Calais refugees need stoves UK/ Europe

[gareth]

Hi,
This is an appeal to anyone with power tools and a welder who wants to help.

My name is Gareth.  I'm new to this forum, but do make and use rocket stoves on a small scale.http://www.gedwn2it.com/camping-rocket-stoves.html

I offered 1 or 2 that I could spare to Calaid, who are providing equipment and supplies for people stuck in the camps at Calais, and they are desparate for a large number of them. They are also keen for something that could be made over there at little or no cost by the camp dwellers with hand tools. I broke my design down to a simple fabricated L shaped flue and fuel holder which could be easily fitted in a larger insulated container and installed at point of use. They ( Calaid) are after as many of these as possible, so if anyone is up to making as few or as many of these as they can it would make a big difference. I can post a method, cutting list and plan for a jig if anyone wants, but basically a flue of approx 300mm, fuel holder 100mm with air intake and a couple of feet is all that's needed. I've used 115mm tube, but similar box or any tube/ pipe (100-125mm i.d) can be used.

It's fairly urgent and also a practical way to help that goes beyond charity.

[satamax]

Well, to me, Calais refugees need one thing far more than a stove. It's to go to UK, where they want to go. I mean, all europeans take their fair share of refugees. But uk gives us the job to stop them. This is not France's or belgium's business to work for uk, keeping it's borders.

Well; rant off!

[morticcio]

You're skewing the facts Max. The UK hasn't given anyone the job of stopping migrants. It is a national border and France has a responsibility to police it, just as it does with its border with Switzerland. The rest of its borders are with other members of Europe's borderless Schengen Area so do not need to be policed.

This is why migrants can arrive in Italy/Greece and make their way through Europe unhindered. The first proper border, with passport and security checks etc., they encounter is at Calais or other Channel ports. Recent events in Paris clearly demonstrate that a borderless Europe has made it more vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

[satamax]

Well, check the names of Jacques Clément and ravaillac. Borderless europe hasn't made it weaker. There is absolutely no way to stop nutters. Look at the Breivik case, or the shootings which happen every now and then in the states. I forgot about the Rote Armee Fraktion , red brigades, and action directe. And several other groups. In northern ireland too. I realy think the brits should take the migrants who want to go to UK, at least for a while. This is a situation which has been going on for may be ten years now. Nothing stops you to send them back in some ways. As we do in france for some of them. It's a pity, but unless we all team up, and stop governements, lobys and multinationals messing with soo many countries of the third world, we will get attacks, and refugees.

[morticcio]

I agree we should take our fair share of migrants - we are a prosperous country and I believe we have a duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves. The UK is accepting migrants if they come directly from camps in the Middle East/North Africa. They can be vetted and it stops them having to hand over extortionate amounts of money to traffickers to get to Europe in a small inflatable boat.

[morticcio]

Nov 24, 2015 2:36:23 GMT -8 gareth said:

Hi,
I can post a method, cutting list and plan for a jig if anyone wants, but basically a flue of approx 300mm, fuel holder 100mm with air intake and a couple of feet is all that's needed. I've used 115mm tube, but similar box or any tube/ pipe (100-125mm i.d) can be used.

Hi Gareth
Welcome to the forum. Apologies for the hijack of your thread!
Sounds like it is for a very worthwhile cause. I had read about a charity up Leicestershire way doing the same. Posting the method etc. would be very helpful.
Thanks

[dustylfc]

Uk takes in migrants were just unable to cope uk might look like the promise land but it certainly isnt , i could go on but this aint the platform to discuss it personally more resources should be put into helping our pensioners survive this winter you would be shocked at the stats

[windy]

Yes we all have differences of opinion on why the refugees are there in Calais and along the coast of france, and where their next stop should be.

The fact is there are thousands of people about to experience a northern european winter in shit tents, many for the first time (yet some who have already been deported 2 or 3 times and sent back to their home lands), and they need to cook and to keep warm and to stay alive. There is no state support from either the french or british governments. All support is coming from donations and volunteers, mostly british, belgian and dutch hippies.

Thanks Gareth for adding to this humanitarian effort.

