Been developing this alcohol stove for about four years now. Have built hundreds of stoves with all kinds of crazy modfications. Finally got it as far as I can take it.

Very easy to make, very easy to use, works great (IMHO).

Check it out at http://home.alltel.net/rjprince/FireLightStove.html :banana
(just edited to correct the link above)


Let me know what you think.

looksgoodwill have to try to make it tommorow

Finally added pictures of the stove in low light. Took these a few weeks ago on a quick trip to Yosemite and Sequoia NPs.

It has been said that "No alcohol stove does well in cold weather." I beg to differ! Have cooked with the firelight in temps as low as 16 degrees F (-8.8 C) and the stove did VERY well.

Notice that the burner is sitting in the snow. Notice that it is melting its way down into the snow in some of the pics. Notice that the windscreen support is melting down into the snow. This was to make a point. Obviously, even if you are in very cold conditions, you should try not set the burner and the windscreen directly on the snow!

Think these are a hoax? That's why I put the scenery pics in there! That's me standing in front of "the General". That's me standing at the top of the Upper Yosemite Falls! OK, just kidding. That is not me at the top of the falls. There is no one at the top of the falls in that picture. Did not have 8 hours for the climb up and back down in the snow. I told you it was a quick trip!

Better yet, build one; get a bowl full of crushed ice; set the stove in the bowl in the ice; light the stove (fuel must be warm); watch it melt the ice. Pretty cool! Try it! You'll like it!

Pics of the stove alone, burning inside my home, in low light conditions at the bottom of the page.

Here's the link - http://home.alltel.net/rjprince/FireLightStovePics.html

Sorry, just noticed that the link was not right in my intial post. This one should bel clickable...

http://home.alltel.net/rjprince/FireLightStove.html

Yep. That's better. Why can't we edit our posts?

Yep. That's better. Why can't we edit our posts?

You may...for a small donation (http://www.whiteblaze.net/index.php?page=atdatabase).

Nice workmanship, BTW.

Skids,

Thanks MUCH! I feel special now!

Ray

<quote> Plastic tent stakes will not work well for obvious reasons. (If these reasons are not obvious to you, please accept my STRONG warning that this stove is not for you!)


ROFLMAO you must have done tech support at some point

Still doing it! I always resist the urge to say, "Oh, that is a very common computer problem, it's an ID Ten T error!" It looks different if you write Ten as "10". I like to laugh. A LOT. Often at myself. Most people take themselves way too seriously. Most people take life way too seriously!

Always glad to know I have made someone smile! Thanks!

Been developing this alcohol stove for about four years now. Have built hundreds of stoves with all kinds of crazy modfications. Finally got it as far as I can take it.

Nice stove!!!!


Can you show us some of your other creations that you came up with while building hundreds of stoves. I kinda get into crazy modifications:)

Use Everclear for fuel it doesn't poison your food if you spill it; and if you take enough there a little extra for a nip or two!!

I tend the favor the YACC stove so your stove is interesing to me as well. How is this different from the YACC stove? Why did you decide to use a separate pot stand?

I've recently found that the YACC stove primes faster if I cut the intire top fo the can off instead of just making a hole in the top. It works better with a can pot when it primes faster. YACC stoves like to go out when a can pot is placed on them but cutting the top off the can seems to solve this problem.




Finally added pictures of the stove in low light. Took these a few weeks ago on a quick trip to Yosemite and Sequoia NPs.

It has been said that "No alcohol stove does well in cold weather." I beg to differ! Have cooked with the firelight in temps as low as 16 degrees F (-8.8 C) and the stove did VERY well.

Notice that the burner is sitting in the snow. Notice that it is melting its way down into the snow in some of the pics. Notice that the windscreen support is melting down into the snow. This was to make a point. Obviously, even if you are in very cold conditions, you should try not set the burner and the windscreen directly on the snow!

Think these are a hoax? That's why I put the scenery pics in there! That's me standing in front of "the General". That's me standing at the top of the Upper Yosemite Falls! OK, just kidding. That is not me at the top of the falls. There is no one at the top of the falls in that picture. Did not have 8 hours for the climb up and back down in the snow. I told you it was a quick trip!

