Bottle cap stove

[Troy Ammons]

If I could find any stinkin aluminum bottle caps.

Good for a weekender.

I had this pot stand from one of my other experiments. Its made fromt he top of a 12 oz heineken can.

I tried a couple of simple cup stove designs with the edges cut out as a pot stand but did not like them.

This is a really light kit and you can toss it out drink a soda and make another one.

The stove, stand and 8 oz can pot alone weighs 0.8 oz. With this pot stand you really dont need much of a windscreen. A foil one would be about .1-.2 oz.

It is almost efficient as the best jet stove I have made. About 8-10ml to boil a cup of water. This 8oz soda can filled to the top angle section is slightly under 1 cup, but is perfect for 1 cup of dry Tortellini in a freezer bag.

This type of cup stove, but made out of a red bull bottom, same support, 24 oz heineken can is a lot more efficient.

1st photo is all the stuff nested and inside.

2nd photo is everything out.
8 oz can, stand, cup stove, plastic cup, one or the other, tiny alcohol measuring cup, microfiber cloth, spork.

Everything with the mac cup, less the lemonade container weighs 2.2 oz.

Without the mac cup (0.6 oz) but with the lemonade container which is basically crush proof, but heavy is 3.3 oz.

Obligatory burn photo

[Kevin Beeden]

Simple 'tealight' burners work remarkably well, don't they? For all the craft you can use to make more complicated burners, an open-cup burner is as simple as it gets, and can be made anywhere.

I'm guessing the pan support is a steel can; aluminium would probably collapse in the heat.

> Its made from the top of a 12 oz heineken can

Oh. maybe not steel then; the little Heineken cans in the UK are aluminium. Interesting…

You might add a lid to the cup, by removing the cap of another can using a side-cutting can-opener. It'll add a couple more grammes, though…

What's the plastic carry pot? It looks like something recycled (judging by what appears to be a use-by date stamp). I'm always looking for light, cheap carry pots.

Thanks.

[Troy Ammons]

>I'm guessing the pan support is a steel can; aluminium would probably collapse in the heat.

Its the top of a 12 oz alum keg can. They are pretty tough. It has not collapsed yet. We will see how long it lasts. Holes were made with just a normal hole puncher.

>You might add a lid to the cup, by removing the cap of another can using a side-cutting can-opener. It'll add a couple more grammes, though…

Actually I have a few heineken can tops and that fits.

>What's the plastic carry pot? It looks like something recycled (judging by what appears to be a use-by date stamp). I'm always looking for light, cheap carry pots.

That is a Countrytime lemonade (CTL) plastic container. ITs a little large though. I found a better one for the 8oz rig above, but the cup is not as big, but the works fit in it perfectly and its small. It almost exactly the same but its a tang powdered orange drink container. Would not be too good to eat out of but okay for coffe and it is crush proof too.

Here is how the above nests inside the tang container. 3.2 oz. The tang and CTL containers are kindof heavy but very tough. A lid would not fit the way I have it nested. The weight does not include the 2 oz fuel bottle.

The one above in the original link is the shorter of two sizes of the CTL container.

Here is another nester. Mostly the same as above, except with the tall CTL container and a 24 oz fosters can. You can fit a lot of stuff in this setup. 4.6 oz

I saw a guy on youtube making one of these and thought it was interesting, but cant remember his stove and cookware setup.

[Kevin Beeden]

> Its the top of a 12 oz alum keg can.

Ah, yeah, I'd heard that the US Heini cans are tougher than the average bear (apologies for any unintended US euphemisms…)

> Actually I have a few heineken can tops and that fits.

I thought you might already have thought of this.

> That is a Countrytime lemonade (CTL) plastic container.

I'm guessing that's a US-specific product. They look to be nice little bottles, I guess from the same 'family' of packaging.

Thanks again.

[Keith Selbo]

"Simple 'tealight' burners work remarkably well, don't they? For all the craft you can use to make more complicated burners, an open-cup burner is as simple as it gets, and can be made anywhere."

Yes they do, but stuffing them with a little wicking material makes them much safer because they don't spill when tipped. The wick also significantly increases heat output.

[Troy Ammons]

Thats next.

I have an idea for a one piece stove that is simple and will not spill. I think its already been done though, just larger.

[Kevin Beeden]

I knocked up a pan support last night, from a gash 500ml can lying around, and used the remainder of the can as a pot for test purposes.

Worked fine, except for a little 'flame lift-off', probably due to too strong a chimney effect; need to reduce the number of inlet holes. I didn't do any measured burns.

The thing works in a very similar way to one of my SqueezeBox experiments, when I created a little concertina pan and burner support to sit under the pan. The flame starts off within the pan support, but, once it gets going, the vapour ignites outside the pan support. I think this is why the aluminium cans are surviving; there wasn't too much of a stink from burning epoxy coating. We're also using the slightly thicker upper shoulder of the can.

I might be marginally concerned about fumes given off from the plastic used to seal the rolled can closure; I guess this could be cut off, but that would weaken the upper ring considerably.

It needs a windshield, though; the flames were easily wafted all over the place just by my walking past the thing as I grabbed photos…

[Kevin Beeden]

> but stuffing them with a little wicking material makes them much safer because they don't spill when tipped.

