Gram Weenie stove

[Kyle Purcell]

What are some good bottles to use in making this stove? I don't know that i've ever seen anything like this bottle. I am new to making stoves and have searched the internet and this looks like a good design to try to make!

[Simon Harding]

This is my second alcohol stove. The first was a brass one, heavy as heck, that my well-intentioned wife bought me. I've never used it.

I have a couple of MSR stoves and a giga power, which i tend to use most becuase it is small and light.

I'd shied away from alc stoves becuase of reliability concerns (long ago alleviated) and concern about crushing. I like my gear to be a bit durable as I can be somewhat thoughtless in packing and in handling my pack at times.

But this stove looks amazing. I just ordered it. it is exactly what I need for twosome trips, for boiling water for dinner, and heating water for coffee.

And so elegantly simple. Wonderful.

Thanks!

Simon

[Anonymous]

George or anyone:

Received the stove a couple of weeks ago. Great piece of work. I would like to make a lightweight plate/stand to stabilize it for uneven ground. Has anyone developed one yet or thought about this. Suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. Thanks, John

[Mark Hurd]

John,

I've been thinking the same thing. Jim Wood did two for the SuperCat stove.

http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html —-(look on left side of page)

I thought I might adapt one to the Gram Weenie, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

-Mark

[Matt Mahaney]

George,
I'm impressed with the stove. I have not tried to build a stove yet (I've been a bit intimidated), but this design seems to be brilliantly simple and exquisitely efficient. I am going to make this my first stove attempt.

Do you think the stove could be primed with a wick instead of the pan? I don't enjoy carrying lots of small bits, so I'm looking for a way to drop the primer pan. I could light on a section of the wind screen then move the stove off… maybe… I like the all in one aspect of a primer wick. Thoughts?
Thanks for a great post.

[george carr]

Matt,
You cetainly could add a wick. I've shied away from them for a few reasons including they add more weight than a primer pan (it just doesn't sound as cool when you call it an ounce weenie stove :P), and I've gotten away from epoxy on all my stoves since it's messy and time consuming. I have never been a primer pan kinda guy (I'm not a bits and pieces kinda guy either), but this stove is one of the few times when I go that route.

John,
I'll give it some thought and see if I can come up with something light to stabilize the stove. I just accepted the fact that this stove needs a little more attention in exchange for having the lightest sidejet stove out there (sorta like the tradeoff of extra attention for lightweight tarps, packs, etc).To get gear truly light, there will always be some compromise or extra care needed.

[Simon Harding]

A pan with a socket inset into it for the base of the stove to fit into might work provided the correct diameter of tubing could be found to act as the socket for the base of the stove and then glued or otherwise affixed into a hole in the priming pan. The socket would, if a snug enough fit, only need to be maybe 1/4 inch deep to stabilize the stove. the challenge, of course, would be making it light.

Simon

[Anonymous]

Mark, the page you provided has inspired some ideas. I really like this stove. I used a Pepsi can stove on my recent John Muir Trail trip and it did great but George’s stove seems to perform even better and therefore want to overcome the balance issue. Even on level ground it is easy to tip so I really want to stabilize it before taking it into the backcountry.

[Kathleen B]

I've used the gram weenie on 2 different trips now and noticed the little priming pan also was a suitable stabilizer. I didn't need anything bigger. Since the pan lights the stove and keeps it steady, maybe even Smirkingjack will give it a second chance!

[Matt Mahaney]

Maybe… I'm still tinkering.

[Mark Hurd]

John,

If you come up with something I'd be interested in hearing about it. I'm basically lazy, so it would save me a lot of work. :-)

-Mark

[Simon Harding]

Just received mine. A very nice piece of work. Can't wait to give it a try, which will have to wait until Sunday, unfortunately. Mine weighs in at .9 oz.

I love the "crush resistant" feel of it.

Simon

[Jeremy Greene]

It arrived in Texas within 4 days. Basic shipping was reasonable, but not discounted.

Some aluminum shavings were present, but overall it has acceptable finish for the price, especially considering it seems to be a cottage-scale company. Clear instructions warn to be careful of any unfinished edges… I managed to lightly slice my finger on the windscreen after reading them.

Boiled 1 cup of tap water indoors in an Evernew 400ml titanium mug with lid. There was fuel to spare. The flame slightly overlapped onto the walls of the cup but the silicone handles and lid survived. The bottom of this mug measures just under 3" in diameter. It is fortunate I chose this stove over the larger "Pro" stove.

