Very light and efficient alcohol cook kit

That’s a great boil time!

Can you give us a weight breakdown?

Am I correct in thinking the pan works for both priming and as a heat reflector?  Did you experiment with a lighter priming mechanism that doesn’t reflect?

How tall is the stove and how high above it do you place the pot?

Looks like 12 jets – did you use a particular drill size, or just use something like a thumb tack.  Are they angled to create a vortex effect, or pointing at the center?

I’m curious about the fit of it all assembled – how high the screen goes up the pot and clearance.  Dimensions or a photo?

And lastly, are you measuring ounces by volume, or mass – fuel is lighter than water.

See answers below followed by >>

Can you give us a weight breakdown?

>> Stove=7g  Stand=7g  Pan (with RedBull can bottom glued to it)=5g  Windscreen=10g

Am I correct in thinking the pan works for both priming and as a heat reflector? Did you experiment with a lighter priming mechanism that doesn’t reflect?

>> The pan does facilitate priming and also works as a heat reflector. I affixed the inner bottom of a RedBull can to it to prevent pooling of priming fuel under the stove. I have tried various priming methods and found this one to work best.

How tall is the stove and how high above it do you place the pot?

>> Stove itself is 1 inch in height. The stand is a bit over 2.25 inches in height. With the pan and stand the pot sits 1.25 inches above the stove top.

Looks like 12 jets – did you use a particular drill size, or just use something like a thumb tack. Are they angled to create a vortex effect, or pointing at the center?

>> I punched these straight down using a sewing needle  chucked in a drill press.

I’m curious about the fit of it all assembled – how high the screen goes up the pot and clearance. Dimensions or a photo?

>> The screen is 2 7/8 inches high by 4 1/4 inches in diameter. There are 13 air slots, 3/4″ x 1/4″ positioned 5/8″ high at their centers. The screen goes up about a half an inch above the bottom of the pot and is about 1/2 inch in diameter larger than the pot… so 1/4 inch clearance around the pot.

>> See  photo below

And lastly, are you measuring ounces by volume, or mass – fuel is lighter than water.

>> Fuel measured in fluid ounces… Approximately 30ml

Timed using small amount of primer with a 15 second warmup. The time to boil did not include this warmup. The time shown was achieved with Yellow Heet. A time to boil of 4:30 was achieved using .75 oz. Everclear.

I punched these straight down using a sewing needle  chucked in a drill press.

nice trick!

Correction: I use 15ml of Heet

Thanks for the details.  Yeah, nice trick w/ the needle.

Is the jet size important?  Did you explore using the top of the stove as a priming pan?  Reversing the concavity around the fuel port, or moving the port off center let you do this.

I have used the same needle for all my stoves of which I have made nearly 20 over the last decade before arriving at this design. The holes created with it are .025″ or there abouts.

When priming, I do add a bit of fuel to the top depression and then I dribble a some off one side and down to the priming pan. I am not sure how much fuel I use for this but it amounts to only several drops.

I have always put the fuel port in the center of the depression. I can’t see any advantage to moving it but I am open to suggestions. The port is a drilled and threaded aluminum pop rivet which has been glued in place with the same JB Weld I use to join the pop can sections and the priming pan convex can bottom.

This is a very neat piece of work.  Do you put any material inside the stove to absorb the fuel?  What is the total fuel capacity of the stove?  Thanks for sharing the details of the design.

Renais

Thanks for the jet size.

My thinking in moving the port off center is it leaves the deepest part of the bowl free to hold priming fuel, so you don’t need a separate pan, and you retain the funnel function of the concave top to get fuel in to the port.  But this will probably prime slower than a pan below the stove.

Clever, threading a pop-rivet.

Thank you Renais.

I have put a lot of time and effort into perfecting this stove and this is the only time I have shared it . Your appreciation of it means a lot to me.

There is nothing inside the stove though I may try to add some fiberglass insulation to future versions to make them more spill proof – not that this has been a problem. Total fuel capacity is around 30ml or one ounce though I never fill it beyond just what is required to boil the two cups of water I use for all my meals. As I said, 15ml is fine for two cups using Yellow Heet. a bit more than this of Everclear boils in slightly more time.

Actually with the screw fuel closure in place you can use the concave stove top as you suggest. I have found that priming is faster and more efficient with flames going up the side rather than concentrated in the top.

I appreciate you sharing the details.

Find the section on “Fiberglass Wicking” here: http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/

He said it slowed down the burn, increasing boil and burn times.  I think carbon felt is more absorbent, so better for spill proofing, and will probably have the same effect.

Half an ounce of Heet will boil two cups of 55 degree water in 3:50 at my elevation of just over 9,000 feet in Summit County Colorado.

Congrats!  that’s impressive!