Alcohol Stove

[IUKE12]

While we're doing alcohol stoves and since the last post was about aluminum bottles, a bit of advice is requested...
I can't find aluminum bottles in my area, but someone was nice enough to send me a couple recently. The aluminum is thicker than a can's.
What's the best way to cut these things? If a electric miter saw would make a clean cut without risk, I'd try it.
Other options are a Dremel with a cutting rotor or a good old fasioned hacksaw.

You can use the miter saw if you use a 60 tooth carbide tip finish blade. The cuts will be clean. That's how I cut all my aluminum cans. Glad you received the bottles I sent you

 

[Mannlicher]

Trangia burner, home made sheet metal wind screen/pot support. Works perfectly.

 

[DerekH]

Stainless steel water bottle works, but for an alcohol stove aluminum would be better. Here is mine (on the right) that I made from a stainless steel water bottle.

Aluminum transfers heat better, so the whole thing heats up quicker, which is what vaporizes the alcohol and causes the jets on the sides.

It does however work, so if you want a stainless one, by all means, go for it. Mine is in my kit, and nests inside my cookset, which nests inside my woodgas stove.

 

[Les Snyder]

second Mannlicher... one step farther open up the fuel fill hole in a Swiss Volcano stove so the Trangia fits inside ... without nested aluminum bottle plenty of room for fuel... $13 for the Trangia and $10 for the Volcano without shipping and you get a durable brass and aluminum kit

 

[Guyon]

You can use the miter saw if you use a 60 tooth carbide tip finish blade. The cuts will be clean. That's how I cut all my aluminum cans. Glad you received the bottles I sent you

I'm glad you showed up. Thanks again for the bottles. I was looking through PMs and I must've gone on a Delete tear and zapped the ones we exchanged.

Did you crimp/fold the edge on that stove in the pic?

 

[Guyon]

second Mannlicher... one step farther open up the fuel fill hole in a Swiss Volcano stove so the Trangia fits inside ... without nested aluminum bottle plenty of room for fuel... $13 for the Trangia and $10 for the Volcano without shipping and you get a durable brass and aluminum kit

I posted up some stuff about this set-up a short while back...

First... a total aside. We had a fire and roasted marshmallows last night. No relation to this stove, but I know Becker folks would approve.

Second, I decided to try out the Swiss Volcano Stove with my Trangia today. Here's the gear.

Doc, I don't think I'll need to install stakes. Today, I just took the simmer lid on the Trangia and planted it in the bottom of the Swiss Volcano. Like so...

The Trangia, half filled with HEET, went on top.

Flame on. You have to be careful with HEET in particular. That stuff burns clear and will be lit sometimes even when you can't see it.

And we were off to the races. The spacer put the top of the stove within about an inch and a half of the cup. Here's some daring macro, upside-down photography of the gap.

I was running my iPhone stopwatch. Within about a minute, I had some steam. Then my iPhone battery died (of course), and I went to our microwave clock. Not as precise, but still a good ballpark. Around the four minute mark, some small bubbles started to appear.

And at around 8 minutes, I had a hard rolling boil going.

Here are the spoils of my labor. Hot chocolate is always welcome in Casa de Guyon. Also, this pic shows the bottom of the cup. In addition to burning clear, HEET burns clean. No clean-up necessary. :thumbup:

A few observations: There's no room to operate the simmer lid in the stove, so it might as well be a spacer. It could, I suppose, still function as a snuffer for the flame, though getting it to land on the Trangia could be tricky and even dangerous. I could (a) take along another snuffer can, perhaps a cat food can like the SuperCat stove uses, or (b) use a fuel bottle in conjunction with this set-up and simply apportion the fuel amount. I'll play with the options and see what works best. I do know this though. The Trangia works great with the Swiss Volcano, and a lid on the cup will better my boil time, which is already pretty good. :thumbup:

 

[Les Snyder]

Guyon... if you open up the hole ...retain a slight lip to keep the stove from sliding out, but with enough clearance to place the stove in from the side, you can place the snuffer on with a PS4 Leatherman

 

[IUKE12]

I'm glad you showed up. Thanks again for the bottles. I was looking through PMs and I must've gone on a Delete tear and zapped the ones we exchanged.

Did you crimp/fold the edge on that stove in the pic?

