[pct-l] Re: pct-l-digest V1 #653

["Shane Graber" <sgraber@Bigfoot.com>]

The design at http://www.backpacking.net/contents.html is about a year old.
I've updated my page extensively since then.  You can find the updated pages
located at http://www.fulton-net.com/~sgraber.  The directions are much more
thorough, there's directions on how to make a pot stand, how to use the
stove, comparison against a Trangia, FAQ, etc.  This may give you more
information regarding your questions.  Point to note:  methanol will burn
much better in this type of stove than just about any other fuel.  It has a
much higher vapor pressure than either rubbing alcohol or white gas, meaning
it will more readily vaporize than the other fuels.  The alcohol stoves by
nature burn with a very gentle flame...not like the blowtorch that an MSR
stove produces.

A number of factors will play into how fast an alcohol stove will heat a
prescribed amount of water.  1) Distance between the stove and the pot  2)
Pot material  3) fuel used  4) draft.  I have not run extensive testing on
the distance that the stove needs to be from the pot, but from the
information that I've gleaned from the web is that the further the flame is
away from the stove, the quicker the water will boil (you basically are
heating the pot with a hotter portion of the flame).  Aluminum tends to boil
water quicker than titanium...haven't tried stainless steel yet.  Haven't
experimented with the fuel either, but methanol was selected because it
burns with a clean flame vs. just about any other fuel.  A draft will help
the stove burn hotter up to a point.  Much experimentation needs to be done
yet this winter...   =)

If you do any experimentation with any of the above points, I would
appreciate hearing about it!

Shane Graber



>------------------------------
>
>Date: Sat, 16 Jan 1999 22:48:53 -0500
>From: "Brett Tucker" <blisterfree@surfree.com>
>Subject: [pct-l] Homemade alcohol stove
>
>Hello,
>
>I noticed a few posts several weeks ago about making an alcohol-burning
>stove using tin cans and a few simple tools. Someone supplied a few web
>sites for obtaining further instructions, among which were:
>
>http://www.uvol.com/scouts/stove/stoveUNPC.htm
>http://www.backpacking.net/contents.html
>
>Even a year or so ago I recall talk of PCT hikers banishing their trusty
but
>weighty MSR's and getting into the stove building business. So I thought
I'd
>try it for myself.
>
>But a few questions have emerged. I followed the instructions from the
>backpacking.net website to the letter, but they've left out a few details
>that would be helpful. The suggested fuel for use in this type of stove is
>methanol - methyl alcohol. A cursory search around town for this fuel
turned
>up nothing. I'm sure it's out there, but this leads me to wonder about
>availability in the kinds of towns one finds along the PCT, or other out of
>the way places. Has anyone who has used this type of stove successfully
>found methanol on a reliable basis while on journey? Or did you turn to
>another fuel? How did that work out for you?
>
>Lacking methanol, but eagerly anticipating the first firing-up of my
>hard-wrought creation, I headed into the basement; opened the bulkhead for
>ventilation (it's winter, nighttime, indoor stove-testing), and tried
>burning the two fuels lying around the house. Isopropyl alcohol, 91%, was
>first. Poured a tiny amount into the stove-can; lit a match. With a bit of
>coaxing, it did burn, weakly. Apparantly not resiliently enough to vaporize
>the fuel out of the 32 burner holes located around the stove's perimeter.
>The result was a paltry flame eminating from the large hole in the center.
>Not enough to cook a meal with, I figured.
>
>The second fuel was good ol' white gas, which I predicted would fair about
>the same, plus soot. Sure enough. A bit more vigorous was the flame, but
>still no action from the burner holes.
>
>And this leads me to wonder how methanol will fare, if and when I find it.
>Will it vaporize from the holes, and if so, what sort of flame will this
>produce? A blue flame, like a "professional" stove, a strong yellow
>flame - sufficient to boil 1 qt water in the prescribed 10 minutes?
>
>And the big question. How does this stove actually work? I can build it,
but
>that doesn't mean I understand it! The stove, by virtue of the fact that it
>contains an interior cylinder of scrap aluminum soda can, has "two walls."
>Between the two, we have no ventilation save for the burner holes and the
>v-shaped notches along the bottom. The notches appear to allow fuel, and
>thus flame, to pass into this "chamber." For some reason, therefore, the
>fuel is supposed to vaporize out of the holes as it burns, producing a
>strong, burner-type flame. Is this the result of extreme heat build-up in
>the chamber, a lack of oxygen, or what? And I wonder why it isn't happening
>with isopropyl alcohol (granted, not ideal) or white gas?
>
>Certainly someone on the list who has used this type of stove in the field
>will know the answers to these baffling questions, and be able to help me
>shed my packweight by 13 ozs. Or at least the methanol availability issue
>would be nice to have a handle on.
>
>By the way, this stove is purportedly an emulation of the mini-Trangia
(20?)
>alocohol stove, which I assume runs on methanol and functions about the
same
>way. Only the homemade weighs 1 oz to Trangia's 3 ozs.
>
>Thanks for the insights,
>- - Blister
>
>"A man on foot...will see more, feel more, enjoy more
>in one mile than the motorized tourists can
>in a hundred miles." - Ed Abbey
>
>
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>
>------------------------------


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