. I suggest using NON-Denatured Ethanol AKA Ever-Clear (brand named) which actually is Human consumable and not strictly poisonous. Burns just as well. Nice idea using Fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass technically can not burn, only melt, and in and of itself is relatively non-toxic. However, newer manufactured fiberglass frequently has a few hideous chemicals used in the manufacturing such as formaldehyde, which can take up to 2 years to gas off. So before you actually use this for cooking, I would highly recommend that you soak it and burn it a few times BEFORE you put it in your bug out kit!
That was amazing very simple and I have one of those in my drawer here I'm going to put it in my camping kit we got lots of tent pegs because we used to have the metal ones now they have plastic ones so I've got a lot of the metal pegs
Wow this gives me the idea to try it with vegetable oil. All my previous vegetable oil stoves failed due to lack of wick volume, but this one might just do the trick! I'm excited to try it!
Ive experimented quite a bit with veggie oil too. Im not going to try this but if you do I would to hear how you made out. In general Ifound it wanting as a fuel. I'll bet if you can get it to light at all it will be a smokey mess. My only truely successful veggie oil lamp or candle is the floating wick type.
Hmm 😒 I like it, I like a lot! I'm going to give a it a try. With a tin can and something over a tin can where it can get air. Maybe pipe banding in a x pattern then remove that, then put the lid on to extinguish the flames. Bet it would work with your sink drain stove too! Great work!!!
This is a great idea, I'm also glad I caught the stove stand video as well, because I can see myself knocking this over! I'm clumsy! However, in an emergency, THIS is a great idea!
People with madness only see the world a different way, sometimes worse, sometimes better, sometimes (like Nikola Tesla) in a new way that helps the rest of humanity.
I don't think it affects the fire so much as it does the water (I could be wrong...). I live at 6,000', using a propane camp stove every day the last ten years...water takes longer to boil and it takes more water to cook. Rice cooking, for instance, generally is a 1:2 rice/water ratio for 20 minutes...here at elevation, it's 1:3 and 25 minutes, even more if you toss in some dried vegies and whatnot.
@@blondbowler8776 with less atmospheric pressure pushing down on the surface of the water, it "appears" to boil sooner, but it might not really be up to temperature. That's probably why longer cook times, and more water needed because evaporation. That's my theory anyway.
![Toilet Roll Hack! [REALLY COOL!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ik0EJpXTDZo/mqdefault.jpg)
![Toilet Roll Hack! [REALLY COOL!]](/img/tr.png)
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Hope you like this hack and I appreciate all the views and comments! You all are the best!
You do know that burning that insulation gives off highly TOXIC fumes and residue. Usually your hacks and tips are spot on, this one not so much. Stay safe
I did a video on this back in 2008. Nice to see you've made some improvements on the idea.
Fiberglass is not flammable. All you're actually burning is the alcohol. The fiberglass is simply used as a way to cheaply soak up and hold the alcohol while it is burning. As far as the smoke, I wouldn't recommend breathing the smoke from any fire large or small.
@@WayPointSurvival fiberglass is most certainly flammable. Ever see a housefire. No insulation is left. According to niosh, osha, and the building trades council, fiberglass is also friable( not a misspelling) during fire, giving off particulant matter. Check the niosh manual.
You can’t get much lighter then that. Nice idea.
When you think you have seen every version of every stove in existence, here comes James with yet another new creation. Good work, man.
Thanks for watching!
Good idea works well
Brilliant! I was looking for something like this for alternate way to boil cook secretly in urban “black out no electric “ but flames not allowed by landlord or military or city orders curfew .
@@barbaralong2212I bet carrying a extra cup or can and make a lid out of another cut off lid ( screw for center of lid ) you can place it under and put a lid on it to put it out
I was thinking the same
I like that the stove is so wind resistant. It amazes me how so many stoves can be extinguished by a gentle breeze.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent cleverness, James
The wond resistance is very impressive! The best quality about it imo
OK James, tell me truth. How do come up with all this stuff? I've never seen anyone come up with as many hacks as you and that speaks volumes!!
