If anyone else is looking to make a copy of a whitebox stove like this, then as has been said earlier, the main UK source of alu bottles were the world cup bud bottles. That said, white box stoves are not expensive if you choose to buy one.
They are fairly strong, but do not perform as well as ordinary coke can stoves. As with all side burner stoves, you will ideally use a wide based pot/pan, or a lot of the heat from the flames will be lost to the sides of your pot (as in the pics below) The only efficient solution for narrow based pots is to use top burner or 'photon' burner can stoves (all of these are easily sourced on the internet).
To carry your fuel, you have lots of choices:
There are dedicated meths bottles made by trangia, which are very good, as they have safety valves.
There are dedicated fuel bottles made by lots of companies (that look essentially like sigg bottles). The difference between fuel bottles and ordinary sigg bottles is that the fuel bottles have different screw caps. These screw caps allow the user to pour fuel without totally removing the top, which improves safety.
MSR fuel bottles are not suitable, as they have no plastic lining, and so the meths inside will eventually eat through the metal of the bottle, forming pin holes.
Plastic bottles that the meths come in are also pretty good (obviously), but can crack or split over time.
Fizzy pop bottles are very good, and strong too, but only have ordinary tops just like a normal sigg bottle.
Companies like 'Vargo' make dedicated meths bottles. These essentially look like shampoo bottles, but unlike shampoo bottles, the pouring spouts wont leak in the closed position. A pouring spout allows the user to be much more accurate when filling the stove, as well as making it much easier to get the fuel exactly where you want it to go (especially when priming a stove).
The only point to make about the comments below, is that the inner rings/walls on meths stoves do not act as wicks, but essentially are barriers so allow a trickle of meths into the outer wall of the stoves, where the fluid evaporates into meths vapour, which then ignites once it reaches the burner holes in the stove. For this reason, a stove will bloom more quickly if left for a while after filling, or if the outer wall of the stove is heated first (priming)
Although I have been making and selling meths stoves for many years, there are literally hundreds (if not more) of internet tutorials to look for. A basic meths stove will display efficiency of approx 35%, whereas folks who experiment, and use various cone type windshields can raise this to over 60%.
If you already use a normal sigg bottle to hold your meths, then it is easy to adapt the screw cap for fuel use: Drill one hole just below the rubber seal, and then directly opposite that, drill another smaller hole. The large one is for the fuel, while the small one is to allow air into the bottle. This means you can unscrew the top a few turns, and then pour fuel. This allows for more accuracy, and less chance of spillage or flame traveling into the bottle.
As with all fuel containers, do not fill the bottle all the way to the top, or the meths may expand with one of two results:
The top will become to tight to undo lol.
the pressure will blow the seal and the meths will leak (if you look at many fuel bottles, they have a max fill line marked on them).
Just my two penneth
They are fairly strong, but do not perform as well as ordinary coke can stoves. As with all side burner stoves, you will ideally use a wide based pot/pan, or a lot of the heat from the flames will be lost to the sides of your pot (as in the pics below) The only efficient solution for narrow based pots is to use top burner or 'photon' burner can stoves (all of these are easily sourced on the internet).
To carry your fuel, you have lots of choices:
There are dedicated meths bottles made by trangia, which are very good, as they have safety valves.
There are dedicated fuel bottles made by lots of companies (that look essentially like sigg bottles). The difference between fuel bottles and ordinary sigg bottles is that the fuel bottles have different screw caps. These screw caps allow the user to pour fuel without totally removing the top, which improves safety.
MSR fuel bottles are not suitable, as they have no plastic lining, and so the meths inside will eventually eat through the metal of the bottle, forming pin holes.
Plastic bottles that the meths come in are also pretty good (obviously), but can crack or split over time.
Fizzy pop bottles are very good, and strong too, but only have ordinary tops just like a normal sigg bottle.
Companies like 'Vargo' make dedicated meths bottles. These essentially look like shampoo bottles, but unlike shampoo bottles, the pouring spouts wont leak in the closed position. A pouring spout allows the user to be much more accurate when filling the stove, as well as making it much easier to get the fuel exactly where you want it to go (especially when priming a stove).
The only point to make about the comments below, is that the inner rings/walls on meths stoves do not act as wicks, but essentially are barriers so allow a trickle of meths into the outer wall of the stoves, where the fluid evaporates into meths vapour, which then ignites once it reaches the burner holes in the stove. For this reason, a stove will bloom more quickly if left for a while after filling, or if the outer wall of the stove is heated first (priming)
Although I have been making and selling meths stoves for many years, there are literally hundreds (if not more) of internet tutorials to look for. A basic meths stove will display efficiency of approx 35%, whereas folks who experiment, and use various cone type windshields can raise this to over 60%.
If you already use a normal sigg bottle to hold your meths, then it is easy to adapt the screw cap for fuel use: Drill one hole just below the rubber seal, and then directly opposite that, drill another smaller hole. The large one is for the fuel, while the small one is to allow air into the bottle. This means you can unscrew the top a few turns, and then pour fuel. This allows for more accuracy, and less chance of spillage or flame traveling into the bottle.
As with all fuel containers, do not fill the bottle all the way to the top, or the meths may expand with one of two results:
The top will become to tight to undo lol.
the pressure will blow the seal and the meths will leak (if you look at many fuel bottles, they have a max fill line marked on them).
Just my two penneth
