Make Your Own Meths Burner

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Please excuse the poor pictures, need the camera manual for close up/out of focus/dark with no flash

The reason I need a small burner

Left To Right - Side burner, Large Top/Hybrid burner, Small Top/Hybrid burner.

All sporting 32 x 1mm jets, all made from Morrisons energy drink cans.  25.9mm OD.

All 3 lit within 3 seconds, then waited 30 seconds before taking photo.

Side burner.

Large Top/Hybrid burner

Small Top/Hybrid burner

Edited to tidy up photos.

Glad to see you're having fun...

I think the angled jets on the shoulder probably work well with the rounded bottom of your espresso maker.  I'm not sure that jets so close to the top would work as well with a wider, flat-bottomed pan.

 Morti, I like the selection of craft knives in the background great stuff.Cheers.

Waldo

The knife set was about afiver in Aldi or Lidl. Not brilliant, but I've got my money's worth.

CP

I wondered about enlarging the jet holes to 1.5mm, but that's the only drill size my RotoTool won't take. So I enlarged every other hole to 2mm. This improved things.

I then made another side burner with 32 x 1mm jets very close to the shoulder. This has made the coffee, but it needed to get really hot before I put the pot on, otherwise it was snuffed out.

I think the height of the burner (and therefore, the evaporation chamber size) is pretty critical. I would rather have a chamber height of 20mm as this gives a smaller burner and a more stable pot stand. Making a side burner with a 20mm chamber doesn't give enough fuel capacity, unless I drill the jets through both the upper and lower walls. Most of my burners have the same size bottom, just the top and inner wall varying in height.

I bought a couple of commercially made pepsi sideburner stoves from an eBay seller. They are too big for coffee, but work for everything else. I even use one inside a kelly kettle! They flare into a usable flame with 10 seconds of lighting.

My old favourite homemade side burner is 20mm tall, leaks all over the place, has whatever size jets I managed to puncture at the time, but it flares within seconds and gives a 5 minute burn - I just wish I could make another that performs that well!!

> leaks all over the place, has whatever size jets I managed to puncture at the time, but it flares within seconds and gives a 5 minute burn - I just wish I could make another that performs that well!!

By 'leaks', do you mean it leak liquid meths?  Side burners can spit fuel out of the jets if they're too close to the fuel.  It does make for a lively burn, though, as you get almost continuous 'priming'...

Otherwise, I tend to find the performance quite similar from burner to burner, when using the same design.

I've got quite a lot of 500/330ml burners at the moment, as a result of testing the instructions... 17 awaiting jet hole drilling...

Hi Bailout,

Thanks for posting what did and didn't work for a new stovie, I'll be in your shoes soon so tips from novices are as useful as the instructions themselves.

Bailout.  What follows will be considered heresy by most stovies, but after trying the alternatives I now cut my cans with scissors.  Here's how it works.

First stick a ring of masking tape round the can in roughly the right place.  Then use a pencil instead of the blade to draw a ring round the can on the tape, which is only there to show the pencil mark clearly.  Then use scissors to cut round the mark through tape and can.  Start in what will be a discarded part of the can, about 2 cms above the mark then spiral down 'til you reach the mark, then just follow the line round.

Safety warning.  When using this method, take every precaution to prevent the missus seeing what you are using her best sewing scissors for. 

If you make sure that theres only the tip of the blade sticking out over the edge of your pile of cds it makes it easier (no more than a couple of millimetres), then you can have the can pushed up against the pile as you rotate it (the blade tip will push the side in a bit but not enough to be a problem.

I find a big paperback book makes a better guide than a pile of cds. You can put the blade between the pages at whatever height you need, make sure the back of the blade is hard up against the spine, close the book and lean on it, this holds the blade firmly and gives you a good, stable guide to rotate the can against.

CP

Leaks liquid all over the place, but it's still my best burner

I've mounted a craft knife blade to a 4 inch bit of 20mm batten.. To adjust height, I place it on numerous bits of hardboard, or place the can on the hardboard for lower cuts. I'm wondering about making a sort of jig to hold the can while turning. Probably a V cut into a plank with a slot to take the batten knife. Shims cut to size to sit in the slot.

> The basic problem was pushing hard enough to score the can made the wall flex which messes up the height of the cut.

You need a sharp tip to the blade.

You shouldn't press so hard that the can wall buckles.

Maintain an even pressure between can and blade as you rotate.

Make two full turns of the can.

Start the cut by pressing the blade tip into the scored line.

Or use scissors as Frum suggests.  I certainly wouldn't call it heresy, as it's what I used to do.  Just that I find the score and tear method quicker and easier now.

Like Benco, I use a paperback book, or chopping board, depending on the height I'm trying to achieve.  I find CD cases have too much flex to them, and are likely to give a wobbly line.

> I've mounted a craft knife blade to a 4 inch bit of 20mm batten

I designed a 4-piece height guide on the train yesterday; it all mates together into a single block...

> then fine tune with a wodge of printer paper under either the book or the can.

I fine tune height with railway tickets on top of the book/chopping board, under the blade.

> taking your library books back?

Library books?

 I use Frum,s method when working on the bench, using scissors makes in very easy to alter the heights of the can base or top. Out in the sticks one has to make do with whats available,I find a piece of wood about 30 -40mm thick and partly bury the knife blade at the required height leaving the front half of the blade protruding and just pull it around the can a couple of times the snap the pieces off as CP suggests.The stick is kept upright alongside the can of course. Cheers.

Success!!

Here's my first useable stove. One obvious flaw and a few minor ones but it works!

For some reason it won't let me post the rest of the message:

I tried a few other methods and the results were invariably rubbish. Thanks to CP for making the process so obvious and easy

Thanks for the further tips on scoring the can.

I tested my Red Bull zen chimney stove the other night. I filled it to about 3mm below the side holes which is probably as much as I would want to havwe in it and tried heating 500ml of tap water. Ran test outside in a light breeze using a windshield. The fuel ran out after about 8min and before the water was boiling. The water was quite hot though.

I know the test isn't as scientific as stovies like but I thought it was realistic as I would want tto use the stove.

It seems that the red bull tins were too small so I may try coke cans in the same design which should give more capacity or try cp's trangia style design. (or get a gas stove )