As usual that's pretty darn clever!!! Great video as always 👍
I really have no idea except that I think God gives them to me. Thanks for watching!
@@WayPointSurvival well all I can say if you're getting it from God that's fine with me. Have a nice evening
@@WayPointSurvival:
Your a blessing to this earth.
He's an outdoor hacks genius,Brian! :)
@@WayPointSurvival God is the OG of hacks, seeing as how He created the systems in the first place! But He’s turned me on to some things throughout my life that, while not earth shaking on a big scale, definitely helped me out on a small scale. PBS used to run a show called Rough Science about the survival level application of High Level Educational Science in very difficult circumstances. God’s turned me onto small devices that only had a single application but really made a huge difference at the time that I needed them. He’s a hack genius for sure!
I came across a similar hack yesterday. Instead of a tea ball, used a small round tin stuffed with insulation and has a wire mesh screen from an old strainer. Works the same. I like it better because it sits flat on the ground. Still have to use a pot stand.
It sounds very much like the one that I made using an altoid's tin. Thanks for watching!
Actually that brings up an interesting idea. I got a couple bird feeders (the square ones 4x4x1.5 i think, where you can slip in a sleeve of pre-made bird seed). The metal is too far apart to be useful (to stuff with insulation anyways) in this case, but if we could add the same mesh (say reusing a strainer or salvaging a oil splash guard, i'd avoid the metal screen but if someone tested and that worked i'd reconsider) add insulation, fold in thirds and close, insert with a large round tin lid on one side (to separate from the ground), and close it, might get a similar thing for a semi on-the-go combination stand and stove. Though you have to burn the plastic off first before starting.
Though for about a dollar at Dollar General you can get a sink strainer, turn upside down and stuff it and you might get a similar effect once you put on top of an appropriate canister.
Though i'd probably take a gel-fuel container or something and do something similar. Don't know, but if the insulation didn't burn up and the alcohol will work, brings up several useful ideas to try.
This is an awesome hack. I have a tea ball that I found just laying around. It's not the mesh style like that one is, it's more solid stainless with holes in it. Been hanging on to it for a while trying to figure out what to use it for. Guess I know my answer now.
Excellent. Thanks for watching!
@@WayPointSurvival you're welcome. I'll have to try it out. Might replace the "catfood" stove in my 2 cup cook set.
New Waypoint video up...Stop what im doing and watch immediately!!!
Thanks so much!
Always a Thumbs up. Great video. Thanks for sharing. And it was great to meet you at the Pathfinder gathering.
Thanks so much! I really enjoyed meeting you as well.
You have interesting perspective about items in your surroundings
Thanks for watching!
James, another ingenious hack! Happy Trails
Thanks so much!
Another great hack! Thanks, James ATB Sam from Vietnam
Thanks so much, Sam!
Based off a video from Robert Murray Smith carbon felt would likely be a much better option than fiberglass (see his video on the forever wick). It's commonly sold as soldering shields or welding blankets, true not as readily available as insulation but should be considerably safer. Also when used in a pipe as he does it works with vegetable oil. Possibly in the teaball as well.
Thanks for watching. I'm sure that could work also.
I tried Robert's carbon felt and vegetable oil in a copper ummm fitting? Didnt work, not sure what I did wrong.
@Vicki M couldn't say for sure but a lot of times vegetable oil needs to be started with a drop or 2 of alcohol. Pretty sure he normally uses methanol with the lab dropper. After it's lit the flame heats the oil altering the viscosity and allowing it to wick and continue burning.
@@CP-xo6yb thank you so much
I think it's a decent idea but the execution could probably be improved. I'd probably find some way of hanging it on the stove rather than the cup. I'd also probably find a way to make the bottom solid to direct more flames to the top. Be fun to play around with it.
Thanks for watching!
The extra mesh allows for better air flow. The heat goes up so I don't see how a solid bottom would be beneficial.