Yesterday we made 5 rocket cooking stoves, still pretty experimental and they are going to a camp in Dunkirk (not the first time people have been stuck there fleeing extremist nutters with guns and bombs).



Im finding it hard to load any attachments, so here's a link:

www.windysmithy.co.uk/blog/dunkirk-rocket-stoves


Although i've been making woodburning stoves for some time now, rocket stoves are a new thing for us, and any thoughts regarding this prototype design and any potential improvements would be appreciated. 

There are a lot of very good tin can rocket stoves being made in calais, but i cant see how the vermiculite is going to stay dry . Its a bugger to dry, and useless when wet!
The more the merrier; please contact Auberge des Migrants in Calais for information on how to distribute/ deliver any stoves. This is Urgent, especially as firewood is in short supply.


Cheers, Jon.

[windy]

Brilliant Gareth, sorry i was a bit up my own arse this morning, didnt read your post properly. We would be well up for making some of these, please get in touch, cheers, Jon.

[satamax]

Jon, Dunkerque, since 1662

I think perlite is easier to dry than vermiculite. I don't know how durable you want thoses, but for the innards, you might try roman roof tiles. You might find some on leboncoin. Round Dunkerque, you will find tons of red bricks too. And may be a fair bit of refractory ones. As for insulation, something you can often find in skips in France, is rockwool. If it's contained in a Barrel, it can stand heat rather well.

Hth.

[windy]

brilliant, thanks for the feedback, Jon.

[esbjornaneer]

If these cook stoves are for centralised kitchens in the camps would it not make more sense to erect a tin roof and build the stoves out of clay sand & sawdust to get the insulated sections of the burn tunnel and heat riser. There should be clay in the sub-soil in all these area and some local carpenters that could supply the sawdust, all that would be needed is for someone to spend a couple of days volunteering to do it and/or teaching the local volunteers how to do it. The idea (and the reason I am reading this thread) comes from Donkey see thread donkey32.proboards.com/thread/1301/all-adobe-mud-cookstoves-ovens

[windy]

Sounds great Esbjorn, but conditions on site are less than ideal.

 Very muddy , very difficult access and hard to put tools down for more than a couple of seconds, as a lot of people need tools for just about everything.


My mate Finn has just been there for a week with a team , building shelters for the stoves. they got 3 of the 5 done in a week, and that was really hard work. They sound knackered. 

prefab stoves seem to be the way forward  under the circumstances. Even with the prefab sheds, it has been quite a number.  More help is always needed, and more useful volunteers are always welcome.

[jono]

im going to redesign my institutional cook stove to make it carryable so that i can take it to paris this weekend. see page 4 of my thread 'mass catering' to see what it is. As i will be travelling by train it will be difficult for me to get to the refugee camp, but if anyone working there is also planning to get involved in political action in paris, i'll be the guy with the giant pot of soup, and i would love for my cooker to be taken to the refugee camp after. it can cook a hot meal for over a hundred people using a carrier bag full of twigs.

As for design suggestions (begining to feel like a broken record now) you definitely must look into the Instove (google it), all their designs are freely available online, they are absolutely the best thing for cooking vast amounts of food with very little fuel, and if you get in touch with Instove, they would definately support anyone who wanted to make stoves for refugee's as that is exactly the goal of the organization.

Thank you both for your efforts.

[jono]

Jon, is that Dunkirk your describing? Perhaps the Calais camp is a marginally more practical location for setting up a stove workshop as there is (or was) a man operating as a bicycle mechanic. I don't want to encourage Gareth to write of his plan to set up a stove manufacturing operation in the camp unless absolutely necessary, as empowering people to solve their own problems should be attempted if it is at all possible (which it isn't always, I know).

Gareth, take a look at this construction method. No welders or power tools, the essentials are a hammer, hand axe, pliers, tinsnips, and a hacksaw. And, obviously, this fabrication method is not limited to making that stove, or even stoves. It seems like three things are important, getting the tool set together, securing access to materials (local scrap merchant) and finding a good project partner in the camp (a resident who will take responcibility for managing the project, assuming you don't want to move in to the jungle).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdhLWMW7IXA

What are your plans? I might be able to put some time and a set of tools in next week.