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View Full Version : A challenge, alcohol stoves



Doctari
04-14-2005, 02:13
Imagine this: you are in camp, getting out your trusty alky stove, EGAD, you fall on and crush the poor little thing. It is TOTALED. You manage to borrow a stove, but need a new one quick, re-supply of a spare is days (or weeks) away.

The challenge:
With a knife as you would carry on a thru, &/or any tools readily available ON THE TRAIL, one or more pop (or your choice) cans as would be found along a road crossing or in a Mom & Pop store as along the trail.
Design a alcohol stove that will suffice heating water for, , , , 4 days or more. No rules, just that you use stuff as available on the trail. So no JB Weld, unless you do routinely carry a supply when hiking (if so, we need to talk :p ). I suppose it should be able to support the pot you use, after all that part got totaled too. Let us know what you come up with. And have fun with it.

Should we limit the amount of fuel used to 2 Oz Maximum? I’m thinking a rolling boil not needed, just hot water, this is after all an emergency stove.

I just came up with this today, so haven’t had a chance to put any real thought into it, will work on my design in the next few weeks. Will try to do pictures, probably can’t, but will try.

Doctari.

Dances with Mice
04-14-2005, 06:50
I'd just make another mini-cat. Photos in my gallery. I know it can be done with the scissors on my Leatherman Micra & a knife point to poke holes, and all in about 3 minutes. My windscreen is also my pot holder and I'll admit it's a tad overbuilt but it doesn't trash easily. But if so I could salvage parts and reconstruct.

jlb2012
04-14-2005, 07:46
1. get can
2. cut off the bottom 1 inch with knife and or sissors
3. use bottom of can as your new burner

hiker5
04-14-2005, 07:48
I believe chris has replied to several threads extolling the use of a can bottom cut off and not modified at all. If I recall his claim was that the drop in efficiency was not as dramatic as one might think.

SGT Rock
04-14-2005, 08:29
Yep, all you need to do is adjust the pot height to work with the size of can bottom you got. I would rather find a small tuna, vienna sausage, or potted meat can and cut it off about 3/4" tall. Then I would just use my Titanium stand that didn't break because it is titanium LOL :D

Oracle
04-14-2005, 08:34
Heh heh heh, my stove is titanium, so it's unlikely that it broke either :).

But, seriously, I'd probably make a Cobra Stove, the directions to make it are here:

http://www.boblog.org/at/cobrastove.htm

I've made a bunch of these in the past, they work well, and can be easily made with a SAK (Swiss Army Knife).

Footslogger
04-14-2005, 08:51
That's why I carry a Trangia. A bit heavier but more durable.

'Slogger
AT 2003

chris
04-14-2005, 09:59
As was mentioned earlier, just take a can and cut off the bottom 2 inches or so. A V8 sized can works best, but a reguar beer can will do. I used a stove like this on the latter half of the PCT and on my AT section last summer. Will use it again this summer.

Doctari
04-15-2005, 17:19
Well, I did say I hadn't had time to give it much thought :jump

Looks like most of you have.

Good ideas, thanks!!

Doctari.

SGT Rock
04-15-2005, 17:33
Now, lets throw this out:

You are using your MSR XXXX stove and the jet clogs to the point you can't get it clean or use it. Using just aluminum cans or whatever is handy, make a stove that can burn your remaining fuel until you can get to town :jump:

Lilred
04-15-2005, 17:48
If my alcohol stove got crushed on the trail, I know exactly what I'd do. I'd go to where I have all my spare batteries and stuff, and pull out the spare alky stove that I always carry with me. It weighs next to nothing so I always carry a spare, just in case. All my stoves I made with the knife I hike with, a push pin, and some heat tape. perhaps I'll carry a pushpin and about a foot of heat tape with me next time. that ought to be good for three or four stoves.

Mike
04-15-2005, 17:48
Now, lets throw this out:

You are using your MSR XXXX stove and the jet clogs to the point you can't get it clean or use it. Using just aluminum cans or whatever is handy, make a stove that can burn your remaining fuel until you can get to town :jump:

"Hey ya'll, watch this..."

That sounds like a darwin award waiting to happen. I read on their website that some guy died due to damage caused by his exploding lava lamp. Why did it explode you ask... Well silly, it was because he was heating it on the kitchen stove. :datz

SGT Rock
04-15-2005, 17:56
Maybe they can find some ceramics laying around and build one of these: http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/aug04/features/kitsink/kitsink.html

max patch
04-15-2005, 17:58
Now, lets throw this out:

You are using your MSR XXXX stove and the jet clogs to the point you can't get it clean or use it.

That happened about once a month on my thru. They borrowed my SVEA 123.

SGT Rock
04-15-2005, 18:02
You know, they could probably make a new SVEA 123 out of titanium and aluminum, then sell them for $150 as some other name and make a fortune off of them.

Underhill
04-15-2005, 18:35
Well, it took a little practice, but on my '04 hike I routinely made stoves with just the supplies in my pack and found cans.. I got pretty good at it and would give them away to other hikers that I became aquainted with. It turned into an easy way to pass some time on short days and clean up the shelter areas at the same time. Here is what I used:

1 mini swiss army knife - with scissors
1 "push pin" stored in a piece of cork - for jet holes

With these two tools I could make a double wall open-top alcohol burner that required no pot stand (jets on the side) and did the job just fine. One that I made in Damascus served me all the way to Katahdin and still works fine. Admittedly, getting the top and bottom together without any way to stretch the cans can be a little frustrating, but we all seem to have an abundance of what it takes (patience and time), while undertaking a thru-hike!

-Underhill

bogey
04-16-2005, 04:06
If my alcohol stove got crushed on the trail, I know exactly what I'd do. I'd go to where I have all my spare batteries and stuff, and pull out the spare alky stove that I always carry with me. It weighs next to nothing so I always carry a spare, just in case. All my stoves I made with the knife I hike with, a push pin, and some heat tape. perhaps I'll carry a pushpin and about a foot of heat tape with me next time. that ought to be good for three or four stoves.it's kind of like living on the AT. I didn't have any push pins, but I did have a sewing kit. To keep the needle from breaking in two, I dug back into my pack, and AHA, there it was, a wine cork from I don't remember when. Drive needle thru the cork, cut to proper length to leave a little sticking out and whack the other end with a leatherman (R). Reoeat as necessary to acquire proper flame pattern.

I didn't have scissors or shears to cut the can prety, and the knife tended to butcher it, until i ran an inch of H2o into the bottom of the can and froze it. Thus properly reinforced on the inside, it was like cutting a solid object. OH! the trials and tribulations!:o

and when I was a kid, we didn't have shoes, so when it got icy, we wrapped barbed wire around our feet for traction. :D

Lilred
04-16-2005, 09:58
.

I didn't have scissors or shears to cut the can prety, and the knife tended to butcher it, until i ran an inch of H2o into the bottom of the can and froze it. Thus properly reinforced on the inside, it was like cutting a solid object. OH! the trials and tribulations!:o :D


To cut out the bottom from the can, take your knife and run it around the edge using slight pressure. Do that five or six times and then it will cut out as if you were using a can opener. Same thing with cutting the piece for the inner wall, if you use one. Just apply pressure with the knife two or three times, then bend the metal back and forth where the crease is. snaps right in two.