@@ShojoBakunyu It's called experimentation. A solid bottom would direct heat up and make for more efficient heating. That mesh isn't doing much for air flow.
May be flatten out the bottom a bit of " J B Weld " or wire a flat metal disc in the bottom ???
Mtn Mel , Ret USN SERE, Colo.
Yes , the goes flame up ! Good.
That is quite clever! Bushcraft MacGyver!
Thanks so much, my friend!
great video. i would change the fuel holding medium to be more like a Zippo lighter. cotton balls compared to the insulation. and maybe find a container to put around the tea ball to enclose it when not in use.
Thanks for watching. I would definitely not use anything like cotton balls because they would burn up. Insulation, however, is not flammable.
Insulation won't burn. I threw some non fiberglass fiber fill insulation in my fire pit and a year later it was still there.
Wow. Cool. Could you light it up with a ferro rod?
Yes as long as it wasn't below 32ﾟF.
This guy's channel proves that necessity is not necessarily the mother of invention. He keeps inventing new solutions for problems that already have very effective existing solutions.
Lol
Great design James! You just keep coming up with gadget after gadget for me to build! Love the simplicity of this. I’m going to go ahead and ask “what’s next”? I know it’s just a matter of time before you amaze us again!
Thanks so much, I'm not really sure what I'm doing next!
Unique idea. IDK if I would use it other than a havfta situation but it's another option I hadn't thought about. Insulation is very versatile and useful for many survival applications. I use it in my fancy feast stove instead of paying the ridiculous prices they want for carbon felt
James, I gotta say I have seen you come up with some cool stuff but this has to be top 3. There is SO much you can do with this. Appreciate it!
Thanks so much!
Would carbon felt work instead of the insulation? It has a high burn temp and it's great at wicking. I use it in other stoves as it doesn't wear out.
Yes, you could definitely use that instead.
Another interesting hack. I'm curious if you could extinguish the flame by picking up the cup - with a gloved hand - and dipping the hanging ball into an empty tin can. I think lowering the cup momentarily atop the can should extinguish the flame.
You really want the flame to burn out all of the alcohol as it will continue to off gas whatever fuel is left.
Fair enough.
Good idea !!
I place charcoal in tea balls to keep in my fridge and freezers. More effective than baking soda at fighting oders. Also, no spills.
Wow! You did it again. Awesome video.
Thanks so much.
Really enjoyed this one a lot. 😁
I like the inventiveness of using different things and thinking outside the proverbial box.
The down side is it will not pack small. It will still be a ball whereas cat can is open to pack things in. Which leads me to suggest hanging other stoves as you did the teaball on a hanging pot all off ground.
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion.
LOVE this very simple stove but wow, I was feeling itchy watching all that insulation handling. 😂🤣 That stuff makes my skin crawl…literally.
It's not too bad if you wash your hands immediately after handling it. Thanks for watching!
Very cool . The better half used to collect tea balls and I old kitchen gadgets. Should still have a box of them. Thanks for sharing the info. Have a great evening
Excellent. Thanks for watching, my friend!
Interesting concept. 👍
If you use a can with top and bottom lids removed you could focus the heat better, improving your boil time. Alot of heat dissipates without some kind of barrier to keep it moving along the cup.
Thanks for watching.
Hi James..
I use this in the sink-stove 👍
(no need for the chains)...😎
God bless you 👌
Thanks again and God bless you too!
Pretty cool ! I enjoy your videos James, you always come up with something genius.
Thanks so much, my friend!
This looks really great for some conditions and environmenmts.
PLEASE, PLEASE include a disclaimer indicating that this is potentially dangerous in high wildfire risk areas.
This is not a criticism of you, but an acknowledgment that some people dont think before they attempt to do what they see others do on TH-cam.
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion.
Thank you for this video. Looks like an ingenious idea.
May I suggest carbon felt in place of (shudder) fiberglass?
IMHO, fiberglass belongs in a contained space, to serve as insulation.
Again, thank you for this video.
That would work well also! Thanks for watching.
