[pct-l] cat, pepsi stove stands

[chelin at teleport.com (Sharon & Chuck Chelin)]

Good morning, Onion,

My CAT and Pepsi can stoves do not work well with the pot placed directly
on, or very close to, their top.  They do usually burn with the pot in
contact, but poorly.  I have found that a distance of approximately 1.0"
between the stove top and the pot is best.  If the stand is too low
combustion suffers, and if it's too high not only will there be unnecessary
heat loss, a proportionately higher wind screen will be necessary, and the
stand will probably be too high to fit inside the pot.

The standard square or rectangular pattern welded wire fencing works very
well for a stand, and it's cheap so you can experiment.  As important as the
spacing for combustion is the pot stability issue.  I can seldom find a
perfectly flat, level location upon which to set the stove, so regardless if
I use a standard Evernew Titanium pot or a cheap-o grease pot, trying to
balance the pot on the relatively small diameter of the stove is risky.  I
don't even use the conventional fence-wire stand design that has all of the
vertical wires bent inward at the top because the pot can still slide
sideways.  I leave every-other vertical wire straight up to capture the side
of the pot.  One result of this is, if the ends of the horizontal wires were
twisted together as recommended, the stand would no longer fit inside the
pot so I just leave the ends free and I slightly coil the stand to fit
inside the pot.  In this way, the stand will snugly support, and fit inside
of, either an Evernew or a grease pot.

Steel-Eye



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garret Christensen" <garretchristensen@yahoo.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2005 12:19 AM
Subject: [pct-l] cat, pepsi stove stands


> My contribution to consumerism on black friday was in
> the form of fiberglass insulation and cat food.  So
> now I've made my stove, and I'm wondering about it.
> Does everybody use a stand to keep the pot elevated
> above the cans?  I've used pepsi stoves a bunch
> without a stand; you put the pot right on there, and
> the flames come out the tiny holes you poked around
> the rim, nice and even.  I thought that was kinda the
> point, but I've seen people use pepsi stoves with
> stands.  The cat stove works even if the pot sit right
> over the big top hole, but that's probably not how
> things are intended.  thoughts?
>
> thanks,
> the onion