home made stoves

[Max]

Well, I'm attempting to make my first cat stove.

I was looking on the internet and came across this stove that uses a cat food can as the jacket and the bottom of a soda can as the burner. The catfood can is also the stand, so it eliminates the wire. Has anyone made this type of stove? How does it compare to the cat stove?
http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/cat-stove/

Thanks

[Dirtyoldman]

a blowtorch similar to the altoids and other open burners. I tried that type of pot stand and decided that it lost too much heat.

[Max]

Has anyone ever tried to make the stand part of the stove instead of a separate piece?
What if I took coat hanger wire and made little stilts that attach to the side of the stove. The pot would sit on top of the stilts.
Any thoughts?

[Hog On Ice]

SGT Rock's Turbo V8 and Ion stoves have the pot stand inserted into the stove so it is sort of what you are talking about - the pot stand helps preheat the fuel for possibly more efficiency.

[SGT Rock]

The Turbo V8 is thru-hike tested: http://hikinghq.net/sgt_stove/sgt_v8stove1.html

The Ion Stove is still basically being proofed as a stove, but is basically a smaller Turbo V8: http://hikinghq.net/sgt_stove/ion_stove.html

Both have integrated stands, the only seperate piece to contend with is the windscreen (like most stoves). I really like the Ion stove because it is 0.6 ounces even with the windscreen.

[chris]

Take an empty 14 oz can of beans and cut the top half off using metal snips or a utility knife. Cut an inch down on a diagonal, then horizontally for about half and inch, then up diagonally back to the top. Do this two more times in different, equally spaced places. The opennings you are making in the can allow an oxygen supply for the alcohol. Put a little fiberglass in as a wick if you have it sitting around.

I like the bean can since it is a little more sturdy than a beer can. The extra width gives the stove a bit more stability as well.

[Max]

Excellent!
I knew I was probably trying to reinvent the wheel.
Does the Turbo V8 and the Ion perform the same?
SGT Rock, you probably wrote about this in your thesis on stoves Could you give me the condensed version
Out of the Cat stove, Turbo V8 or the Ion which do you think does best for just boiling water. I'm not really concerned with simmering. Thanks!

[SGT Rock]

Here is the condensed version:

Turbo V8. Consistant performance using 18ml (three soda caps full) of alcohol to boil a pint of water. In very cold weather or in very windy conditions, add another capfull. With a 12 ounce bottle of alcohol you can last about 2 weeks easy.

The Ion stove is an experimental stove trying to push the efficency. It takes longer to boil, but can do it on just 12ml (2 soda caps full). The unproven is can this stove do it consistantly at a wide range of conditions. If it cannot, you could alwas add a couple of holes to it and add more alcohol to the Turbo V8 volume and use it like a smaller Turbo V8 since it still has a 30ml fuel capacity.

Personally I would go with an Ion stove and stick to my .72L pot and my simple meal scheduel.

As for simmering (in case you are interested) - don't. It wastes fuel. Make a pot cozy.

[Max]

I've never been so excited about going to buy grape juice before

Do you know if altitude has any effects on stove performance?
I'm going to be hiking the CT and hope to use this type of stove for that hike.

[SGT Rock]

No performance effects, at least under 10,000 F. Last I remember, the highest you will go is about 6,200.

[chris]

Which CT are you refering to? The colorado trail gets significantly higher than 6200 ft. There should be no performance degradation due to altitude (at least at reasonable ones; i.e, under 4000 meters), but be aware that water boils at a lower temperature the higher you go. Alcohol stoves do seem to be heavily affected by low temperatures, though.

[Max]

In the Data book that I have for the CT the elevation ranges from a low of 5,520 to a high of 13,240. Looks like most of the time will be spend between 9,000 - 11,000 feet. Maybe I should stick with my whisperlite for that trip :/

[chris]

I would go with the alcohol stove, unless you are going in early or late and will have to deal with snow. You probably won't spend too much time camped above 12,000 ft. At least, not if you are smart. Melting large amounts of snow with an alcohol stove is a real pain. I crossed the Rockies through Colorado coming back from Death Valley just a couple of days ago and there is alot of snow right now. Many feet above 10k. If you are going through in late July, this shouldn't be a problem. But, if you are going to try to force things in early June, you may end up doing a lot of melting. You might want to consider posting a question to the CDT-L to find out how fast the snow is melting out in Colorado.

[SGT Rock]

Brian Robbinson did all three trails in one year using a Cat stove.

[Max]

Hopefully the snow will be gone by the time I get there. Planning late June and July. Most camping will be at around 9,000.
I've been lurking in the CT forum, maybe its time to post a couple questions. Thanks for everyone's help.

[chris]

Flyin' Brian did do the calendar triple crown with a cat stove, but I don't think he had to use it to melt the quantities of snow required for drinking water. I could be misremembering his journals. He did have to melt snow for cooking, but that is a different story altogether.

Enjoy the CT. It should be a fantastic trip.

[Max]

Thanks Chris

I couldn't find Welch's 5.5oz juice cans to make the Ion stove. I did find 5.5 oz V-8 cans. Do these work the same?

[SGT Rock]

yes

[Max]

Thanks SGT Rock
Your a stove making guineas!

[tlbj6142]

I'm thinking about making an Ion soon. What should I use to cut the cans?