See these at thrift stores and garage sales cheap all the time. Never thought of this type of use, another super creative hack, thank much.
Thanks for watching!
Cool thanks for the video
Thanks for watching!
I'd go with rockwool or carbon felt 1 rockwool hydroponic cube would work great. They will last forever. Great idea.
That would work well too!
Dang it now that itch to go thrift store shopping is getting worse lol thank you brother and awesome videos. Omg your in Ohio??!!holy crap! I’m in Lancaster and I go down southern Ohio a good bit at times well hot dog!
Thanks for watching!
Wow ! James, that was the most innovative technique that I have seen in a long time. Thank you so very much for sharing it with us. God bless you and those you love !
Thanks for watching and God bless you too!
Another good one! Thanks for sharing...
Thanks for watching!
I have been sharing your videos and passing the knowledge on to those who are interested , you are an incredible resource , every thing that you have shown and researched in your videos is so doable ,so easy to make , I'm blown away , thank you for your videos
Thanks so much!
That is amazing and looks so easy. I'm excited to try it with the tea ball that I never use. Thank you!
Thanks so much for watching!
So good idea however a can steel under the ball might be helpful try it a slight larger can say to the wire support's might get faster boil. Felt and cotton like a Zippo might work as well. One other thing for maps a 2-1/2 gallon Ziplock bag work's great and you can use a sharpie or gel pen to mark the bag
Thanks for watching. I would definitely not use cotton as it is flammable whereas fiberglass installation is not.
Hi James! You never disappoint. Fun to watch and even more fun to try.
Thanks so much!
As a physicist I couldn't resist. I had asked what the difference would be if alcohol or other flammable liquid would be if simply poured into an container VS one with batten and a screen etc. The container with 70% alcohol burned well and 14 seconds longer VS the fancy container. But another experiment was conducted over my lunch in the lab...... I placed 1 oz of hand gel, and it was very stable with an extra 31 second burn time. All had 70%,isopropyl content..... Carter Canada
Excellent. Thanks for the info!
That certainly is a slick trick for sure. I had never heard of a tea ball until I watched this video, and I'm 45 years old.
I thought of an idea you may be interested in, if you're up for a challenge, and if there is a way to do it then I'm sure you are the man that could. Bear with me as I build through this quick story and to the point...
In a recent incident, a man was unaware of the consequence of cutting hay and then bailing it the same day. If you do not know, fresh cut vegetation will gain heat, something like having a fever after an injury. The vegetation needs a day or two, at least, to die off and cool down before being bailed or else all that heat tied up tightly and packed together can cause heat friction to catch it fire and it will smolder. Barns have been burned down and even animals killed from barn fires due to ignorance of the danger or neglection.
What is my point? Well, I know it is a very long shot, but I wonder if it would be possible to purposely build a fire using fresh cut vegetation and tie it tightly together. I know that is a very long shot and practically useless, but I'm thinking it is not impossible and could be the only chance a person may have in some rare life-threatening situation.
If someone were near tall weeds and without a lighter/matches but had a knife and some twine. Cut down alot of weeds, roll it by arm, tie it down tight and exercise some patience on the sideline with some dry leaves and a 'birds nest' under some small twigs...
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion. However, as I used to help farmers bring hay in when I was much younger, spontaneous combustion, as you are referring to, takes a very specific set of circumstances and is a very slow process.
Another amazingly simple and useful hack. Well done James 👍.
Thanks for watching!
Excellent video 😁 James verry interesting thanks. Till next time thanks
Thanks so much for watching!
I am an avid tea drinker and have at least 5 teaballs...
My question is: won't it get too hot to melt the wires in the teaball?
No, it won't get that hot.. Thanks for watching and for your question!
@@WayPointSurvival
Thank you for the quick response. I have ALL the ingredients to make several of those...will try it for myself and give a couple of them to my fellow prepper friends. Thank you so much for this pocket sized information...I just love it 😍
a note from my sailing days (yes alcohol stoves very popular there) you can extinguish that fuel with water very quickly as alcohol is absorbed very quickly in water. Nice idea, will make up a little stove for myself. salt is a nice touch.
