Hey all you stove builders out there.
While doing a bit of research on 12 oz aluminum cans for a recycling study, I noted a feature that may be of some (small) value to the stove building community. While weighing a bunch of aluminum cans to find how many to a pound, I noticed that the un-carbonated beverages like Hansen’s or V8 etc were 25% heavier. I assume that the carbonated drinks don’t need the walls as thick because the pressurization will help keep the can from buckling prior to use. (I will attempt to get the wall thickness measured to verify). It occurred to me that building one of the ‘soda-can-stoves’ using a V8 can would make a stove that is more robust. Probably not much of an issue, but for a gram or so, the stove survivability would be improved against accidental crunchage. Weights were as follows: Coke/Pepsi/Budweiser/Miller products ~14.5 gm/can, Sunkist Orange drink ~ 16.3 gm/can, Hansen’s/V8 ~18.2 gm/can. doodah-man

interesting...

~~~I assume that the carbonated drinks don’t need the walls as thick because the pressurization will help keep the can from buckling prior to use. ~~~

That sounds very plausible to me. Interesting observation. Keep us posted.

While thicker cans may yield a more robust stove, I've never had a problem with the durability of stoves built from pressurized cans. But the next time I build a stove, I may try a V8 can. What can it hurt?

I did some follow up on the aluminum can options for use in making alcohol stoves. I took several samples from the sidewall of various standard size aluminum 12 ounce beverage cans (4.8” high by 2.6” diameter). I measured the wall thickness and found some interesting stuff. First the V8 can had extremely uniform wall thickness of 0.0045” +/- 0.0002” but coke & pepsi products had very large variations even within a single can 0.0043” +/- 0.0008”. But the ratio of average thickness did not prove out the original 25% difference in can weight I mentioned in my original post. When opening the cans, I noticed that the non-carbonated beverages left more residue, so I decided to re-weigh the cans, but first, I did a thorough soap & hot water washing of the cans to remove all dried out left over contents. I am a bit embarrassed, but it turns out that residue inside the cans was not negligible. The clean/dry weights were as follows: coke/pepsi cans ~14.0 grams +/- 0.2 grams, and V8 cans ~14.6 grams +/- 0.15 grams. So the difference in can weight was not as significant as I originally measured. (In my defense, the original study was on how many cans make a pound for a recycling count and folks do not wash the cans prior to recycling, so the ‘dirty’ weight is appropriate on that issue). But, besides the slightly thicker walls, V8 cans would be superior due to the uniform wall thickness and not having local weak thin spots. All in all, probably does not make much difference but when making your own 'pepsi-stove' if you have a choice, use a V8 can (or Hansen’s). doodah-man

what do you mean 'hey all YOU stovebuilders'? you show all the traits of a first class stove geek like the rest of us... :D

even if you're not a stovie, you soon will be... you made the first mistake of wondering anything about a can.

seriously, thanks for the analysis... there's just something satisfying about being able to know even more about the technical aspects of the cans... something to bore our fellow campers with, huh?

(god, are we geeks or what!?)

Hey all you stove builders out there.

Search for ASA (Alcohol Stoves Anonymous) at this, and other forums.
You'll soon need the support group! :D