My first home-made alcohol stove

[hikeeba]

I like stoves. While I don't consider myself a 'stove junkie,' I do own several different stoves. White gas, canisiter, wood-burning, alcohol, Esbit - and all have been commercially manufactured. Over the last 3 years or so, I have been trying to simplify my camping 'loadout.' Alcohol stoves have always intrigued me for their compact size, lack of moving parts, and simple operation. I obtained an Trangia burner, and it worked great. Once I got the hang of the Trangia operation, the little fire started burning inside me to make my own alcohol stove. But which one? There are so many different designs! Pepsi can, cat food can, etc, etc...

After looking at 87 billion different DIY stove designs, I settled on trying one of the simplest: The Super Cat http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html. We have cats, so I have an ample supply of small and regular size cat food cans to work with. I went with the small Fancy Feast can for my first stove. As a 'just in case I screw it up somehow' measure, I only punched one row of holes in the cat food can to equal the 'Simmer Cat' version of the stove, like this:

(Photo from Super Cat Alcohol Stove website)

And just like the data states on the website, my 2 cups of water came to a rolling boil in just under 10 minutes. That is using 1 measured oz of denatured alcohol fuel, in damp, 8:20 pm air with a temp of about 66°. The pot is a Snow Peak Trek 700 titanium pot/mug with lid.

Pics:

I made a little heat shield for the handles out of a piece of a throw-away pot pie tin. While the heat shield did help a little, at the end of the ten minutes, I could only hold onto the handles long enough to remove the pot from the stove and set it down nearby (bare-handed).

When time allows this week, I will add a second row of holes, which, per the Super Cat site, will decrease the boiling time. I will also try doubling up the pie tin heat shield, to see if that helps keep the handles cooler.

Thanks for reading.

 

[shelbysguns]

nice photographing!

 

[Bushman5]

that style of stove was the first one i made too. Simple design, works. Nuff said

 

[cz375hh]

Neat do it yourself project-- thanks for sharing-- my son and I are hooked on the Jet Boil stove which we use exclusively for cooking and boiling our water when in the wilderness--extremely lite weight with the ability to boil water in an amazingly small period of time even at 11,000 ft elevation--the fuel is very compact and lightweight and a can will almost make it the entire week with our heavy use--it's a mix can't remember what it is at the moment---thanks again--Steve

 

[Rockywolf]

Great job! Do you have to prime the stove or just light the alcohol?

 

[BOOMSTICK]

well done! I made one almost the same but mine was made out of an extra cold aluminum beer bottle. bud and budlight comes in them.

 

[BOOMSTICK]

here is one from a mountain dew cold bottle

 

[IUKE12]

I made the optional stove stand for more stability with bigger pots, works great. Nice job on the stoves guys

 

[hikeeba]

Great job! Do you have to prime the stove or just light the alcohol?

Thanks! Take your prepared can stove, pour your desired amount of alcohol into it, and light it. That's all there is to it. It was recommend to let the stove warm up before placing the pot on top. I let this one warm up for a minute. Colder temps effect the efficiency of these sort of stoves, so the warming period may need to be longer.

 

[Nuke_Spook]

How did you make your holes? Are they drilled or some sort of punch?

Thanks,

 

[luckykitty]

I made mine from a deodorant spray can, use the lid of a tin as stand and I just pour the alcohol in, put the pot on it, pour some alcohol in the stand and light that. Works fine.

 

[hikeeba]

How did you make your holes? Are they drilled or some sort of punch?

Thanks,

I used a single hole punch, the type used for making holes in paper.

I had to lean on the hole punch a bit, but the result was nice, clean holes, and no damage to the punch.

 

[Katdaddy]

If you use a smaller diameter can for your stove you will not have as much trouble with the handles heating up. The flames will stay more under the pot than up the sides.

 

[BOOMSTICK]

I drilled the holes in mine on my drill press.

 

[Bushman5]

love the pics guys! almost surreal with the blue flames

 

[Foilist]

I made my Super Cat out of a can of diced, green chiles - it was thicker and slightly taller than a catfood can. My first attempt was a fail because I made the bottom row of holes too low - not enough fuel capacity for a boil.

Stove #2 worked out much better. I just used it the other day. I like to bring it as a back up in case I have a problem with my regular camping stove.

 

[sc2]

My grandpa taught me this 37 years ago, haven't done it since but still remember it. He called it a poor mans stove.

Take a can just like you all did above, except you take cardboard and roll it up in to a roll, the height needs to be a 1/2" or so below the holes.
Then you take old grease out of a pan and pour it over the cardboard to the top of the cardboard, then light the cardboard and wal'la a little candle or stove as needed.
The great thing is when it cools the grease hardens and you could put a plastic lid over it to close it shut and throw it in a backpack.
It should burn for a long time.

I have to give that a try, its been awhile

Steve

 

[forestnomad]

awesome stove! my dad and i experimented with some alcohol stoves a few years ago, we found the best design to be something like this:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Simple-Beverage-Can-Stove

not the exact instructions we used, but pretty close. our stove has a fuel hole in the center, with a screw as a stopper, and we cemented the bottom of the stove to a cut-off tuna fish can to create a priming pan. i'm at school right now, but next time i go home i'll get some pics up.