DoItYourself Projects

I've decided to categorize this entry under DoItYourself Projects because I think the category best defines me. I feel that showing people what you do is the best way to explain who you are.

The following is a list of my hobbies in order of priority. Priority, to me, is most heavily weighted towards the amount of time I spend on any given hobby. This shouln't be confused with the amount of time I spend on "other things" outside of work. If this definition were used, it would easily show that my favorite pastime was repairing our rental houses! Though I should certainly disclaim that my first choice for spending time is with my wife.

Hobbies:

• Reading
• Road Biking
• Motorcycling
• Inline Hockey
• Underwater Hockey
• Photography
• Kickball
• Geek stuff (Linux, this website!, etc.)
• Hiking 14ers
• Mountain Biking
• Ultra-light Backbacking
• Cross-Country Skiing
• Ice Sailing
• Freediving
• Windsurfing
• Sailplanes (remote control)

Overview

After copious research and reading about all the alcohol stove designs, this is my incarnation of the Convex Pepsi Can alcohol stove. I really liked the regular Pepsi Can Stove, the Photon stove, and the Convex Pepsi Can Stove, but they all had their downsides (in my opinion).

My Requirements

Here were my requirements:

• Very easy to build.
• Reliable.
• No epoxy (JB Weld) and its associated dry time! I want to try this thing now! Like "in 5 minutes" kind of now!
• I wanted it to be simple enough to re-build on the trail or at the next town if I was unfortunate enough to crush it during a long thru-hike.

Problems With Other Stove Designs

The problems with the regular Pepsi Can Stove:

• It requires use of epoxy (JB Weld)
• The whole center-fill design is cool, but way too complicated to build!

The problems with the Photon stove:

• It requires using epoxy (JB Weld)
• It requires cutting the upper section very carefully for insertion into the bottom.
• It requires precise placement of the jet holes.

The problem with the Convex Pepsi Can Stove:

• It is very difficult to fill!

Since I am a very objective person, I have the following gripes about my own design!

• It requires using a baby's nose sucker (nasal aspirator) or a pointed funnel to fill the stove with alcohol (at the hole at the convex top).
• The baby's nose sucker or pointed funnel is just "one more thing" to have to worry about.
• It still uses the center screw for the fill-hole (borrowed from the Photon design). This (I have read) is possibly dangerous if you light the stove when forgetting to put the screw back first.
• The center screw is just "one more thing" to have to worry about.

Anyhow, enough of that mumbo jumbo, lets see the pretty pictures and the tutorial!

Tutorial and Pictures

Supplies

- 2 Pepsi cans
- Big tuna or chicken can (12 oz size)
- Baby nose sucker (nasal aspirator) (buy at grocery store)
- Expanded aluminum gutter strainer by Amerimax (buy at Home Depot)
- Small screw
- Thumb tack

Potstand

Cut the expanded aluminum about 2 1/2 inches high. Use tin snips or sheet-metal scissors. Make the diameter fit your pot. NOTE: Don't use galvanized metal, because of the fumes released when hot.

Base/Preheat Pan

Cut the tuna can leaving 1/2 inch side walls. This will serve as the preheating pan.

Cut the Pepsi cans

Cut the two Pepsi cans with scissors.

Pepsi cans are cut

The tall one is 1 1/2 inches in total height and the short one has 1/8 inch of straight sidewall.

Poke 18 holes in the can

Poke 18 small holes in the can. The smaller the better.

I used a thumb tack and if you just stop pushing the instant you have broke the surface, you'll end up with pretty small holes. I just made the holes "by eye". Other guys measure exactly where to make the holes for better symentry. They also use small drill bits to make it look better. My version works just fine, and that is all that matters to me.

Poke from the bottom

I find it easier to poke the holes this way, into the bottom.

Make the screw hole

Poke a hole in the center, then use a screwdriver to put the screw all the way in. Remove and insert the screw a few times and you'll be able to do it by hand (without the screwdriver). I noticed that over time, it stays tight when inserted and keeps a great seal.

Ready to insert

You might try sanding the contact edges. I suppose (in theory) this may help the two cans from sliding. I have found the sanding is not needed. They get stuck together very well as it is.

Push together

Push the two together with your palm. Do this on a firm surface.

Done

I weighed it in at 0.4 Oz !! That is lighter than my titanium spork :)

Fill with alcohol

I have found that one squeeze of the "baby nose sucker" is about 1/2 Oz of alcohol. This is enough to boil 2 cups of water. Remember to put the screw back before lighting!

After being used

Set in the preheat base

This is where I was confused when I was first reading about these alcohol stoves. I didn't know how it worked to light the stove. If you put a very small squeeze of alcohol around the preheat base, and a few drops on top of the can stove, when you light the base of alcohol, it ends up lighting the can too! Apparantly the base alcohol burns and heats the can and ignites the alcohol in the can too.

With the potstand

Everything except the windscreen

Packing it up

All packed up