Yup, that's the method I used. Although I'm looking around at paint strippers...
Fortunately the chavscum around me seem to discard enough cans in the street on the 3.75km ride home every night for me to make lots of stoves. I just make sure I clean them carefully before starting work; don't want to pick up nasty diseases...
I stopped last night to pick a can up, and a local drunkard offered me his empty. Which was very kind, and I thanked him for. Luckily, since it was Strongbow, it was too big. I'm sure he must have been puzzled...
I ve just used the green scrubby pad things you get for scouring dirty pans. The emery cloth I have in workk is to rough but finer stuff like wet and dry would be faster I imagine.
Paint stripper? It would have to be pretty nasty stuff I think. Ive tried the solvent stuff we have for cleaning the ink from the date coders in work. It doesnt do a thing for the can paint but the date printed on the base of the can just runs off like its supposed to.
I tested out some stoves last night including the "Frumlight" Ill stick the results up after I've had a sleep and can be bothered looking for the lead to plug my phone in to get the photies up here.
I made the mistake of letting the simmer ring sit in the flame last night, and it reminded me that the grade of aluminium alloy used for cans has a very low eutectic point.
I now have a distorted and bubbled surface simmer ring...
I imagine the grade of alloy required to allow the very deep forming of a can must be very soft and ductile when annealed.
Foil trays, on the other hand, I think are practically pure Al, and seem totally unphased by being held in the meths flame.
Ooh! Googling for '"alminium can" manufacture'* came up with a nice slide sequence.
Going through the Alcan presentation, one product they showed was printers' photolith plates. Despite doing a bit of printing at university, I'd forgotten about those. I might take a trip to my local print outfits and see if they have any scrap...
* the answer is in the slide sequence. Can bodies are 3000 series Al alloys, and are multi-pass processed.
In all tests I used 450ml approx of water from the cold tap.
(450ml because I just picked what looked like a decent amount for a serious cuppa or soup or even a simple meal and measured it with a steel rule in the water which read 60mm inside a Alpkit Ti mug, I checked this morning with a measuring jug and that is 450 ml)
I used 1 Tealight full of meths in each stove with a few drips from the same Tealight to prime the pressure stoves.
Results were
Tealight:
Boil time= No boil but def hot enough to make a hot drink, there were small bubble forming that were starting to lift off but not yet boiling.
Total time burning= 10min 54sec approx
Frumlight:
Boil time= No boil, same as Tealight.
Total time burning= 4min 30sec approx
Coke pressure stove, 8x1mm jets aimed at centre:
Boil time= 9min 18sec approx, rolling boil achieved.
Total time burning= 11min 20sec approx
Red bull pressure stove, 8x1mmjets aimed at centre +8x1mm jets aimed out:
Boil time= No boil similar to the Tea and Frumlights
Total burn time= 5min 13sec approx
The Coke pressure stove gave the best performance and I also noticed the pot handles were cool to touch as the jet were all pointed at the base of the pot in the centre. Im not sure wether it was the lower number of jets or the direction they were facing that made the difference. I suspect though that the Red bull wasted heat up the side of the pot with the jets pointing out
I will now make a few Coke stoves and Red bull stove and play with jet configs and numbers and see what difference in performance I get when I repeat the above tests.
Taking no chances with the worktop this time, eh...?
I notice you only take the lower can half way up the side. I find that I get a better seal if I take the lower can all the way up, and shorten the inner. My argument is that it's the stronger shoulder on the inner can, pressing out against the wall of the lower can. With the short lower and full length upper, you don't get the same degree of interference fit.
What I have noticed is that with all the burners I've made this way (all of which are pretty similar, being based around a common conic section wall design), they all have a single pucker/buckle in the outer wall, about 5mm below the upper shoulder. You can feel/hear it go 'pop' as you're pressing the cans together.
d'oh! just remembered that the reason I mentioned the melting cans was that both BBF and ed h had trouble with their pan supports melting/softening in the flame.
I was going to use my observations to suggest using metal from foil trays, rather than cans, as this seems much more resistant to heat.
