I started out with this rough example of an MSR XGK. It works well, it was just used a lot!!! The surrounding burner cup was not one of my better examples, so I tore it off the base, well I used a drill to remove the original rivets and then tore it off the base. I then painted it. I also did a heat and quench of the burner tube. Here it is down below... This is the original condition of the stove from one side. If you will notice, the burner cup is out of round and beat up a bit. It's also missing the burner retainer or the flint igniter. (Courtesy: whitetopmtngear) Here's the other side. Not much better. Here it is all straightened out and painted with 1200F high heat stove paint. A little bit darker but looking good again. You'll notice that the rivets are gone and replaced with small nuts and bolts with lock washers and spacers. We'll be able to tear this stove down in the future to really clean it up. I polished up the base. The rivets were replaced by Torx machine screws. Gives it that manufactured look. The paint is not too bad. High heat Rustoleum Stove paint. You have to order it in this color. A look inside the burner cup. The Torx screw is pointed but takes a small nut. Here's a better look at the Torx machine screw head. A new flint igniter. This will help hold the burner tube in place and thus hold the burn in the burner cup, giving the whole stove great stability. The igniter installed. I'm glad they still make these the same after all these years. Here it is all decked out. I also put in some wood burning stove fiberglass rope under the burner to help with priming. Ready for a fire up! Priming the stove even though I'm using Coleman Fuel. Blue flame! More blue... Cherry Red burner bell. That's what I'm talkin' about. I like it! Hey Mikey! Here's my Olicamp pot with built-in windscreen and heat retainer. The interesting thing about this pot is that it helped to boil two liters of water in a respectable 7.5 minutes. Another shot of the burner. sam
Best stove MSR made IMO - once the divining rod pot supports are replaced with the 2 part support as shown above.
Great fettle of a great stove I like the look of the pot windshield,any more pictures of it,is it an old item?,the windshield i mean
Here's the OliCamp pot details. It is made in Korea. Stainless steel pot. Some kind of softer metal for the windshield / heat retainer, maybe sheet metal or alumin(i)um. I would call it a half-Nansen Cooker - without the outer cover (See Scott Expedition Antarctic Cooker ). Not only does the bottom get some heat, but the walls of the pot get plenty of heat as well. It's a great pot and holds 2 liters. sam
Here's what I did Duane. I found some 2.5 inch (64 mm) galvanized pipe in my shop that was smaller in diameter than the burner cup of the MSR XGK stove and put it in a vise. I then took the burner cup with burner removed and used a ball-peen hammer and gently tapped the cup back into round. I had to avoid the ribs where the pot supports go but otherwise, I was able to get most of the cup straightened this way. I used a smaller diameter pipe to reach down further into the cup but didn't have to do too much since the upper part of the cup was the most damaged part. Once the upper was done, there wasn't much to do elsewhere. Here's a pic of my vise, pipe, and hammer. Stove is included for scale. On a side note, I found the vice on Craig's List for pretty cheap. I made sure it was large enough and tough enough to handle most of the jobs I would do. Still haven't mounted it anywhere I like yet, but that will come soon. Now the following image is just a still of what I did to round out the cup. I put the cup over the end of the pipe and carefully tapped on the sides of the cup that makes or would make contact with the pipe. The hammer shows placement of the target area. Light taps until shape is formed to desired roundness. Heavy taps could stretch the metal and make the cup bigger, just have to be careful. What I've found is that the pipe doesn't have to match the size of the cup for this to work but getting a pipe that is close gives you a wider striking area to work with. I also found that by tapping and checking often, you'll see the results of your work as you go. I'm constantly tapping, checking, and rotating the cup around the pipe so that the irregularities come out at near the same time so as to not stress the shape too much. So, on this job I probably rotated the cup upwards of twenty times until it was round. Hope that helps, sam
Hey Sam, that's what I did with the burner shroud too when I got an XGK that was out of shape. Only thing is I used the hard plastic hammer to get it back in shape as it's much more gentle on the soft aluminum. Nice work Ron
Hi Ron, Haven't seen you around much lately. Good to see you posting now and again. Good point on the plastic hammer. Wood would probably work too, ay? Come visit more often! sam
Wood, leather, soft or hard plastic/rubber, it'll all work perfect to re-shape without to much de-forming. I even used a wooden hammer to forge red hot iron sheet! It had to be formed into shape, without getting any thinner. The "anvil" was a slightly hollowed out block of wood. Best regards, Wim
Good morning Sam, That's about what I have had to do with some of my bells on different stoves. Something close would be better than what I've used. Duane
