(I got tired of resurrecting my 7yr old computer but haven't moved my email over to the new one yet, so that's why you haven't heard back from me)

1. We found no diff between 24 and 32 holes - "workmanship" seemed to make more of a diff. IMHO, go with fewer holes, put the needle all the way into the non-tapered shank, and "align" the hole while the needle is in it. More holes = tedious

2. We tried mineral spirits. VERY hot and more soot than you can believe. It also wanted to get out of control - if there was very much liquid fuel in the stove, it sometimes wanted to boil out liquid burning fuel. <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> I suspect that white gas would be slightly less sooty but more likely to do liquid excursions, but dunno - try it outdoors on your patio.

3. Don't use aluminum bolts in aluminum nuts. After 1 - 6 uses they freeze up. I have two theories on precisely why, but no matter - the bolt will sieze in the nut and that's it for the stove. You asked me about a screw instead of a bolt... I don't believe it would be durable enough. It may be simpler to put a blob of J-B Weld in the top (former bottom) of the can (smoothed out to a disk) and then drill for a screw or drill and tap for a bolt.

The loose bolt has made me less enamored of the Photon type. The open-center type is next on my list - but I don't know if it is easily constructed by a young scout.

It was time consuming as heck to do this at Scout meetings, and we were set up in "stations" for each operation with an older scout or adult at each station. One thing that helps is to have a toaster oven to accelerate the J-B weld cure from 15 hours to 5-10 minutes. Try 165F - 180F; it really works great.

Have fun!

Tom