Oh, and if anyone wants a spreadsheet to design open-topped and side-burner red bull burners, drop me an email. It calculates the conic section design, including fuel port and overlap positions and graduation marks, and uses volume and other measurements I've made on the cans.
BBF, nice set of piccies and tests. I noticed that your coke stove had a total of 8 jet holes while the Red Bull one had 16. Does this explain the difference in performance?
Disappointed that the Frumlight didn't reach a rolling boil. I did all my testing using 236 ml of water, because that is one U.S.cup, and I could compare with other published results that way, but I had assumed that with more fuel it would boil more water. Can you say whether the cooking pot tamed the 'inferno' you commented on when you tested it without a pot on top? Would you be happy to use it in a tent entrance?
> CP, you were showing an interest in the 'White Box stove' bottle
Yeah, I think I recall reading that the WBS is made with Budweiser bottles.
The method shown in that video is a bit crude; nasty rough edges everywhere. Bangind the two halves together is a possibility, though. I'd forego the faff with the wick and JB Weld around the top, and just use a tart tray priming pan, I think. Maybe I'll try the banging method with the one 99p Store conditioner bottle I've got left. I just might be able to afford to buy some more...
hi everyone... I have not got time to read all the way through all the posts in this thread, but I did notice someone asking how to strip the paint/print from cans.
When I make my pepsi, and red bull stoves, I just make them as most of you probably do, but then run them over a buffing wheeel on my bench grinder. The buffing wheel (for those that dont know) is a cotton wheel used for polishing all kinds of metal. This removes any paint that is showing (the bits that dont show dont matter) and leaves the cans with a chrome-like finish.
Just for fun I also polish the base of the stoves to a mirror finish, as this can be used to fucus the sun's rays, and thus light a fire. Although this does work well, it really is more of a conversation point than a practical thing, so is still worth while for overnight stop "round the fire chats"
Hi Charles (the kiwi), It's interesting to note that your stoves, and mesh support are all 2g heavier than mine. Curious!.
Also, if any of you are making mesh pan supports from the square type chicken wire (don't know it's real name), it's worth remembering that you can cut out some of the horizontal wires to save even more weight!.
I often do this to the supports I make, and find they are still more than strong enough. The only other thing regarding supports worth mentioning, is that I tend to make them either to suit folks pot size (interior or course). or the fuel bottle they use (exterior), so that the support takes up no extra room in the pack. The method I use to join them togher is to use "sandwich bag" ties, as this is quick and easy, and more reliable (and lighter) than soldering.
I simply twist the ties around the section to be joined, cut off any excess, and then burn away the plastic surround with a blowlamp.
BBF, nice set of piccies and tests. I noticed that your coke stove had a total of 8 jet holes while the Red Bull one had 16. Does this explain the difference in performance?
Disappointed that the Frumlight didn't reach a rolling boil. I did all my testing using 236 ml of water, because that is one U.S.cup, and I could compare with other published results that way, but I had assumed that with more fuel it would boil more water. Can you say whether the cooking pot tamed the 'inferno' you commented on when you tested it without a pot on top? Would you be happy to use it in a tent entrance?
Remember it was almost a full pint of water I was heating and they were'nt all that far from boiling anyway, you would still get away with making a cuppa with it. The Frum light did seem to have calmed down with the pot on top, I would use it in a tent vestibule as long as you are carefull (which you should always be anyway when cooking inside).
As regards the coke and redbull stoves I think pressure ones like this are the way forward for me at the moment. I'm not sure whether it was the number of jets or if it was the direction of them although I'm leaning more towards the direction. The handles were pretty cool to touch with the coke stove but pretty warm (not to hot to touch though) with the red bull stove suggesting that there was a good bit of heat wasted up the sides. The 16 jets did vastly improve the speed though so I have high hopes for a stove with 16 jets aimed at the centre.
Ill make a few more test stoves this week with varying jet configs based on what I learned from these tests and will repeat the tests.........then I will probably see what improvements can be made again and again and again and again
One day I will have a Meths stove so good my Peak ignition and Dragonfly will be redundant
