Machined Silent Burner Mini Cap for Optimus Stoves

Hello Gents!

I've come across a lot of info on this site about cap building so I decided to give it a go. I started with bar stock in order to achieve the design I wanted for the outer cap. I designed the cap to have a cone in the center in order to facilitate in the flow of the fuel mixture. I machined them on the lathe and then brought it over to a mill to do the hole pattern. I made an array of holes on the bottom of the inner cap to lighten the cap and require less time/fuel for preheating.

After the parts were made, I silver brazed them together and then buffed them up. The caps seem to run really well and I get a nice low simmer. But I do have a bit of a yellow hue that is likely caused by the alloy of brass that I used. This might go away in time, I just need to run it a little bit more. I made a handful of them and I was considering selling a few on eBay to cover the cost of the material if there was an interest. I believe they will work for the SVEA 123, Optimus 99, 8R, 80, and a few others I'm sure.

This is just a brief summary for a project that took me many weeks. It was a huge learning curve and I grew so much from this project. I'm open to any questions that you guys have and I'd love to help anyone interested in making their own!

Joe McD

 

very cool. I admire your skill- Ivan

 

Excellent work, well made!

Alec.

 

Wow!!! So cool!!!

I Want One!!!

How much, and will you ship to New Zealand?

Best regards,

Mike.

 

That's not stove parts, that's jewelry!

 

oh boy, Buzz Kill alert.
Joe, fellow stovie and member since 2014... haven't exactly been the talkative type (quietly hatched a plan?) i personally don't have a problem w/that but it's not my site. I wish I could just say cool etc etc etc
that is cool and you obviously have a shared interest w/members
BUT the buzz kill is this is a scenario recently discussed
(as member you can read that link) seems to me you want to subscribe for one and in this post.... we, me, and all of us we're a bunch of rule breakers, shame on me.
Anyway, I expect this post will be moved or deleted BUT
Joe
if you subscribe and get a chance for do-over I sure would like to correspond with you again (however CCS might allow that) ...or not.
It's a great site but if your only purpose is to sell kit
I suppose we can all agree, that's what makes these scenarios a little different.
i hope to catch up with you later, til then good luck omc
PS edit OH... "as a post" the post, excellent 1st post, nice content, nice images, beautiful flame shots.... yep he's a stovie, nicely done. me personally my vote is we somehow see more.
thx omc

 

OMC - I'm comfortable with this post so far. Interesting to see the passion out there for these silent caps & the offer to help other members make their own has got to be appreciated.

@joemcdonough89 - Nice one!

 

Thanks for all of your support and compliments guys, it's really great to see that they're appreciated. I had previously only seen one other example of a machined version of these caps, and not a lot of detail was given. I figured it would be beneficial for the community to see the "innards" of one! Does anyone have any questions or suggestions? I'm going to try and make some videos when I can find the time for it

 

I have no problem at all with this thread, at the moment.
I believe in 'innocent until proven guilty' and I will take Joe at his word.
He has studied CCS and has experimented making his own silent burner caps.
He has not offered his caps for sale and would like discussion about his efforts so far, and that is exactly as it should be.
The slightly yellow edge to his flames may be because of the material he has used, but it might also be be because of the design.
I am sure that CCS members will offer their advice.
Subscription to CCS is always welcomed but not necessary.

I must admit that the cap so far looks very good and I would like more details about its specification and the choices made in its design.

Ha! Ross has posted as I have been typing this post!
He seems to be of the same opinion as me.

When Joe has finalised his design I am sure that some members would want him to offer them for sale - but the outcome is up to Joe.

 

me neither fwiw but not my site
well well well, AWESOME
thanks Ross

Joe
forget all that
welcome!!! and sign me up
sincerely omc

 

Some of us are fortunate to have some of the old originals from Primus etc but for more modern silencers checkout some of the older posts from Berniedawg & on Youtube. He used to make caps by hand to a very high standard & shared his methods here. He now makes them available in 3D printed format at virtually cost price.

 

proud owner of several berniedawg caps, haven't been about for a while, so i'm not up to date on new cap design, so i'll ask the obvious, what's with the holes under the burner, prevent underburn? more air in the mix? or are you a weight weenie?
i would search the forum for an answer but someone's nicked the search button they'll steal anything these days

 

I am not a machinist, but both of my grandfathers worked in the tool room, and my brother worked on the shop floor. I have MASSIVE respect for how much time and effort that a project of this nature takes, and I'm grateful that Joe shared it with us.

 

Haha you take care of the grams and the pounds take care of themselves! The holes on the bottom side are blind holes (they dont go all the way through into the cap) and are intended to not only lighten the weight of the cap but reduce the thermal mass. The less mass there is, the less material that needs to be heated up in priming to get it to operating temperature. So the less fuel needed in priming means less time waiting and more time quietly brewing your morning coffee

 

Joe has been thinking this over, and apparently ain't no dummy. What brass alloy did you use? Hope not 360.

 

Hi Joe
cheers for the reply, if they work as well as the berniedawg caps then i raise my hat,
they certainly look the dogs nutz and the flame shots are impressive, I'm not a potential buyer just an interested old stovie,
i really rate the primus 96 caps he made, have a few others but the 96 cap is king of the pile

 

Awesome.

 

Bravo! Well done!


Sam

 

Hi, check out this post:

https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/silent-cap-homebuild-for-96.11089/

And this one:

https://classiccampstoves.com/threads/no-96-silent-damper-scottish-trials.11595/#post-110750

If you do a search using the Site Search function using terms such as Gary's Silent Caps, you should find many posts on trials of his hand made silent burner caps on lots of different stoves.

https://classiccampstoves.com/search/272686/?q=Gary's+silent+damper&o=relevance&c[node]=286

Best Regards,
Kerophile.

 

Very nice job!

About a month ago I saw that Gary Adams posted a machined cap in his YouTube channel.
I remember that it was different from the handmade ones he made before entiring the 3D-printing arena, so I went back today to watch it again.
It's your parts he has there, right? Those blind holes and the more perfectly aligned holes in the outer cap looks like yours.