I made my first attempt at making a fire piston yesterday. So here's how I did it and the result of my attempt. I drilled out a round piece of ash wood and then sanded the inside with sand paper. Then I found some bamboo that fitted snugly into the hole in the ash,I then made a top from some hikory and glued the bamboo in place. Bamboo as most know is hollow so I had to find a small piece of wood to fit in the end where the bowl for the tinder will go,I cleaned out the end of the bamboo put some wood glue in and inserted the wood,then I drilled out the bowl. I carved around the bamboo for the gasket to fit. For the gasket first I tried jute with Vaseline,didn't work very well at all. Then I tried a rubber O-ring which split. So I got a bicycle puncture repair kit and cut a strip off of one of the rubber patches,I melted this with the rubber solution and moulded it into place,this worked and I had a tight seal and had good suction. I tried it out with char cloth and got an ember,twice I did this but then the gasket wore out. I think I need to re-think what to use for the gasket and Im going to find a nice piece of hard wood for the rod as I think bamboo is to brittle and will eventually it will split. What I also noticed is that if I was not quick to losen the tinder it started to burn out. <!-- / message --><!-- sig --> <!-- / sig --> <!-- controls -->
That's really interesting. Thanks for that. What else can you use for tinder? Does it have to be charred? Can you post a video of it at work? As far as gasket material, I've had some luck using plumber's teflon tape and rolling it into a sort of rope. Then you form it into a circle and place it where needed.
You can use any kind of tinder that will fit into the little bowl. Ill do a youtube when I get it right and it works every time,this was just my first attempt at building a fire piston and it only worked twice before the gasket went.. I dont like the bamboo and will be replacing this with a hard wood. Ill give the teflon tape a try.
You could also epoxy some brass or copper tubing to the inside (perhaps refrigerator line?) for that perfectly tight seal. The rubber 'O' ring would work flawlessly then.