No crimping. I now use 3 pop rivets with a little high temp silicone.
It takes me about 20 minutes to make a stove start to finish this way. They are plenty strong

 

[dartanyon]

Great! :thumbup:

 

[sadiejane]

have used and carried the trangia, a whitebox stove and the honey stove(and many others, these are the ones i have kept and use often). like em all. much prefer the whitebox style stove over the other soda can designs.
each are different set-ups. and i pick one depending on circumstance(ie. weather conditions, duration of trip, solo or with others). havent seen the whitebox style outta stainless. hhmmmm, might have to find a stainless bottle for that.
tho i like and have used the entire trangia set-up. its a little largish. one great thing about the honey stove. not only can ya burn wood as shown previously, but i comes with an insert that holds the trangia. so more often i carry the honey stove with the trangia. the honey stove is heavier than the trangia stand tho packs considerably smaller.
one thing i really like about the whitebox and similar stoves is you can set your cup or small pot directly on the stove. nothing else needed except the windscreen sometimes.
if you suspend your cooking vessel above the stove the alcohol burns very fast. so with larger vessel above stove, the trangia is much more efficient. the trangia you must have some sorta pot stand to hold pot above stove.
these stoves are sorta like knives, not any one fits every application perfectly. each has pros n cons depending on conditions.
really look forward to updates on your project.

 

[Guyon]

No crimping. I now use 3 pop rivets with a little high temp silicone.
It takes me about 20 minutes to make a stove start to finish this way. They are plenty strong

That's what I was going to do. Looks like the old-school White Boxes.
You found a jet hole size and spacing you like the best?

Not an alcohol stove, but I just got the JetBoil PCS and was blown away by boil times. About 2 minutes in the cold.
I also picked up one of those little tools that allows you to drain the isobutane canister and punch holes in it for recycling. :thumbup:

 

[Paul 883215]

I have seen someone make a cat stove out of a 2" copper cap. It looked pretty cool and I know it would be very tough. I'm just not sure how efficient it would be.


Paul

 

[soapboxpreacher]

I posted up some stuff about this set-up a short while back...

Love the Swiss Volcano Stove setup but the cork was a turn off. I was never sure it would leak or not. The design and use with the Trangia is prefect. I wish they made it in stainless. The weight isnt bad around 13oz and it does work weill. I am gong to add one to my collection (starting to collect more canteen kits). Trangia stove is really awesome and works sooo well! I have been reading about cooking with heet and some have said it is dangerous from a toxic standpoint. Any truth to this?

 

[sadiejane]

iirc methanol is the toxic ingredient in heet. and a very toxic ingredient it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

 

[Guyon]

I wouldn't think there should be worries as long as you're running the stove outdoors and as long as you're not drinking the HEET.
Quite a lot of backpackers use HEET in their stoves.

 

[kingsqueak]

iirc methanol is the toxic ingredient in heet. and a very toxic ingredient it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol

It really isn't that bad...just aren't used to reading MSDS type language I would suppose. CNS depression is exactly what you do when you have a few beers ;-).

Just don't drink it or bathe in it, methanol that is.

Check out the MSDS listings for many other common household agents, you would be surprised.

 

[sadiejane]

It really isn't that bad...just aren't used to reading MSDS type language I would suppose. CNS depression is exactly what you do when you have a few beers ;-).

Just don't drink it or bathe in it, methanol that is.

Check out the MSDS listings for many other common household agents, you would be surprised.

have used alcohol stoves for some time. and of course lots of things we use daily are toxic. nevertheless feel its prudent to have an understanding of what yr working with. some folks store left over alcohol in their tranzia and they can leak-common misperception is that the fumes and everything just magically disappears as it evaporates. had mine leak once and the entire pack smelled of the alcohol long after the trip was over(maybe an oz or less was spilled and the stove was in a plastic bag that obviously also leaked...). recommend not storing left over fuel in the stove. common sense and experience go a long way.

 

[soapboxpreacher]

I wouldn't think there should be worries as long as you're running the stove outdoors and as long as you're not drinking the HEET.
Quite a lot of backpackers use HEET in their stoves.

I wonder can the fumes seep into the water or food you boiling/cooking. Or is it more of a breathing concern? What fuel does Trangia recommend? Since they are the biggest maker of these types I am wondering what they say.

 

[kingsqueak]

Methanol is quite clean burning, don't worry about it. Just don't spill the alcohol into your food (common sense).

Oh and may as well mention this, camp stoves are hot. Don't touch one unless you intend to be burned. Some moron sued JetBoil because they got burned....on a stove.

Do not taunt Hot Camp Stove.

 

[IUKE12]

I like all these stoves guys, keep them coming:thumbup: Guyon, I use a 1/16 drill bit and run 18 holes half inch down from the top edge. I gave one of my stoves to Hollowdweller. He took it hiking/camping and ran it side by side with a White Box Stove. Reported that mine boiled water faster but the run time was not as long. I have never owned a WB stove so I couldn't compare. What I see missing in these posts is the windscreens. What are you guys using...possible pics??