Miniature Aluminium Alcohol Stove

[spandit]

It may be. I've always done it this way, as I wasn't sure if the holes in the outer, would weaken the wall, making it split or fold under compression. Another thing I will have to try.

Thanks for looking spandit.

Adam

Thanks for making it in the first place!

I see what you mean about weakening the structure. Do Trangias (and copies) have some form of fibre wick in them or do they work in a similar fashion to this somehow?

 

[savagebushcraft]

I've never cut open a Trangia to see, but I have never noticed any small pieces of fibre fall out. Not saying that means they don't have any in them.

 

[Shewie]

Must make one of these soon. Is it not safer to drill the holes before fitting the two halves (safer as in less likely to pierce the inner can)?

You feel it go when it pops through the first layer, plenty of time to ease off with the drill anyhow

 

[ateallthepies]

I know a fast boil time is not everything but this is starting to really bug me. With my Trangia and all the mini stoves I have been making the 100 degrees c rolling boil has been taking between 8.5 and 9.5 minutes for 1 pint or half a litre of straight out the tap water.

Just been watching a youtuber do a Trangia boil test with 1 litre of room temp water whatever that was and he was getting a rolling boil in 10 minutes! That is 1.5 minutes extra for double the water I use.

Would his water being room temperature against my probably colder water straight out the tap and the fact he used a full cook set against just my pot stand make such a difference in boil times?

Seems like whatever I try I can't get a 500ml boil going in under 8.5 minutes???? Is this normal?

Steve.

 

[savagebushcraft]

A lot of the boil time depends on several things.

1: Heat being applied to the pan. The obvious one, but check to see if the flame covers the whole of the base of the pan, or is the heat being wasted beyond the base of the pan.

2: Heat loss. If you use stainless cookware, then this will act as a giant heat sink, taking heat away from the liquid inside. Also a lid should be used. Steam has five times the energy of the boiling water itself, so keeping any steam in accelerates the heating of the liquid. Plus a container too big, will have the same effect.

3: Ambient air temperature. Much like the cookware, the air can take heat away, especially with greater wind speeds and moisture content.

4: Start temperature. The least important, if you have the others right, the time it takes to get to that few degrees hotter, is negligible.

 

[ateallthepies]

I have been using a small Trangia Aluminium kettle admittedly without a lid sat about 30mm above the Trangia stove on a pot rest in my garage. The flames in general are kept to the base of the kettle.

I will have to see if covering the small kettle opening makes a difference? I don't mind experimenting but it's gonna cost me a small fortune in meths, did almost 500ml tonight faffing around!!

Steve.

 

[Shewie]

Trangias are never fast but they do get the job done eventually, a side burner like Adam has made are much hotter and generally more fuel efficient. Find or make a lid for the kettle and it will boil much faster without a doubt, a cosy fitting windshield helps a bunch too.

If you've got wider bottom pans then you can't go far wrong with a sideburner.

 

[savagebushcraft]

I'll run a boil test with my aluminum Stesco (it's the nearest I have to a trangia), with the full 1L. Will report back as soon as the results are in and post a video.

 

[PDA1]

@Atealthepies - I have the Clas Ohlsen knock off off the Trangia full cook set. The wind protection of the upper half of the set, and the fact that the bottom raises the burner off the (cold) ground makes an enormous difference. I have heated 2 cups + of water at about 5 deg c in ambient 5 c (ie, fuel and burner were cold) in 5 1/2 minutes. This was outside on a campsite table early in the morning.The shape of the windscreen, which totally envelopes the pan, directs the flame and hot exhaust up and along the pot sides, and the enclosed space reflects heat back down to the burner, encouraging the alcohol to vapourise better, . and so make the flames even bigger. I believe the enclosing windscreen is the most important part, as the Caldera cone system also works very effectively outdoors. All alcohol stove flames are pretty weak compared to gas or liquid fuel stoves and are very easily blown away from the pot unless confined by an effective windscreen. I would strongly recommend the Clas Ohlsen Asaklitt set (UKP 10 vs Trangia UKP 40
http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/Product/Product.aspx?id=164029951
See some reviews at
http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___81212#pr-header-81212WC

(which is where I bought mine)

or the Caldera cone system sized to your pot and burner if you want lighter and smaller packing for back-packing,
Some complain the the Asaklitt burner is fragile compared with a pukka Trangia. i say don't step on it or kick it around the camp site and it will be fine, it's stronger than my home made pop can stoves.
I have no commercial interest in either of those concerns but am a (very) satisfied customer.

 

[savagebushcraft]

Ok, just filmed this mini stove. As it stands, in ambient 14°C-15°C, with water temp 14°C-15°C, stove at 15°C-17°C (not sure why it was warmer) boil time for 1L was a miserable 12:42. Which isn't very good. The larger version has returned times of 6.5 minutes - 7 minutes, quite regularly.
The video is being processed at the moment, but I don't think I need to prove such a poor time lol

 

[PDA1]

@savagebushcraft - Great little stove you made. Design is very like the "Whitebox" stove or the Minibull design "Bios". They are nade from Aluminium beer bottles so I'm not sure what the size comparison would be. It's noticable that both have 16 - 20 jet holes, of significantly smaller diameter than yours. This might explain the better reported boil times. Side burners are also very dependent on pot size also. With a Super Cat stove, I get 4 minute boil time with a 5" diameter light Al pot, but 7 minutes+ with a Heineken keg pot of 3 1/4 " diameter

 

[savagebushcraft]

Thanks PDA1. The larger version of this stove is almost identical to the white box, which is in fact made from an aluminium bottle and called the white box stove, because it comes in a...well...white box . I plan on making a few more with varying numbers and sizes, of jets.
I know what you mean with the pot size for the side burners. If you have a wide spread of flame/heat, you want to make the most of it with a wide pot.

 

[savagebushcraft]

Here is, quite possibly, the most boring film on YouTube. Excuse the odd sounding voice, it was late

[video=youtube;-Ql0Yoph5Zw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ql0Yoph5Zw&feature=email&email=comment_received[/video]

(couldn't find my Stesco kettle, so used a Tesco one instead)

 

[Andy T]

I've made quite a few white box stove copies now and i think that for narrower pots it's better to have more jets. I think this may be because the more jets means the pressure inside the stove has more ways to get out and so the flames dont spread quite so far, if that makes sense ?

 

[savagebushcraft]

That makes perfect sense Andy. Seems to be the only downside to the sideburner.
I need more bottles to try more configurations.

Adam

 

[savagebushcraft]

Just started uploading a video of the "standard" size, with 16 x 1.5mm jets. Boil time was 10:10, which is still pretty relaxed.

 

[ateallthepies]

Cool, will watch the vids later, just got back from work but now have to go out for a bit.

Steve.

 

[ateallthepies]

Well I am a little more pleased today as I managed to get one of my pellet tin stoves to boil 500ml in 5.5 minutes, that's at least 3.5 minutes faster than before! I used one stove I made before with 21 X 1.5mm holes and re-drilled to 2mm and also added an inner wall made from a strip of pop can. I also adjusted the pot height by seating the stove in an Esbit mini stove frame. The pellet tin fits perfect in the Esbit frame when closed and is my new favourite stove set up! The only problem is it takes a while to bloom and usually needs two separate squirts of priming meths to get going.

If anyone wants pics I will stick them on?

ATB,

Steve.

 

[savagebushcraft]

Great news mate. And yeah, go ahead and stick some pics up.