Great tip. Thanks for watching!
Excellent idea!!!
Thanks!
Other than it being insulation in the tea ball, that is genius man. Wind proof!!! I'm sold. A spirit stove is nice but this is light.
The insulation works well as it merely acts as a wick for the alcohol to off gas. Many wicks are made from fiberglass anyway.
so, can it be used more then once or does the insulation burn out as the flames get hotter?
It can be used many times as the insulation doesn't really burn out.
@@WayPointSurvival will you ever need to replace the insulation, or is it like the sand and alcohol "tuna can" stove that only needs cleaning (rinsing) once in awhile?
This is seriously cool. Plus I love to have some duplicate bug-out or SHTF gear that would probably get left behind if someone broke into my home or car while I was out foraging or something. You really make my day with these creative acts. Thank you so much.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really Cool James the tea ball you used was mesh on both sides and not the most common the ones you left in the baggie were more common. So do you think this would work with the others that were steel with less holes?
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Probably not as well. The stainless steel mesh allows the alcohol to fully mix with the air and that's where you get the intense heat from.
Very good video. Great idea for camping, where limited fire is strictly enforced. There are no burning coals after use, and with common sense can be controlled. Thank you!
You're welcome!
WOW ! What a great idea !
Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
This sir is a killer idea, but I'm not cool with it hanging on the cup, will figure another spot for the ball on the pegs....again thank you.....ATB
Thanks for watching!
Caught this one early!
Great, thanks for watching it!
What a crazy great idea and thanks for recommending genuine Fuel Alcohol and not automobile additives. Thanks again and best wishes for all future endeavors.
Thanks so much for watching!
Love it! You have ideas that I would never think of. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Great project. Also, James you provided a very helpful suggestion about denatured alcohol. Heet is not labeled or intended to be used as a fuel.
What a neat little hack, well done. Thank you 🙏
Thanks for watching!
Myself i would probably not use this as i have a wood stove and a wood chip stove for emergency but i do like it. Just subscribed because i like your mind.😃
Thanks so much and welcome aboard!
This is a great little device! Good job!
Thanks for watching!
Great vid through in a light weight wind screen would make a great addition to this thank you for sharing sir
Thanks for watching!
love your videos but hoping you show part 2
Thanks for watching. The video didn't do well enough at this point for me to make a part 2.
One tip; where ever you plan to use this, be aware; fiberglass insulation contains dried formaldehyde. It's in there to help prevent it from getting moldy inside your walls. After you burn it a few times it will be ok, but the first time it burns the formaldehyde will gas off. This little bit is probably not that harmful ... probably.
True. Thanks for watching!
The difference between paraformaldehyde, formaldehyde, and formalin. Paraformaldehyde (chemical name is polyoxymethylene) is a powder of polymerized formaldehyde that by itself cannot fix tissues. To be usable as a tissue fixative, paraformaldehyde has to be dissolved in hot water to become a formaldehyde solution.
@@ometec The manufacturing process of fiberglass matting is the same process used to make paper. The glass fibers are mixed in a slurry of hot water to be sprayed out onto a moving conveyer to be dried. The formaldehyde is added to the glass slurry. It also acts as a sizing agent when dry.
Maybe you are saying it's not harmful when burned? I don't know, I'm not a chemist.
Great idea! Easier to make than a Fancy Feast stove.
Thanks for watching!
Great idea James
Thanks!
Love the hack James. However I hate itchy insulation...lol
Thanks. It's not too bad as long as you don't roll in it. Lol.
Years ago we were issued with hexamine stoves & fuel in the Australian Army. Cumbersome things to carry as rations were boil in the bag types. I recall once an officer bringing out a tea strainer - enough for one person & burning a hexamine tablet inside the tea strainer. You normally use 2 to heat your meal & get a brew going. I think I will toss one of these into the incidentals box in my car ............. as you never know, right ?
