And, lets face it Heckle and Jeckle know a thing or two about sheet-metal pressing and barrel making.
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And, lets face it Heckle and Jeckle know a thing or two about sheet-metal pressing and barrel making.
We had little "petrol" cookers that were supposed to used to make the contents of the famous "Ten Man" ration pack "edible"
Pump them up like an old-time plumber's blowtorch or "pressure lantern" and they got hot REALLY fast.
Then, all of a sudden (ish) they were a problem. EVERYTHING started being run on DIESEL fuel.
You could huff and puff as much as you liked, but those little stoves WOULD NOT work with that stuff.
Next thing, the "fashionable" Digger was sporting a variety of Gucci, camping-store-bought, gas cookers which may just be a bit of a liability on the two-way rifle range.
The good old Hexamine solid-fuel cooker still works fine; even finer if you have friends in low places (Assault Pioneers, Engineers) who have C4 to spare. It burns VERY hot, makes a brew REALLY FAST, but also burns the bottom out of the flimsy, folded tin-plate stoves VERY fast. Was always advised to NEVER douse burning C4 by tipping it on the ground and stamping a big boot on it.
Boiling your billy with C4! :super:
C4 = Brings a new meaning to the term: 'Brewing up'!........;)
Hexamine is, basically, seriously "de-rated" explosive, apparently related to RDX, which may explain its heat-generating capacity.
The early Oz stuff was made at the old Explosives Factory, Maribyrnong. Later production seems to have come from ADI St. Marys.
Amusingly enough, one of my later-serving contacts tells me there was some supplied by the wonderfully-named, "Far Side Marketing" (Gary Larson joke?), in Turvey, Bedford, England, with the actual manufacturer not stated,.
Full name: Hexamethylene Tetramine. U.N. No. 1328.
It is interesting stuff as, when it burns there is NO liquid phase; straight from solid to gas. This makes it "relatively safe" in field use.
I still have a package of Hexi tabs left over from the transition period from Hexi, to flameless heaters. While you can't really make a hot drink with a flameless heater, they do cook a ration meal very fast, and they can build an amusing "bomb" when stuffed into a discarded water bottle and allowed to build bursting pressure. Always a fun time to irritate the Sergeant-Major in the Bivi site with random explosions at all hours.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruce_in_Oz
Last time I used a hexi cooker was on excercise on mount pleasant airfield. The wind was that strong it blew them out so I put it in a sheltered area around the side of 1435 flights building. What I didn't know was that the block work foundation was sealed with tar. The H83 and corned beef hash got hot very quickly. I was never asked to cook again.
The one downside to Hexi Blocks when burning them. Is they make an awful Mess on the base of the cooking vessel! :mad: It's a bugger to get off! :madsmile: