Several times, I've mentioned the fire making cannister I keep in my BOB. I figured I'd show it off.

Problem: My BOB is designed to supliment, expand, and refill my ditch kit. So, I had some options when it came to fire. I've got a small fire kit in BOB with a match safe, a lighter, and a hot spark, along with some esbit tabs and tinder. But I didn't have backup/restore capabilities (BoB is basically a mobile basecamp for me).

Requirements: It has to be utterly robust, at stronger than a Nalgene if possible and completely water proof, but fairly small. It has to be able to refill the two match cases in I carry in the ditch kit, if not more, plus carry tinder, and a spare lighter.

Solution:


The construction is a bit of scrap 2" PVC, a solid cap, and a threaded cap. It was assembled with PVC adhesive, then I added a bead of the same around the seams just to be sure.

During testing, I filled it a quarter of the way with cotton balls and a little bit of koolaid powder, some musket balls, then the rest of the way with more cotton. It then went into a bucket full of water for a week. With the threads taped, the cotton was still dry after a week, and there was no staining. I let it dry, put the lead back in, filled it with water, capped it, and put that and some koolaid powder on top of a peice of paper towel for a week. No leaks- it's good.

Admittedly, it has not undergone significant stress testing. But I'm sure it is at least as strong as a Nalgene.

So, I wrapped a couple of Velcro One Wrap straps around the outside, just becuase it seemed like a good place for them, I'd made it a little longer than it needed to be and had a gap. I packed the "bowl" of the cap with cotton balls- more tinder! Then I started packing it.... origionally, this was just going to have a mini-bic and matches, but over a hundred strike anywheres and a lot of room to go seemed redundant even to me. So, a few went out.


I hope that 70-odd will be enough. They are triple coated with shellac to keep them water resistant. At the top of the image is a little black area- that is a piece of electricans tape, with a striker attached to it, striking surface to the inside wall of the container. There is another mounted opposite this one.

There is a peice of light weight plastic that keeps the matches on their side.

On the other side, I have a mini-bic, along with 8 stay lit candles. I origionally had my concerned about these guys, but after tossing my ditch kit in the car for a trip last summer, and then deciding to leave it in there, and the little candles didn't melt, I'm not too worried about these any more. YMMV- 95% is a serious heat wave here. :P

I also have a dozen short fire straws. I'm too lazy to reshoot the picture- they are hidden under a cotton ball. For those that aren't familiar, they are half a cotton ball with vaseline worked in. Actually, I recycled some Neosporin that was two years past it's due date. It's petroleum jelly as a base, and I can not imagine that an OTC antibiotic will go toxic when it tanks, so if there is nothing else available....

There is a circle of plastic over the top of this because... I'm not sure. Made sense at the time, haven't bothered to take it out. Worst case, it burns. Actually, I know why, I used to have a tea light in here, but I pulled it out after it melted down. Fortunately, I had it wrapped in a bit of pallet wrap against that possibility- the plastic was there just in case the pallet wrap failed.

Then I add a coil of sisal twine over the top of this barrier. The blue thing just above the open cannister is a tiny bit of teflon tape that came with a replacement shower head- it was the perfect size, so I reached for my normal roll of plumber's tape and put this little one in there to retape threads in the field. I also tape my match cases, just to be sure, along with the o-rings.

The square nub of the cap is hollow, so I packed it with more cotton balls.

Plans include adding a ferro rod, and taping a bit of hack saw blade to the partition between match/non-match portions. I'm also thinking about a couple of needles and a shortened spool of dental floss. Since this is the rendendant, back up stash, it makes sense to me to do so.

Problems are that it can be hard to open. I carry this in the same pocket as a pair of channel locks in my BoB, so it isn't a major issue. Without that, a couple of longer, thumb-thick branches for leverage will get it open. And I've got three smaller match cases, two ferro rods, 4 mini-bics, and a sparklite between BoB, the Ditch Kit and my PSK, so if I can't get it open right away, I'm not completely hosed.

Hopefully. *laughs*

That thing is amazing, How much does it weigh?

Not sure. Empty, probably like 3-4 ounces. It isn't a light weight, but what goes in dry stays dry.

Pretty cool, ironraven.

The only size info I saw was for the 2 inch PVC an I'm having trouble visualizing the size from the contents. Please, what are the dimensions?

That… is … cool! Just keep it away from the fire you are building.

Your idea for a "ditch kit" is interesting. Are the contents of your BOB also posted online?

Thanks.

Very elegant. Sort of opens the door to a lot of PVC stash projects, up to a chunk of fake 6" pvc pipe in the cellar for sensitive items. The only issue that occurs is that, following up on JCWohl's comment, you have created a pvc pipe bomb that might raise LEO eyebrows.

Just drill a hole through the square knob on the screw top. The you can find a skinny stick to put in there and use for a lever. Or duct tape a large nail to the side of the container and then pull that off to use as your lever. You could maybe wrap some paracord around the square knob, like on the older lawnmovers where you had to wrap the string around the starting pulley. If you yanked the paracord hard enough it might spin the top off or loosen it somewhat (doubtful, but worth a try).

Don't have exact, but it is about the size of a 14oz wide mouth mini Nalgene but not quite as tall. Approx 2.5" dia x around 6.5" long. I could have shaved off some, and if I make another one, I probably will, even though I'll have to shorten the caps.

Not for a match case you don't. :P

Actually, I experimented with what you are describing. 1, didn't find they helped all that much, it just a leverage and hand strength issue. 2, wasn't sold on the water proofing of the modified cap. Kinda defeats the "waterproof" requirement.