Indeed. Thanks for watching!
Great idea!! Can’t wait to make mine.
Excellent, thanks for watching!
I love all these crazy ideas for alcohol stoves. It’s like this topic has unleashed people's creativity, and you can almost for sure make one from stuff in anyone's house. I wonder if you lined the bottom with some foil or something like that, would it burn more efficiently, or longer? And I bet if you made a simple wind break you’d cut a good minute off the already pretty fast boil time. I’ve actually seen some mini stoves for sale that use the same principle. A little metal container, stuffed with fibreglass, a wire mesh cover, and a screw cap. No where near as hot, and blows out way too easily though.
There's definitely a lot of options that you could experiment with using this idea. Thanks for watching!
Very cool. I would wear gloves for the itchy part But a very great idea!
Thanks. I've handled so much insulation over the years that it doesn't bother me too much.
Hello James, Sir, thanks for this idea! If you don't mind, let me throw in a few ideas...? About some concern on fiberglass: duct tape tapped repeatedly over itchy spots removes the itch quite well. Though I'd go for rock wool. If you want to prepare these balls in advance and store them for some minor shelf time, you could prepare a pretty amount of pure soap's shavings and dissolve them in heated alcohol (VERY carefully, a process you might do at home with no open flames involved) - after cooling down, you'll be rewarded with burning jelly like for your fondue stoves. Put that jelly into cans (should have a good sealing to keep the alcohol from evaporating) or directly into the tea ball (to store it same way, properly sealed and not into plastic bags). You're good to go when needed. Hope that helps! Keep going, my friend, best to you from Stuttgart, Germany! God bless you!!
Thanks for watching and for the information. God bless you too!
Question. Does soap and alcohol mixture cause more smoke residue on pot?
@@kylewilkinson6975 in my experience not. While starting to burn, the mixture turns back into liquid and the evaporating alcohol burns. James' tip with the salt will work as well. If you let burn it down to the last glimpse of alcohol, it might happen to smoke due to start burning soap, but that's the moment when you might want to wipe the flame - and reuse the soap later in a new charge. I use 1-2 tablespoons of soap shavings on roughly 200ml/6.5oz alcohol. more soap, less viscosity, less soap, more soup 🤣
Awesome
Thanks!
Just the salt trick alone makes this worth watching! Great video.
Thanks so much!
Nice!!!!
Thanks!
Nice idea. To make it extinguishable, you could use the chains to attach it to the pot stand or two sticks, stuck in the ground either side and when you are done, just dump a second empty pot/cup shaped bit of kit over the whole ball and ensure that it sits on the ground. It would then suffocate itself as it uses the oxygen up inside that 'hat'. A neat idea using a tea ball and fibreglass insulation as a catalyst though!!
Sure. Then you would want to make sure that the rest of the alcohol had evaporated before packing it away.
@@WayPointSurvival yes, I get that. Or pop the whole thing in a small Tupperware container to use again later on the trail? Maybe that defeats the idea though of it being so minimalist to start with.
👍👍
Thanks!
There again another neat little hack in each of the t-ball in that bag the different sizes I'll bet you they burn different hour or different time and still boil water have a blessed day my friend God bless again very nice video
Thanks so much and God bless you too!
Good improvisation. In hard times you may need to survive in an urban setting, now we have another tool in the toolbox. Thanks James.
Thanks so much!
Interesting. There are a lot of diy alcohol stove builds on you tube without insulation made of discarded cans. Do jot think i would spend the money for this build. However the concept is awesome. A very creative brain box you got there. Thank you for shairing😊
Thanks for watching!
One thing you could probably do is cotton balls soak in wax. Definitely good video never thought about doing that . Definitely will have try it out. I've personally used a lot those solid fuel stoves and portable rocket stoves for when need heat up small pots.
Thanks for watching!
Very good idea. Thank you for showing us how this is done.
You are so welcome!
Excellent video, can’t say I ever seen a tea ball ever used like this
Thanks for watching!