Agreed.

> The wick also significantly increases heat output.

Also true, but this is only useful if the pan can grab the extra heat. Judging by the waste heat I felt last night, I wouldn't want this thing to burn any hotter…

[Jared Cook]

Nice design, I was curious if the stand would be able to be made shorter so that the Heineken base could be nested on top of another Heineken keg, or will that put it too close to initial flame? I was planning on making a wood burning stove this weekend, but this might be a more simple and cheaper project.

[Troy Ammons]

The pot stand seems to be about the right height. I have another one that is about 3/16" shorter, and it does not seem to perform as well.

As it is it will fit on the end of a 12 oz Heineken can and will suport one for cooking.

You will need a top for the burner to keep the rim from getting crushed or put it inside a container. NEsted as shown below, it will fit into a tall country time lemonade container, but so will a 24oz fosters can will fit too and not much heavier.

[David Lutz]

I'm just kicking around today so I made one of these stoves. It worked out ok for a first effort.

I couldn't quite tell from the photos, so I made a guess.

I used the bottom of a Red Bull can for the burner.

I used the top third (about through the middle of the red star) of a 12oz Heieken can.

I drilled a bunch of 3/16" holes around the top of the can and at the "cut" line, then I cut the bottom of the can off. I left the top of the can on, I just drilled more holes and of course had the drinking hole there.

A 24oz Heinie sits right on top of it! Very stable, unless the burner fails….

I only got blue flame coming out of one side of the burner? And sometimes out the bottom holes? Do I need bigger holes, or more holes?

Also, is there a way to blunt the cut edges of the cans? They look pretty treacherous!

Anyway…lots of fun, thanks for the idea.

[Troy Ammons]

IMO a red bull can is a little too big in diameter but it will work.

Thats probably too tall, but it should still work.

I can measure my pot support if you want.

Just go to a dollar store or office depot and buy a standard one hole paper puncher. A lot easier.

You should cut the top completely off. You are missing a lot of heat. Part of the flame inside the support will heat up the bottom of the pot. I have a regular can opener that I took the rivet out of so it cuts deeper. You could also cut it out with a knife, carefully.

The alcohol boil over you got was probably because the cup got too hot due to the top of the can or maybe not enough air. You definately dont want that. Maybe more holes or bigger holes. Just hole punch them close together like in the pic. I have never had an alcohol boil over. Or maybe your cup is too short of too tall ??

Take a sheet of emory paper or sand paper and sand it on that. That will dull the edge so its not so much like a Ginsu.

Please dont use one of this setup in a tent. A spill like that and poof !

[David Lutz]

Didn't you use the bottom of a Red Bull for the burner?

Dimensions would be great if it's not too much trouble.

The support is a 12oz can, right?

I'll keep working on getting it right……gotta drink more beer!

Being a "newbie", I'm playing around with some of these things. What do you think of esbit fuel? Esbit is a brand name for the hexablahblahmine, right?

Thanks.

[David Lutz]

I cut off the top of the support—for some reason I was thinking I had to use a sidecut opener, duh—I'm not going to drink out of it!

Also punched more holes and got a better burn. About 1/2 once of DNA got 1 cup of coldish water hot with bubbles, but no boil.

[Roger Caffin]

> About 1/2 once of DNA got 1 cup of coldish water hot with bubbles,

A fascinating new use for DNA…
:-)

Cheers

[Troy Ammons]

> About 1/2 once of DNA got 1 cup of coldish water hot with bubbles, but no boil.

You still dont have the pot stand set up right. You should get a boil with 10 ml max. You need alot of holes in it.

I like the orance cup I made better than the red bull can cup. Its smaller and thicker alum.

Just make a pot support exactly like I did with a regular hole puncher and a lot of holes and start from there.

[Troy Ammons]

I have one support thats about 1.9" another 1.95" not that I measure them when cutting. 1.95" is about in the middle of the first star.

The cups I have been using are the thick alum one, .6" high and about 1.8" in diameter, but it wont hold much fuel. ITs only for an 8oz boil.

The bigger one os a red bull can bottom, 1.1" high.

I have not experimented that much with it, but I think a smaller heavier wall alum will be more efficient. I am going to try one of those later this afternoon.

[Kevin Beeden]

> You should cut the top completely off.

I use a technique I found whilst experimenting with MYOG insulated cups.

I take a pair of scribing dividers, and set a small gap (about 3mm)*. I then put one arm on the top of top of the rim of the cap, and the other arm on the inner wall of the cap, and mark a guiding score line with a couple of turns. I then deepen this score with a knife until I think it's 'ready'. I use the knife to carefully make a small starter cut along the scoreline, and then take a wooden drift and hit it with a hammer to make the cap tear along the score line. It'll either cut cleanly, or crush the can…

* you need to score below the depth of the rolled edge on the outside of the cap, otherwise you're likely to break the rolled joint, I think.

[Kevin Beeden]

> A fascinating new use for DNA…

I don't think David is burning bits of finger he's cut off on the sharp edges. Or maybe he's swabbing his cuts with denatured alcohol ;-)

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