Super Cat stove musings

That story is worth every penny!

"That story is worth every penny!"

Ken, are you saying my story is only worth 47 cents? if so, i need some better stories

heheh.

Steven,

You could have spent about $10.54 on yourself and your cat…

…and made yourself one of these…

…making both of you happy! LOL

I've had no issues with interior of my stove igniting the liner which I believe does exist inside of these bottles. It is, I believe however, much thinner and if it ever did ignite it has probably burned away without mimicking the incident you described.

Better luck next time. Be safe and never give up!

Party On,

Newton

Just the 7

kidding

"Just the 7"

that's what i feared. this weekend will be epic and worth, minimum, 79 cents.

@ John

i like the idea, but i'm not buying Bud, i do have a number of Yuengling Black and Tan cans lying about, they are going to be used for the can stove creation.

So begins the next slide down the slippery slope…

"So begins the next slide down the slippery slope…"

it all started with a simple comment on my gear list

"hey, that fleece is pretty heavy at 18.85 oz, i can do better than that!"

i wasn't supposed to be buying new gear this year…

"I wasn't supposed to be buying new gear this year…"

That is why I bought my Lightheart Gear Solo on sale just this past Christmas Eve night. ;-)

I am not a smoker but I have a question.

How well does the Yuengling Black and Tan go with the moving away from cigars over to pipe tobacco?

Party On,

Newton

You have a fleece jacket that weighs 18.85 oz – and fleece provides relatively little warmth – that's crazy!

You could have a quilt or sleeping bag at that weight that would actually keep you warm : )

"How well does the Yuengling Black and Tan go with the moving away from cigars over to pipe tobacco?"

i smoke a traditional English blend pipe tobacco so the Black and Tan is much better than a mega hopped IPA. i tried that last night and the result was about as good as the stove experiment. too many contrasting flavors. it was like eating a tuna sandwich with salt and vinegar potato chips.

"You have a fleece jacket that weighs 18.85 oz – and fleece provides relatively little warmth – that's crazy!"

i now have a fleece jacket that weighs 14 ounces, cost 10 bucks and is so much warmer than the 18.85 ounce disaster jacket.

live and learn.

Newt!

How have I not seen these on BPL before?

Any chance you've got some photos of the process? Looks very straight forward but just curious about how you attached the base and from what part of the can the stove section came.

Tyler,

The stove is made from the bottom section of the aluminum bottle.

The base is a lid from a soup can. It was removed using a safety style side cutting can opener. The base is not permanetly attached to the stove. The stove just seems to nest realy well in the formed rings of the lid.

Construction pics do not exist. The holes are approximately 1/4" paper punched into the bottle bottom equally spaced apart. In the picture it appears that there are at least 11 holes but I believe it is actually 12. I'll be able to get a good accurate count later.

The stove height is as I remember 1 & 3/4" tall. Again an accurate measurement is forthcoming. I cut the bottom section off of the whole bottle using a Buck Bros. mini hacksaw from Home Depot. I kept the marking around the bottle "square" by wrapping a straight edge of a piece of paper around the bottle at the 1 3/4" mark and tracing the edge with a pointy Sharpie.

I dressed up the edges of the hacksaw cut with a file and then by rubbing it on a piece of sandpaper/emery cloth laid flat on a workbench.

I fill the stove with 1/2 oz to 1 oz of alcohol and put a few drops of alcohol in the priming pan/base. I light the alcohol in the stove first and then the priming pan afterwards. I watch for the fuel to start "boiling" and the jets/holes to blossom. Then I set down my pot of cold water onto the stove slowly and gently to avoid snuffing the flame and pressurize the jet holes.

It helps to use a long piece of straw, pine needle or a spaghetti sized dry stick to light the stove and priming pan/base. The alcohol flame is invisible in daylight and is quite hot. ;-)

Works for me!

