make and use a Jim Wood SuperCat

Here is the home page for the SuperCat; there are detailed build instructions there. Instead of using his hole punching method, I just took a single-hole paper punch and used that. It was a bit awkward getting it to fit, but it took less than a minute to punch the holes and they came out really nice.

You will also want to read through Zen stoves. This describes or has links to most of the good alcohol stove designs (my other favorites include the Pepsi-G and Cobra), as well as lots of information about finding the right alcohol to burn in your stove and a lot more about alcohol (and other) stoves in general. It’s a great resource.

Great first time alcohol stove! Really easy to build. I made one exactly as the instructions on Jim Woods website and it worked great. Then I made one with a hole punch and the performance was a little off. The difference was the 1st had all 3/16 holes and the 2nd w/ the hole punch had all 1/4 inch holes. The bigger holes obviously allowed for faster fuel consumption and in my tests with comparable amounts of fuel I failed to get a full boil with bigger holes. The stove will work either way, but bigger holes = shorter burn time. I know this is obvious stuff (ok, now it is, duh)but as I tinker I get that much closer to being a rocket scientist (in my universe, that is).

Thanks guys, for the info and links! I'm excited about getting on to alcohol (stoves that is) and off my hideously heavy conventional hiker's stove.

rob