Thanks James!
Thanks for watching!
awesome, my immediate idea upon seeing your clever hack, is that I would coal the bottom half of the tea ball with aluminium foil, the fuel burning from the bottom might not be of much use to heat the above can.
Thanks. The fact that the entire ball is aflame adds to the amount of heat which is why you can get a four and a half minute boil time.
A possible improvement: You use denatured Alcohol. AKA: Ethanol with added poisons and colors to keep people from drinking it, so that it can be sold without added taxes. I suggest using NON-Denatured Ethanol AKA Ever-Clear (brand named) which actually is Human consumable and not strictly poisonous. Burns just as well. Nice idea using Fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass technically can not burn, only melt, and in and of itself is relatively non-toxic. However, newer manufactured fiberglass frequently has a few hideous chemicals used in the manufacturing such as formaldehyde, which can take up to 2 years to gas off. So before you actually use this for cooking, I would highly recommend that you soak it and burn it a few times BEFORE you put it in your bug out kit!
Thanks for watching and for the suggestion!
This just gave me an idea for a much larger ball of fire. Pack insulation in between two mesh spaghetti strainers then clip closed.
Sure, you could do that.
That was amazing very simple and I have one of those in my drawer here I'm going to put it in my camping kit we got lots of tent pegs because we used to have the metal ones now they have plastic ones so I've got a lot of the metal pegs
Excellent. Thanks for watching.
James, you are absolutely brilliant!
Thanks for watching!
This one is just great. Excellent job of explaining how to. The reason i look forward to your videos.
Thanks so much!
That's a great idea for wet snowy windy days!
Indeed. Thanks for watching!
Wow this gives me the idea to try it with vegetable oil. All my previous vegetable oil stoves failed due to lack of wick volume, but this one might just do the trick! I'm excited to try it!
Sounds great! It very well might work.
Ive experimented quite a bit with veggie oil too. Im not going to try this but if you do I would to hear how you made out. In general Ifound it wanting as a fuel. I'll bet if you can get it to light at all it will be a smokey mess.
My only truely successful veggie oil lamp or candle is the floating wick type.
Hmm 😒 I like it, I like a lot! I'm going to give a it a try. With a tin can and something over a tin can where it can get air. Maybe pipe banding in a x pattern then remove that, then put the lid on to extinguish the flames. Bet it would work with your sink drain stove too! Great work!!!
Excellent ideas and thanks for watching!
This is a great idea, I'm also glad I caught the stove stand video as well, because I can see myself knocking this over! I'm clumsy! However, in an emergency, THIS is a great idea!
Thanks so much!
Super idea. Compact , light weight cheap and very efficient as well as practical. I love the idea.
Thanks so much!
Cool! Definately never seen that idea before. Brilliance or madness? Maybe a little of both 🤘
Lol. Probably both!
People with madness only see the world a different way, sometimes worse, sometimes better, sometimes (like Nikola Tesla) in a new way that helps the rest of humanity.
I think 2 more tent pegs would make this a little more handy. You hook the chain and stretch it with 2 then setup your tripod with the first 3
Sounds good. Thanks for watching!
I had never thought about elevation affecting fire, I know there is less oxygen. It's just something I never thought about. Great work as always!
Thanks for watching!
I don't think it affects the fire so much as it does the water (I could be wrong...). I live at 6,000', using a propane camp stove every day the last ten years...water takes longer to boil and it takes more water to cook. Rice cooking, for instance, generally is a 1:2 rice/water ratio for 20 minutes...here at elevation, it's 1:3 and 25 minutes, even more if you toss in some dried vegies and whatnot.
@@blondbowler8776 I appreciate it.
When I went backpacking including days above 10,000 feet elevation, we were told not to use stoves like Jetboil. They work OK at lower (
@@blondbowler8776 with less atmospheric pressure pushing down on the surface of the water, it "appears" to boil sooner, but it might not really be up to temperature. That's probably why longer cook times, and more water needed because evaporation. That's my theory anyway.