This should work well for my summer solo kit. I may trim and ventilate the windscreen to fit my mug. This might geek consumption down to 1/4oz of spirits.

I am happy with the stove and look forward to getting outside.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Jeremy Greene]

Noticed a little distortion on the plastic lid of the titanium mug. Surface only and seals fine, but I won't heat again with the lid on. Handles show no wear, but they are more heat resistant.

[george carr]

Jeremy, glad you like the stove. I wouldn't advise a plastic lid when using any alky stove (sure, now's a good time to tell you). I would go with a foil lid (lightweight and saves your good lid from melting).

[Max Hoagland]

I built a gram weenie wannabe stove out of a hair gel aluminum container. It is the gram weenie design pretty much exactly and burns hot and fast. So far I haven't tested it with denatured alcohol, just some vodka from my cupboard and it works fine; better than my pepsi can stove. It is slightly heavier than my pepsi stove by just a few grams.

[Bach Melick]

Thanks for all the good info!

[Kevin Beeden]

It's all too possible to get carried away with making tiny stoves…

Here's one I made a while back from a 'Femfresh' pump aerosol bottle. The bottle, next to a 250ml 'red bull' burner:

And boiling water in the first thing that came to hand when it actually lit and bloomed…

[Greg Lewis]

Hi,

Are you guys having better luck with the yellow HEET than with denatured alcohol?

I have been using the SL-x brand of denatured from Lowe's or HD.

Greg

[Travis Leanna]

Greg,
I actually just got a Gram Weenie and there's been some discussion about HEET on another thread. I can't get HEET to perform that well, but I've been using Everclear, and that seems to work really well for me. There's an article on here about different fuels, their benefits or faults, additives which can be toxic, etc…
Just be careful with the denatured alcohol. See if you can get a list of other ingredients in there. The percentage of alcohol also makes a difference. Unless I'm mistaken, Everclear burns the cleanest, since it is only alcohol (95%) and water.

[Greg Lewis]

Thanks for the reply Travis. I have used denatured alcohol with good results in other stoves. I want to get a little better performance out of my GW because it is such a cool little stove.

I can't find a list of ingredients on the can but denatured alcohol is a fuel for marine stoves (and labeled as such). I have used it for this purpose in the past on boats. Marine stoves are used in enclosed rooms so I am not too worried about it, especially since it is outdoors.

I will get some everclear and give it a try. Any idea of the alcohol content in the yellow HEET?

George sent you the taller GW that uses 3/4oz correct? Have you used it yet? He is sending me one as well so I am curious.

Greg

[Greg Mihalik]

Find the composition of products by searching for "MSDS" and the product name. For instance "MSDS S-L-X"

The "Material Safety Data Sheet" will give you compounds by percentage. There is no standard format, so sometimes you have to do a little sleuthing. And look for newer, rather than older data, as composition changes over time.

JWBasecamp also has pointers to common fuels.

It is wise to know what you are breathing in terms of chemicals, as well as the mix of alcohols to determine maximum heat per unit of weight. (Ethanol is higher than Methanol.)

[Greg Lewis]

Thanks Greg,

So, it looks like yellow HEET would be the best in terms of performance. It is greater than 99% methanol, and 1% proprietary ingredients.

Everclear would be 95% ethyl, plus water, correct?

Denatured alcohol is 45 to 50% methanol, the same mix for ethyl, and 1% ethyl keytones.

I will be trying the HEET and the everclear since it is multi-use.

Greg

[Roger Caffin]

Sigh. We do careful research into the different alcohol fuels and publish the results here at BPL. Why don't you read these articles we go to so much trouble to prepare? I am really curious.

Methanol: toxic to humans, low energy content, burns OK
Ethanol: safe to handle, burns safely
Isopropanol: safe to handle, but burns poorly and gives off toxic combustion properties.

Denatured ethanol alcohol: Can be really good (in countries outside America), but can be OK to seriously dangerous when bought in America, depending on what was put in it. Read the MSDS for the brand.

Cheers

[Greg Lewis]

Hi Roger,

I just became a member today- and the first thing i did (after the post above) was look up the articles on stove fuel. Good info. I went to the liquor store here to pick up some everclear. Of course I found out that you can't get the 95% stuff here in WA.

Greg

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