Better yet, build one; get a bowl full of crushed ice; set the stove in the bowl in the ice; light the stove (fuel must be warm); watch it melt the ice. Pretty cool! Try it! You'll like it!

Pics of the stove alone, burning inside my home, in low light conditions at the bottom of the page.

Here's the link - http://home.alltel.net/rjprince/FireLightStovePics.html

Did short; did tall; did little V-8 juice cans; did open can designs with OI Pink Panther insulation and wire screen; did a few with KIWI shoe polish cans; mentioned the Altoid Lemon Sours can on the thread; did some with fewer and bigger jets/port; did some with many smaller jets; put the just just about all over the can; tried variety of distances between can and pot; my first pot stand was aluminum flashing with many holes fitted tightly around the stove (may still have one of those, worked great till the wind blew, made it hot enough to melt the stand); pounded the center down to allow the short ones to hold more fuel; cut the slits in the insert wider and more narrow (from 1/4 inch to about 3/4 inch); used fiberglass and other materials as filler inside the cavities of the burners; tried burning diesel, camp fuel, super unleaded gas, kerosene, naptha, paint thinner, etc. (melted a few into blackened clumps of metal, OK, I am a bit of pyromaniac, it helps me burn of steam! Pun intended, DO NOT RECOMMEND THESE FUELS!!! THEY DID NOT WORK WELL!!! Never could find any Rocket Fuel, diesel and kerosene are fairly close to Jet Fuel); tried my final design with the lid not cut out, partially cut out, and with holes at different locations; tried a great variety of things to try to get a simmer, never was satisfied with any of them; initially used the bottoms of two cans instead of top and bottom of one; initially crimped the insert instead of slitting it, worked as well, but more work, and did not look as cool!; for the windscreen I used several styles of aluminum gutter guard, aluminum siding, diferent sizes of hardware wire, galvanized steel, stove pipe, dryer vent pipe, and some other things from my garage that I am sure I have forgotten; used small nuts and bolts, pop-rivets, small paperclips, large paper clips, steel wire, different sizes of aluminum wire, steet tent stakes, aluminim tent stakes, titanium tent stakes (never tried plastic tent stakes, see above); I am sure I have forgotten well over half of the stuff I tried, if after a couple of minor modifications it did not better, it got trashed.

Will look around later to see what I still have on hand. If I had saved all the burners I made it would probably fill up a 55 gallon trash drum. I filled up my tall kitchen can several times with the rejects. I probably have some of the ones with the tight hole punched alumimum I initially used as a pot stand.

Oh, BTW, make sure that you get aluminum flashing that is NOT coated with anti-oxident coating. You can use that, but it turns real ugly when the stuff burns. For a while I used my orbital sander to remove the coating, gave the aluminun a really nice burnished finish, but a whole lot of trouble. Guess what!? If you look hard enough you can find the aluminum flashing that is just plain aluminum. They both look just alike, but if you take the tip of your knife and scrape them a bit, one will flake off clear plastic like powder and one will scrape off only aluminum...

We do not have an excessively large home so my wife did not let me keep all the failures. Not that I wanted to, who needs to be reminded! I am sure that I do have a few of my early prototypes around cause I thot I had it! I made a couple dozen of them just alike, all ready to pass out to my friends, then I used it in high wind. A low wind makes it burn hotter. Just like blowing on a fire, hey wait, it is blowing on a fire...

Will see what I can find and post. Hopefully by tomorrow evening...

Ray

I tend the favor the YACC stove so your stove is interesing to me as well. How is this different from the YACC stove? Why did you decide to use a separate pot stand?


Mine used a deeper outer section and locks the inner one in by crimping in 8 places (holds more fuel if you are cooking a larger amount). Mine insert is slit all the way to the taper and slightly beyond (mostly eliminates burping).

