soda can stoves

[Nothing55]

http://www.whiteboxstoves.com/

I think you just can't go wrong with them!!!!

 

[Gadgetaholic]

http://www.whiteboxstoves.com/

I think you just can't go wrong with them!!!!

I can see advantages & disadvantages of those compared to making your own soda can stove.

Soda can stove made yourself:
Very light
Very cheap
You get the satisfaction of creating it yourself

White Box Stove:
made better than most of us can do ourselves
Would stand up to more abuse - thicker heavier aluminium from beer bottles instead of the thinner soda cans.

Those White Box Stoves would still be fairly light and aren't all that expensive and I've already had fun making my own of various designs (super cat, pressurised, similar to white box design). I'm kinda tempted to order one to have a play with.

 

[Zini]

Can't belive nobody mentioned this fellow.

Tinny from Mini Bull Designs. Man makes some damn nice stoves!

http://minibulldesigns.com/

 

[Gadgetaholic]

Can't belive nobody mentioned this fellow.

Tinny from Mini Bull Designs. Man makes some damn nice stoves!

http://minibulldesigns.com/

Some of those look pretty good - the ones with hoses that can keep burning for a long time would be useful for some types of cooking. They look pretty tempting too.

One useful tool I have for alcohol burners is this one: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11868 - it is actually my favourite lighter for pretty much any task.
The design lets you direct the flame down which works well for lighting a SuperCat stove or one like the White Box Stove. Normal Bic lighters aren't nearly as good for that sort of thing.

 

[Gadgetaholic]

One thing I should mention about making your own alcohol burner stoves - you need to spend a bunch of time and will most likely need to make several, improving your design until you are happy with it. The easiest one to make by far is the supercat and it is also easy to use - though you may need to set it up in a sheltered spot or use a wind screen. This thread has inspired me to play with some I have made and to create a new supercat to replace the one that got squashed.

To make a supercat stove:
1. Find a 3oz aluminium can - some cat food cans are aluminium and I have found some aluminium tuna cans too.

2. If tuna - eat contents. If cat food - feed contents to cat.

3. Rinse can.

4. Take single hole punch (mine looks like this: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...-3KDg&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=41&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0 )

5. Make 2 rows of holes near the top of the can.

Well that's about it. If you can't boil 2 cups of water from 1 ounce of alcohol then you need to read up more on the design and try again. From lighting the stove to the water boiling it should take less than 10 minutes. From 1oz of fuel you should be able to watch the water boil for at least a couple of minutes before the fuel runs out.

I can open a can, eat the tuna, rinse the can & make it into a stove in less than 10 minutes total. Despite this I generally prefer my gas stove because I can boil water quicker, turn it up or down and turn if off when I've finished cooking and not waste the remaining fuel. But I have found it fun to build & test various alcohol stoves and they do work. At some point I'll try some bought stoves to see how much better they are than ones I've made - the white box & the Trangia ones and maybe one of Tinny's ones would all be worth playing with.

My testing has involved using a syringe to measure fuel, using a measuring jug to measure water and using a stopwatch to measure time. Apart from the data from those tests I also consider the ease of use and whether I need a separate pot stand or wind screen or priming pan. Then there is the ease of building the stove to consider.

 

[Gadgetaholic]

For those of us in NZ or AUS that don't have Heet available - I go to a hardware store and buy 1 litre of Methylated Spirits - it is what people in the US call denatured alcohol, here it is >95% ethanol.