I started with only 16 holes around, but as you can see i ended up with 32.
I think i might have made it too deep as it took alot of filling before i could get it to bloom and i pre warmed it?
This was after the first boil test which took just over 10mins.
It burned much stronger with 32 holes, but i still had to fill it half with meths to get it going?
I'm wondering if filling it with cotten wool is not the best, mabie only half filling it at the bottom and having an air gap between in and the flame holes would work better?
Fun first go though.
AREA 3
I'm not antisocial, just anti idiot.
If you use the phase "man up" you have alot to learn.
"Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools, because they have to say something" Plato.
Great fun!! It is a little tall, that will mean more fuel needed to get it going. If you make it shorter (about 20-25mm) of straight side it will be easier to light and keep going. I have made a few of these and it just takes a bit of practice to refine them. Might make some more myself
Made a few myself just because I could, got enough meth here to burn down a small warehouse. They are tricky to use good fun though gone through 2 variants I broke the second one (pushed the two halves together too much and they sealed shut oops). First one was better but put the wrong fuel in and well was a bit spectacular.
It burned much stronger with 32 holes, but i still had to fill it half with meths to get it going?
I'm wondering if filling it with cotten wool is not the best, mabie only half filling it at the bottom and having an air gap between in and the flame holes would work better?
Fun first go though.[/quote]
These are so much fun to play around with. I have spent ages in the garage tweaking mine and i have an endless supply of coke cans from the recycling at work.
I found that making sure the flames hit the base of the pan and not flying up the sides or too far away was important and I managed to get mine down to about 4.5 minutes to boil half a litre of water.
I put some cotton wool in the base of the unit to soak up the meths, effects the height of the flames a little but it does stop spills happening. my current one doesnt have that.
Me and my 12 yr old sometimes set up in the garden on a sunday morning and boil water for a cuppa and do a fry up on it, water takes a long time but bacon and eggs cook very nicely on them.
They do have limits but its good to experiment on them and see what their limits are , it does show my lad what is possible with the basics as they do seem to think life without a cooker and a microwave would be impossible.
Hole size and number is definitely a factor. I am not sure about filling it with cotton wool. You can buy a ceramic wool that is used in bioethanol fireplaces to help slow down the evaporation and burning of the liquid, and you can get that on ebay sometimes. but that is usually for open designs (EG., paint cans without lids) and not for that which has jet holes.
You can do without the cotton wool entirely, and have no filling. just half fill the stove and have a penny over the central holes. if you forget the penny however, you can eventually reach the point of an explosive mixture of air and alcohol vapors and that can make a nasty bang.
reperio a solutio
Resident and Co-Ordinator of AREA 2 Area 2 = Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Bucks
Is this any help? It's something I've considered building, just for practice or to use when we camp at the beach, but then I decided I prefer a 'proper' camp fire!
Thats a really nice instructional, i did look at some others like that, i have watched hours of videos and read lots before i had a go, but still forgot the 'penny'!! dooooh!
So i will try again, shorter, only half fill with wool and i might have a go at one of those side burner types, or a mix of both
AREA 3
I'm not antisocial, just anti idiot.
If you use the phase "man up" you have alot to learn.
"Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools, because they have to say something" Plato.
From my perspective, whilst they might be handy in an emergency, a single ring camp stove or even a 'proper' camp fire will also do the job nicely. We have a small camp stove that I use for all sorts of things - from heating water or cooking when the power goes out (a regular occurrance through the winter where we live) to a base to put my asbestos block on when I'm torch firing silver or copper clay!
It's still a nice exercise in building, though, and in understanding how flames and various fuels work
nickdutch wrote:Hole size and number is definitely a factor. I am not sure about filling it with cotton wool. You can buy a ceramic wool that is used in bioethanol fireplaces to help slow down the evaporation and burning of the liquid, and you can get that on ebay sometimes. but that is usually for open designs (EG., paint cans without lids) and not for that which has jet holes.
You can do without the cotton wool entirely, and have no filling. just half fill the stove and have a penny over the central holes. if you forget the penny however, you can eventually reach the point of an explosive mixture of air and alcohol vapors and that can make a nasty bang.
i have a screw i drop in the top fill hole and i have a small lid that is slightly bigger than the stove that i fill with meths as a primer. I dont sue the cotton wool either anymore as it took up space that could be filled by extra fuel. seems to work ok for me. I am working on a self priming version at the moment, love experimenting and hours of fun
If you want to see someone who really has an artistic angle to these you should check out this guy on youtube https://www.youtube.com/user/tetkoba , he has some cool stoves and the videos are very clear as he goes through how how he makes them:
