Hi,

I am in the early planning stages of developing a fall hiking weekend for 10 teenagers in our local youth group. These kids have had at least 3 years of outdoor experience in our program, but I want this weekend to challange them into thinking for themselves and to work as a team in small group.

The trip will involve field navigation through an unfamiliar area and the 2 - 3 person teams will have to construct/use some of their own equipment.

I will provide the teams with the designs and materials to make 3 types of alcohol stoves. The simple Open Flame Type , a simple Pressurized Jet Type , and a more complex Pressurized Jet type of alcohol stove. All of these models are quick to construct and involve a minimum of steps and equipment. I found them all that the Zen Backpacking Stove site which provided excellent information.

I have never constructed or tested alcohol stoves before but know there are many on this forum that have, so if you have a favourite design, that is not too hard to build, please share it with me.

The kids will also be making their own version of a Tarp Tent for use on the trip, but I will make those designs the topic of another post.

Thanks, Mike

Mike, with the ones where you are fitting the bottoms of two pop cans together, that is the hardest part of the build.
The first photon stove I got to fit together took me about 20 cans.
When they tell you to save a full can to swage the one can bottom open a bit more before trying to assemble them it is good advice.

Here is a site more dedicated to backpacking stoveheads.
http://www.bplite.com/index.php

Thanks for the link Scafool, lots of good stove ideas on that site.

Mike

This also sounds like just the excuse to enjoy your favorite beverage of choice (aluminum can contained of course). Just tell everyone you are preparing supplies for the next Youth Group stove building project....

Another super easy stove to make is the supercat stove. This was easy to make (I figured it out), and, with the exception of the windscreen, they likely have all the stuff for making this lying around. In all seriousness, it took me about 15 minutes to make. And, it worked adequately the first time I used it. I since modified it a little (too much space within the windscreen), and have yet to test it. The first attempt got the water hot, but not boiling. My next attempt I hope to get it to a rolling boil.
This is my normal daypack stove: Supercat stove, made out of a cat food can, windscreen made out of aluminum flashing, with two wingnuts to hold it together, 2 aluminum stakes that I use for the stove stand, an empty water bottle for fuel, and an elastic band to hold it all together. It slides into one of my side pockets on my pack, and counterbalances against my water bottle on the other side. Simple to make, efficient once you get it tuned in, and made with common materials. Cant really get any better than that!

Denatured alcohol can be found in the paint dept of your local wally world. 91% alcohol works OK, but is very sooty. yellow HEET works the best; my local wallyworld just had a sale on those too...like a 6pack for $5 or so..may $6. Yellow HEET would be my first choice, then denatured alcohol, with the 91% isopropyl alcohol being last. It doesnt burn as hot, and, again, is sooty, because of its water content.

It may be anathema to you if you want your kids to build their own alcohol stoves, but my favorite is the White Box stove, ready built for $20 by Bill in Montana. I have used my own built alcohol stoves but after using the WB I realized what a piker I am when it came to stove construction. One part of Zen is realizing when you are in the presence of a master, which is how I felt when I first saw the white box - simple, great design. Yellow Heet or regular denatured alcohol both work great for fuel, with a long burn time. Make sure the kids use a light weight water container for boiling, most alcohol stoves don't burn terribly long and you won't want to spend alot of time heating up metal instead of water.

In the end all the designs should work fine, and the kids should have some fun building their own.

Hi Oldsoldier,

Thanks for the link to the SuperCat Stove, I think that is the easiest pressurized version I have seen yet. We will test that model for sure.

I decided to drive to town today to pick-up some alcohol stove fuel and try building some of these stove models. On arrival at the vacant parking lots I remembered it was Easter Sunday and all the stores were closed, so tinkering will have to wait till tomorrow.

Mike

Hi Lono,

Thanks for the tip on using lightweight cookware, the SS pots we normally use on the Coleman stove are quite heavy and probably not the best to use on an alcohol stove.

In researching stoves I saw a lot of large Heineken cans used as lightweight pots, seems like a good excuse for me to drink a few beers.

Mike

Oh, one other thing; get some stove black (high heat spray paint-at LEAST 1200 degrees) and paint the bottom of your container. It helps with the heat transfer. With alcohol stoves, every little bit counts!!

The SuperCat stove is so easy to build that my 11 year old daughter and I constructed one in about 10 minutes, and that included feeding the cat and washing out the can.

I tested it 3 times but it was under less than ideal conditions. My windscreen was not completely effective, the aluminum pot was too large/thick, the garage floor was cold and the air temperture was about 4*c. With about 1.5 oz of Heet fuel in the stove I was able to just get 2 cups of water to the edge of boiling in 9 minutes.

The set-up needs some more tweaking, but it was a fun father/daughter evening adventure making hot chocolate at the edge of the garage, while the neighbours looked at us strangely!

Mike

I've built a couple of "photon" pressure stoves. They are a little bit of work to slide the two halves together. The advice was to put the top part in the freezer and heat the bottom then slide the top into the base. Mixed results, if you can't get them pushed together within 20 seconds the heat will from the aluminum will transfer very quickly. I found it easier to cut slits into the top and simply push them together. A little high temperature epoxy to seal the joint and then I added a slightly larger cut down tuna tin to act as a preheat basin.

I add up to 1.5 oz to the stove and .5 oz in the preheat area. Light it and add the windscreen and stand and then my pot of water. By that time the preheat has created enough heat INSIDE the stove to create expansive forces. The tiny holes around the rim of the stove become jets and a flame of about 3" high shoots out. (I drilled a larger hole in the middle of the stove to allow for the fuel to pour into to it. I seal this with a screw so that the pressure can build up.

On one overnight camping trip, I refilled my small alcohol container with fuel for the trip. It looked very odd, almost oily, I thought I had old ethanol mixed with new ethanol and never gave it a thought (was there water in the old ethanol?) The stove took forever to get lit, I had to use an abnormally amount of preheat fuel. When it finally did light, the flame shot out at least 12" high which was unusual and my pot blackened. When I got home I checked the containers again - I had mixed paint thinner from a nearly identical container with the ethanol! No wonder it behaved very odd. That mixture got tossed out and new clean fuel was used for my next occasion.

On a previous post here we talked at length about the super cat, I made several, and they worked great. I bought a better teapot for hiking, and know they work fantastic! So the vessel to be heated makes a big difference, that's for sure.

Thanks for the tips fellows, tomorrow I will try the stove again with a lighter/thinner pot and in a warmer area.

I am having a difficult time finding thick-walled aluminum beer cans in my part of Ontario, I will need to take a trip into Quebec to see what they stock over there.

The girl at the local Beer Store (they are government run here) is on the look-out for "aluminum bottles" for me, but the deal is that I have to build her a stove if she finds me some.

Mike

That is some really interesting stuff.
I usually camp in state parks adn such but my wife and I are going backwoods backpacking for the first time in the fall and this kind of thing is usefull info for us.