A while back I found a really light titanium bowl, and I intended to use it as an ultralight cooking pot for solo backpacking. But it didn’t come with a lid, and you really need one to cook efficiently. So the project went to the back burner, so to speak, and I used the pot I already had. But today we’re going to finish the build.

A Snow Peak titanium bowl.
The bowl is 1.9 ounces. Ultralight indeed!

Let’s get Started!

I’m going to make the lid out of 36 gauge aluminum sheet. It’s quite thin and light, but considerably thicker and stronger than grocery store aluminum foil. You can cut it with scissors, but don’t use Mama’s good fabric scissors. I used a set of shop shears.

The bowl, a roll of aluminum sheet, and scissors.

We want to mark out a circle about an inch bigger around than the mouth of the pot. I used a clothespin clamped to a Sharpie. That kept the marker the right distance from the edge of the pot.

A clothespin is clamped to the body of a fine-point Sharpie.
The jaws of the clothespin are then held against the side of the bowl. This creates a circle consistently larger than the bowl.
I held the jaws of the clothespin against the side of the bowl. The big round thing sitting on top of the bowl is just there for weight. My other hand was busy holding the phone so the weight keeps the bowl from moving.

Then I cut it out. Again, don’t use your wife’s good scissors. A utility knife would probably work if you don’t have shop scissors.

Cutting out the blank for the ultralight lid.

Forming the Edge

Now we have a flimsy circle of metal with sharp edges. To fix that, we’re going to roll the edges a couple times. This will protect us from the sharp edges, and add a lot of stiffness to the structure.

I started by laying the circle on the edge of the workbench. I placed the pot over the edge, face down, with about 1/8″ (3mm) of the foil protruding past the edge of the pot. Then I bent the aluminum up with my fingers against the edge of the pot.

Bending the edge

I worked my way around the entire perimeter. Note that the pot is not centered in the circle while forming the edge. The circle is still oversized (so we have material to fold).

Highlighting that the bowl is not centered on the blank.

When done, it should look like this.

First fold complete

Now we smash it all flat with a dead blow hammer.

Hammering down the edge

Then we do the whole thing again, to make a second fold.

Bending the second fold.
Hammering the second fold

We finish the edge with a gentle bend, so that the lid stays on the pot.

Final bend

A Handle

Now we just need a handle for the lid. I cut out a rectangle of scrap a few inches long and perhaps an inch wide. A few folds created a nice little tab.

Handle

Then I cut a patch of aluminum tape to attach the tab to the lid. I talked about aluminum tape here.

Handle taped on. Shown in the upright position.

The tab folds down for easy transport.

Handle folded flat for transport

An Ultralight Lid

The total weight of pot and lid is 2.2 ounces. So the lid is 0.3 ounces. I’m thrilled with that. My old pot weighed 8.4 ounces, so this was a big savings.

The total weight is 2.2 ounces, so the lid is 0.3. That's definitely an ultralight lid.