I never could get decent boil times using the burner as a stand, and you need a windscreen anyway, at least most of the time. I tried all kinds of modifications to make it work as a pot stand, just never was satisfied.

When I first saw the YACC, I thought he had copied mine! He is in NC and I had a couple of these on display at the Neel's Gap Outfitter in the winter of 2003-2004 and had passed out dozens to friends and people I met on the trail while doing some GA and NC section hikes. Ray assured me that he had not seen mine, but had come up with his design independently. I fully believe him. I am not so naive as to believe that I have somehow cornered the market on making a better stove...

Hey, maybe someone else can take my ideas farther than I did. Isn't that what "make your own gear" is all about?

Ray

YACC stoves like to go out when a can pot is placed on them but cutting the top off the can seems to solve this problem.

Also, if you use a hole punch (or even a file) to make half-moon cuts into the rim of the lid, it will allow the stove to breathe better. You can also use the notches in the lid to lay TI tent stakes across to give even a little more room for the stove to breath. This modification helped mine to burn better, but I still found that about a 1 inch distance between the burner and the pot gives much better boil time.

Mine used a deeper outer section and locks the inner one in by crimping in 8 places (holds more fuel if you are cooking a larger amount). Mine insert is slit all the way to the taper and slightly beyond (mostly eliminates burping).

I never could get decent boil times using the burner as a stand, and you need a windscreen anyway, at least most of the time. I tried all kinds of modifications to make it work as a pot stand, just never was satisfied.
Ray

I more interested in simmering so slower burn times are ok with me. I made a YACC stove out of a large bear can "Icehouse" so it has extra capacity, I'm going to test it out car camping at the end of next month.

I'm flying to LA and then camping for 4 days in Socal and then going to a motel near Disneyland for the next 4 days.


Icehouse cans have a small top even on the large cans so they work with can pots. But what first attracted me to the ice house cans is that the shoulder is bigger/taller on icehouse cans so there is less smothering of the flame when you put a can pot on a YACC stove made with one.

I've been cooking regular rice by using a can pot with a YACC stove for the first ten minutes and then using an Ion stove with a very small center hole for the next 5-10 minutes. Results have been excellent. Regular rice is cheaper then minute rice and you can fit more or if (calorie wise) in a food sack or bear can.

I'm sensitive to MSG so I try to avoid the pre-packages stuff like lipton and ramens..

Hey Ray, this is a great post. many thanks for sharing your knowledge we us lesser mortals.

General,

We are all but lesser mortals, in the big scheme of things. Helping one another should be what we work to do best...

RJP

Using a YACC stove and an Ion stove I can cook rice. I start with the YACC stove with two tablespoons of fuel, 2/3 cup of dry rice 2 1/3 cup of water. I use so much water because some of it boils off.


It comes to a full boil in 9 minutes and continues to boil for 3-4 minutes


After the fuel has run out I put 1 teaspoon of fuel in a specially made ion stove. The center hole is smaller then normal and that makes this stove burn very slowly. If I poured the rice and water into a bowl with a cozy I think it would continue cooking until it was done without the use of the second stove.


18 minutes later rice is fully cooked and the fuel is used up. This is faster then the 20 minute method I use at home. I think I could do with with just one stove by tightening the windscreen to cut off air to the boiling stove. Cutting of the air should slow it down to a simmer.


Rice has been transferred to a nice bowl and is ready for butter buds and Parmesan cheese. A bit of dehydrated hamburger and mushrooms or veggies could be added to the rice as it boils to make a nice meal.
file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/shawnie/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-4.jpg
Pictures here : file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/shawnie/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-5.jpghttp://mosswalks.blogspot.com/ file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/shawnie/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-3.jpg

http://mosswalks.blogspot.com/ for the pictures..

Pest,

Looks good, but you have to carry two burners? I cook rice with mine using my MSR Titan Teakettle. I bring the water to a boil (5 min); add the rice; let it cook for another minute or two; remove from heat and wrap the pot with a towel, sweatshirt, or whatever I have to use as an insulator (gotta make a pot cozy some day). In about 20 minutes, it is ready!