BTW experiment with the fuel amounts and burn times. I tried using a snuffer and once this stove gets going there is no snuffing it out. I just let it run out of fuel and extinguish itself. When it is cooled off I pack it up. Simple, cheap and light.

Party On,

Newton

Newton, thanks for the always prompt and thorough information.

I've made a few popcan stoves and a supercat, the supercat is superior for various reasons.

I've been using it with the bottom of a Foster's can as a snuff can which works well enough for me, admittedly a little bit sketchy when it's really roaring.

Does the primer pan just help to heat up the alcohol faster?

Tyler,

"Does the primer pan just help to heat up the alcohol faster"?

Yep! ;-)

Without it the process is much sloooooowwwer and wastes precious fuel.

How is that for prompt? LOL

Party On,

Newton

And fleece remains fairly warm in soaking rain. Down and light synthetics, not so much especially in a place that never dries out.

Where did you find the el cheapo? Sounds like it might be worth looking into.

Stove Note, I like the beer bottles for stove building too – and they are darn near indestructible. The whitebox style stoves are really tough, but may take a bit to bloom if it is stupid cold. Lots of thermal mass in that aluminum bottle that needs to heat up.

Supercat style stoves are better for that concern.

Pressurized popcan stoves are more fun to build. If you just want to play with a stove, try making a few of those. :) They are light and heat well, but truthfully making them is like eating popcorn. You just can't stop.

I picked up a fancy feast can on the way home and made a new stove. I can not bring 16oz of water to a boil with one fl oz of denatured alcohol. The denatured alcohol is the SLX from Walmart. The fuel is completely consumed after 8 minutes and the pot has bubbles at the bottom.

Any thoughts on why it's not boiling? I put 19 holes in the top row and 18 in the bottom, is that too many?

If you don't get a boil, then it is generally from one of a few reasons:

1. Your boiling pot is too large for the burner. So, heat is lost from the top of it almost as fast as heat is going into the bottom.
2. Your boiling pot has no lid.
3. Your burner is not insulated from the cold surface underneath it. You need to be able to warm up the alcohol very quickly.
4. Your windscreen is inadequate.
5. Your fuel is funky. Consider warming it up to body temperature before pouring it into the burner.
6. You are not using a priming pan with a few drops of fuel there.
7. You have strange holes in the top of the burner. Either too many or too few. Maybe too small or too close to the edge.

–B.G.–

"3. Your burner is not insulated from the cold surface underneath it. "

i'm going to go with this – i was doing the testing on a glass top patio table in 56F temps. it was close enough to a boil for my needs right now, but i might get another can next week and actually follow the directions :)

"Where did you find the el cheapo? Sounds like it might be worth looking into."

Old Navy on clearance – the Active line regularly $40.00 on sale for $9.99. i can totally live with a ten dollar fleece.

i'm sitting here thinking "my cat has to eat right, so why don't i go buy a case of these cans and experiment"

he eats wet food from 5.5oz cans which last a week and i don't think my wife wants any more ziploc bags of cat food in the fridge.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, down the slide i go!

A thread of interest
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=42874

Jim Wood tested just about every variable when developing the SCS. It makes sense to do as he suggests. Exactly as he suggests, or it will fail.
http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html

This type of stove is simple, almost fool proof one might say. But, it
is not fuel efficient. AS stated above, insulate from cold ground, always use a wind screen and keep the fuel warm(ish).

In the linked forum thread, see the most "efficient" as Cat within a Tuna can as a chimney stove, esp. when using a narrow pot.

i was just on the patio and was watching the flames now that the sun has started to set. the 700mL Snowpeak pot might be the issue, the flames come out of the stove and go right around the pot and heat the air between the pot and windscreen perfectly, never touching the bottom of the pot.

and i just gave away my old heavy aluminum pot yesterday.

Yep, it looks like your SP 700 is too small in diameter. Test your stove out on a normal kitchen pot (~6" in diamter or so). I suspect that the stove will work fine. Best regards – Jon