I'm sorry if this has been covered to death but I've used the search function and can't seem to find an answer that suits me. I'm trying to find a stove that is efficient enough to use with the sp600. I've made a gram weenie and it wouldn't boil 2 cups of water without running out of fuel. The gram weenie was filled to capacity. I would prefer to keep it simple and would prefer to make my own stove. Right now I'm stuck with using a gigapower, which is ok but I would like a self contained cook set.

You need a top burner, non-pressurized. My experience thus far -- side burners, esp. pressurized ones will simply force much of the flame sideways and up the sides of your pot -- wasted.

A catfood stove will work -- although even the smallest ones are unnecessarily big. Thus far, I've settled on the smaller, lighter, 1oz. capacity wedding tin stove. I can get 2 cups to a rolling boil, using 0.75 oz. of fuel 99% of the time -- in 6-7 minutes. That's right, non-pressurized stoves will take a bit longer, but they are ultra simple and light and who's really in a hurry, right? My pot is the Firelite 550 -- with a diameter comparable to the SP 600.

Below are photos of my stove set up:

Edited by ben2world on 03/15/2011 20:26:04 MDT.

Where do you get the wedding tins? Craft stores?

I was lucky... I got a few from Jason Klass, our resident alky stove freak. But yes, you should be able to find them in craft stores..

1. Are the flame jets hitting the pot bottom correctly? Or, are the flames just dancing up the sides?

2. What kind of alcohol fuel are you using?

3. In the home-made gram weenies, I have seen lots of variation in the quantity and size of the jet holes. Fewer and smaller holes seem to blow the jets out too widely. More and larger holes reduce the jet pressure. It has to be the right compromise. I never remember the correct size for the holes. I just know that it is the very smallest drill bit in my set.

4. I don't know exactly how you prime your burner. I found a good primer pan is one aluminum cupcake liner, cut down.

--B.G.--

Here's a picture of the flame pattern of the home made gram weenie. I just did another burn with 2 cups of water in the cup. I filled the GW to capacity, probably a little under an ounce. I got a 7.5 min burn time and no boil.




The alcohol I'm using is from a Heet bottle, so it's burning hot. My jet holes are quite small. Maybe size #74. For testing, I'm not using a primer pan, I'm just pouring alcohol on the floor around the stove to heat it up quickly.

This may be minor, but that looks like it could be a concrete floor where the burner is sitting. That will act like a big heat sink. If you place the burner on an aluminum cupcake liner as a primer pan and prime it there, the alcohol inside may be warmed enough to increase the pressure, which may or may not do you any good.

My burner has only eight holes in it, and yours appears to have twice that many. That may be good or bad.

--B.G.--

Wow, I never thought about the concrete acting as a heat sink. I'll have to try this again in the morning on a different surface. And yes, you're right. That stove has at least 20 ports in it. Could be part of the problem.

I agree with Ben, you would be better off without the side jets. Look into top burners or vented chimney stoves, like a DIY version of the brasslite. There used to be a lighter version of the Brasslight, a turbo F, I would have loved to try out.

Also, you can carry a small circle of tin foil to insulate the stove from the ground. I have been testing out just taping the bottom of my White Box stove with some left over insulation tape I had for making pot cozies. So far it works pretty good.
-Rob

I don't know for sure about yours.

Your #74 drill bit holes are 0.0225", and you say that there are at least 20.

Mine are 0.0625", and there are only eight.

There are some stovies around here who probably know.

Just for grins, the first one of these that I made was larger in diameter and a bit taller, so it had much more alcohol capacity, so it had longer burn time.

--B.G.--

It's been a while since I tested the Gram Weenie. If I recall correctly, the fuel capacity is 0.5 oz -- correct? I believe that was the main reason why I could not consistently bring 2 cups to a rolling boil.

Since a lot of these are home-made out of different containers, I think there is a lot of variation in fuel capacity. Mine holds 1.2 ounce of alcohol.

--B.G.--

I use a Super Gram Weenie, which is simply a bit taller than the regular one. It also looks like your GW only has one row of ports. If I remember correctly, George from End2End switched to two rows of ports. He said the flame pattern was better, and worked better.

I think my stoves have 50+ holes in them. On 1/3 ounce of Everclear, I can consistently bring 12 ounces of water to a boil. While in Glacier NP for a week, I think I got a boil in all but 2 attempts, and the no-boils were because it was uber windy.

I believe the flame pattern is too large for the pot. IE, a lot of heat is being wasted up
the sides of the pot.

I can consistently get a boil with 1/2floz and 2 cups of 40F water using a different set up, so, I believe this one is simply out of balance. (Actually, on 6 runs the average was .43floz with the highest being .47floz.)

Anyway, this tells me that there is too much pressure on the jets, pushing the fuel out too fast. A couple of try's, but I think the stove is too large for the pot...too much of the
center of the pot is covered and only the smaller edge is left to heat things.
For what you have:
1) Ream the jets out at an steep angle upward. Increase the hole size slightly. This will have the effect of directing the fuel upward, rather than out. But, the increased flow rate may have minimal effect on heating the water, since the heat will still roll off the edge of the pot before transferring heat.
2) Opening the jets a bit will reduce the pressure of the fuel. This will not reduce flow but may reduce the flame spread diameter. Again, the pot size is an issue. Or, simply add more jets. This will reduce pressure, but allow about the same gas mixing.

The small pot is really the key point. A wider pot, and shorter would be better. Or, looking at it from the other side, an open topped burner, but then you need a pot stand.

Try this, a K-Mart grease pot over the burner with 2 cups of water. This will let you definitively determine if the stove is being inefficient, or, the pot is just too small
using the stove you have. Also, Ti is not the best heat conductor, aluminum would be better.