If the rice is not done all the way through (in real cold weather), I flip the burner (same one) over and add some den. alcohol and water (lowers the burn temp of the alcohol to get a simmer); simmer a while and check again. This is not a perfect simmer, ,but works well for me. Using the burner in the inverted postion and adding the fuel to the "cup" at the bottom (now on top) of the can keeps the alcohol from burning as hot as it does in the normal burner position.

If using water to further lower the burn temperature, there will always be some water left that does not burn off with the alcohol. The alcohol will still light with about a 60A/40W mix. No, I do not measure precisely except when testing. Experiment with it some and feed some more geocachers!

Ray

I just made one nice Design !! Realy easy to make!!

I just made one nice Design !! Realy easy to make!!

Great! Did you make the windscreen, too? What kind of boil times are you getting?

imade my own custome windscreen: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=23136
I have to measure the boil times soon

Thats a different idea - hope it works for you.

Pest,

Looks good, but you have to carry two burners? I cook rice with mine using my MSR Titan Teakettle. I bring the water to a boil (5 min); add the rice; let it cook for another minute or two; remove from heat and wrap the pot with a towel, sweatshirt, or whatever I have to use as an insulator (gotta make a pot cozy some day). In about 20 minutes, it is ready!

If the rice is not done all the way through (in real cold weather), I flip the burner (same one) over and add some den. alcohol and water (lowers the burn temp of the alcohol to get a simmer); simmer a while and check again. This is not a perfect simmer, ,but works well for me. Using the burner in the inverted postion and adding the fuel to the "cup" at the bottom (now on top) of the can keeps the alcohol from burning as hot as it does in the normal burner position.

If using water to further lower the burn temperature, there will always be some water left that does not burn off with the alcohol. The alcohol will still light with about a 60A/40W mix. No, I do not measure precisely except when testing. Experiment with it some and feed some more geocachers!

Ray


No I don't need to carry two burners.

I tend the favor the YACC stove so your stove is interesing to me as well. How is this different from the YACC stove? Why did you decide to use a separate pot stand?

I've recently found that the YACC stove primes faster if I cut the intire top fo the can off instead of just making a hole in the top. It works better with a can pot when it primes faster. YACC stoves like to go out when a can pot is placed on them but cutting the top off the can seems to solve this problem.

After seeing the YACC about a month ago, I made several of them. Was not as satisfied with their performance, as noted in my post on 3/27/07. Been thinking some more about other ways to modify to use the burner as a pot stand as well. Had tried numerous modifications to my design without being fully satisfied. Today I built what was closer to a YACC than to my FireLightStove. It is essential a tall YACC with a deeper bottom section and the slits all the way to where the can starts to taper in to the lid. I do cut out the whole top just as in my design. The boil times were almost as good as with the FireLightStove. The difference in height between the bottom section and top/insert section is so great as to not leave room to "crimp" the insert in place. If you make sure to push the insert back down into the bottom/outside section each time, it works pretty well. I will post some pictures later...

OK. Pics are loaded. Burner weighs 1/3 ounce (10 gr.) and with my MSR Ti Teakettle will bring 16 ounces of 60 degree water to rolling boil (211 degrees) in about 5 1/2 minutes. Not quite as fast as my FireLightStove, but for those who like the YACC or who like using the burner as a pot stand, I think you should try it! Bet you like it! If you read the directions for the FireLightStove and look at the pics, you should be able to figure out how to make one!

All except for the mirror finish. That is my little secret! Took quite a while to figure out how to do that! Next time I do photos of my burners, I will not wear a red and white plaid shirt (look at the reflection!).

For those who build one, let me know how it works out for you! Thanks!

Nice stove!!!!


Can you show us some of your other creations that you came up with while building hundreds of stoves. I kinda get into crazy modifications:)



Came up with this modification of Ray Garlington's YACC today! (on about my fifth try)

(OH!, btw, shiny finish does not improve operation, but does slightly lower weight [1/3 oz, 10 gr.], see above. And I only polished it after I got it right!)