Alcohol stoves

[HICKMAN]

Has anyone played with making one of these for their B.O.B. or get home from work bag?

Made with soda can:

YouTube - The Octo Stove

One with a cat can, figure it might work with a tuna can as well.

YouTube - Fancy Feast Cat Food Can Backpacking...

[redneckmedic]

My dad and I experimented with one for back packing. It works but not really well. Took forever to boil a cup of water (the standard measurement) for backpacking stoves. And is very temperamental to wind. The other problem is yo must know how to measure the exact fuel needed. If you lay up short...too bad and if you put too much in....too bad, wasted. No on/off.

[Sailor]

Yeah, I have not been impressed. Simple yes but, my MSR is small and boils like a rocket. But most of the time I just build a small fire and put my favorite high tech soup can next to the fire. Boils in no time.

[cosermann]

I fiddled with a homemade alcohol burner of my own making once. It's a fun little diversion if you want to learn some principles for a time when you might HAVE to do it yourself someday.

In the meantime, it's much simpler to buy a Trangia.

There are advantages and disadvantages to virtually all stove types. The biggest drawback to alcohol stoves is lower heat output. Although this can be mitigated somewhat by a good windscreen.

I like the simplicity of alcohol burners and wide (worldwide) availability of the fuel.

If you're looking at alcohol stoves, you might be interested in this page:

Review: Lightweight Alcohol Stoves

[Cpt Caveman]

Build a few of the coke can stoves and see what works and what doesn't. Then go get some stadium bottles (thick aluminum long neck bottles) and ,make one from those they are a lot tougher , lot less apt to being damaged.

[SWAT-DOC]

Ever try a sterno stove?

[cosmicjetfighterpilot]

Mine works best with HEET as a fuel, but other than a cool thing to have around and the idea of it its worthless. But still cool to keep.

[Deathmedic1]

I was able to build one with the bottoms of two coke cans put together and about 20 small 1/16 Dia. holes punched into the outside of the base of the upper can. Also to ease the task of adding fuel i drilled a .250 Dia. hole in the bottom of the upper can to act as a funnel . It did boil a twelve ounce can of water in about 9 minutes and continued to burn for about 15 more minutes on only about three ounces of denatured alcohol. All in all it is still a great stove for taking caving as it is very simple and if it gets flooded with mud and water it still can be used without a major overhaul.....http://ingunowners.com/forums/images...AR15firing.gif

[IndyBeerman]

Originally Posted by Deathmedic1

I was able to build one with the bottoms of two coke cans put together and about 20 small 1/16 Dia. holes punched into the outside of the base of the upper can. Also to ease the task of adding fuel i drilled a .250 Dia. hole in the bottom of the upper can to act as a funnel . It did boil a twelve ounce can of water in about 9 minutes and continued to burn for about 15 more minutes on only about three ounces of denatured alcohol. All in all it is still a great stove for taking caving as it is very simple and if it gets flooded with mud and water it still can be used without a major overhaul.....http://ingunowners.com/forums/images...AR15firing.gif

First of all, 1/16th sized holes are to big, 1/32nd is best, 16 to 24 holes works good.

3 ounces is way to much denatured alcohol, 1 ounce will burn 5 minutes.

Make sure that you have a cap for the fill hole because it aids in the fuel delivery, fill with 1 ounce and seal the fill hole with small screw.
Windscreen is vital, and it's best to form a foil protector around it, pour denatured alcohol in the foil protector and light it, when the can heats up enough the vapors will ignite and fire up the stove.

I brought 1 quart of water to a boil in a old medium duty pan in just over 4 minutes, tried it later with a light weight aluminum pan and got it down to 3:30.

With a proper windscreen it will blow away a Swedish Tragia, it lightweight and a 12oz plastic bottle will give you plenty of fuel to work with.

If I ever get around to it, I have 2 - 24oz Molson XXX beer cans that I'm going to turn into a stove with a Heineken 5 Liter can modified as a windscreen/potholder.

[Bisley Man]

Originally Posted by SWAT-DOC

Ever try a sterno stove?

Yes, back in the 1980's I had some little folding sterno stove. Worked good to heat prepared foods, heat water for coffee.