Yup, that's the "supercat" stove; a cat food or similar sized can with two rows of holes. I like it's simplicity and the fact that all you really need to make one is a can and something pointy (although a drill is neater). I made two. My first one worked great, but I put the holes too low and it didn't hold enough fuel - it ran dry just before boiling. My second one was with a slightly taller can (for jalepenos or something), and holds plenty for bringing a small pot to a boil in still air.
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Pop Top Alcohol Stove Help!
- Thread starter screwthe49ers
- Start date
Yup, that's the "supercat" stove; a cat food or similar sized can with two rows of holes. I like it's simplicity and the fact that all you really need to make one is a can and something pointy (although a drill is neater). I made two. My first one worked great, but I put the holes too low and it didn't hold enough fuel - it ran dry just before boiling. My second one was with a slightly taller can (for jalepenos or something), and holds plenty for bringing a small pot to a boil in still air.
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- Nov 5, 2004
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www.minibulldesigns.com is a great resource and fun little stove community...if you look at his archives you can see tinny and his evolution through differnt styles of stoves
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- Nov 5, 2004
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also be sure to keep your "heet" (yellow bottle with the blue writing) fresh and dont let it get stale or let water/moisture get into it.
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- Nov 25, 2005
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Heet is a gas line anti-freeze and moisture remover, so moisture shouldn't be much of a problem, at least not in my experience. I do add a drop or two of food coloring to my Heet fuel. This insures that it is not confused with any other fluid such as water. This is a precaution I employ since I have a few bottles around the work shop at all times and I don't want anyone to accidentally quench their thirst
Also, colored fuel allows you to see the fill level in the stove a bit easier. I make my own version of the White Box Stove, no pot stand required. These are made with the aluminum bottles and they boil 16 oz of water in about 4.5 minutes, rain or shine, cold or hot weather. You do need a wind screen however. To the OP, You really shouldn't have to go any bigger than 1/8 inch on the jet holes, any bigger than that and you are just wasting fuel, also, you should go with a side burner design if you want to set your pot directly on the stove. Play around with the design and tweek it to perfection. Doesn't cost a whole lot in the end
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Heet is a gas line anti-freeze and moisture remover, so moisture shouldn't be much of a problem, at least not in my experience. I do add a drop or two of food coloring to my Heet fuel. This insures that it is not confused with any other fluid such as water. This is a precaution I employ since I have a few bottles around the work shop at all times and I don't want anyone to accidentally quench their thirst
I like your stove a lot! Do you have any more pics of it or any instructions and/or materials list?
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They are pretty easy. You need one of those beer energy drink aluminum bottles with the thicker than normal walls, rivets, and maybe a sealant.
-Drink the beer, but not so much that you can't cut straight.
-Cut the top off the bottle (see above pic for a general idea of how much to cut) and cut off the area on the neck where the cap was.
-Cut the bottom of the bottle off where if you invert the top portion you just cut off and set it inside, the cut edges of the top and bottom portions will be flush.
-Cut two small notches on the neck area of the top portion. These are for the fuel to pass into the inner wall and vaporize, so you do not need them very big, maybe 1/8" tall and 1/4" wide.
-Poke holes in the bottom portion of the can. You can use a tiny drill bit or a large sewing needle. I use a needle attached to an aluminum rod with a hose clamp and find it works well since you can smack it if you can't just push the needle through the aluminum. Again, use the above pics as a guide where to put the holes and how to space them.
-Rivet the two parts together, with the top part of the bottle inverted into the bottom part (neck part touching the bottom of the bottle). You may need to seal it, depending on how clean your cuts are. I have seen ones that are just press fits, I personally am not that neat and use JB Weld to seal it off. Air gaps around the rim will be a big problem, so make sure it seals tight.
That's it! Fill up it up denatured alcohol (methanol) and light it up. At first, the flame will be in the center area, but as the fuel heats up and vaporizes in the inner wall, it will stop coming out of the center area and will instead come out the holes. The nice part about this design is that you do not need a pot stand, but a windscreen is very helpful, as is a piece of metal to put underneath the stove since the stove will get VERY hot. Speaking of that, don't touch the stove until you have given it a long time to cool down. You should be able to boil 2-3 cups of water with one of these in almost any conditions with no problem.
I'm sure someone out there has made a better set of instructions with pics...
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- Nov 25, 2005
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Stori did a good job with the basic construction steps. I just went by pictures of a White Box Stove to make mine with a little tweeking before I found the magic stove
Measure up 2 inches from the bottom of the bottle and make your cut there. Your jet holes (I use a 1/16 drill bit) will be 1/2-5/8 inch down from the top edge of the cut you just made. I have made 18-19-20 hole versions and found 19 to be the best for me. From the top of the bottle, measure down the neck and cut at 1-1/8 inch. Now just invert the top portion into or along side the bottom to get you last cut line. I use a thin bead of sealant and 3 pop rivets evenly spaced to lock everything together. You can do all this with basic tools, don't expect perfection from your first stove
If I can offer another tip, use a primer pan, fill the stove with about 1 to 2 onces of fuel, splash some fuel on the primer pan, set your pot on the stove and then light the primer pan fuel. The stove will blossom pretty quickly and you will have lost none of your cooking fuel to the pre heat stage. Good luck.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2008
- Messages
- 343
They are pretty easy. You need one of those beer energy drink aluminum bottles with the thicker than normal walls, rivets, and maybe a sealant.
-Drink the beer, but not so much that you can't cut straight.
-Cut the top off the bottle (see above pic for a general idea of how much to cut) and cut off the area on the neck where the cap was.
-Cut the bottom of the bottle off where if you invert the top portion you just cut off and set it inside, the cut edges of the top and bottom portions will be flush.
-Cut two small notches on the neck area of the top portion. These are for the fuel to pass into the inner wall and vaporize, so you do not need them very big, maybe 1/8" tall and 1/4" wide.
-Poke holes in the bottom portion of the can. You can use a tiny drill bit or a large sewing needle. I use a needle attached to an aluminum rod with a hose clamp and find it works well since you can smack it if you can't just push the needle through the aluminum. Again, use the above pics as a guide where to put the holes and how to space them.
-Rivet the two parts together, with the top part of the bottle inverted into the bottom part (neck part touching the bottom of the bottle). You may need to seal it, depending on how clean your cuts are. I have seen ones that are just press fits, I personally am not that neat and use JB Weld to seal it off. Air gaps around the rim will be a big problem, so make sure it seals tight.
That's it! Fill up it up denatured alcohol (methanol) and light it up. At first, the flame will be in the center area, but as the fuel heats up and vaporizes in the inner wall, it will stop coming out of the center area and will instead come out the holes. The nice part about this design is that you do not need a pot stand, but a windscreen is very helpful, as is a piece of metal to put underneath the stove since the stove will get VERY hot. Speaking of that, don't touch the stove until you have given it a long time to cool down. You should be able to boil 2-3 cups of water with one of these in almost any conditions with no problem.
I'm sure someone out there has made a better set of instructions with pics...
Thanks, I'm going to give this a try after I make a couple outta energy drink cans. I'm thinking of putting a recycling container at work to collect cans as we have a drink machine that stocks red bull and monster energy drink.