They bothered me at first, but as I became more primitive
and more intuned to the true “through” hikers around me I looked forward seeing the little rings of past cooking, I used an alcohol stove too, but I really had to work at leaving a ring mostly it is caused by irresponsible chefs like myself :lol
1/4 of the way
You can avoid the charring by purchasing a square of insulating carbon fiber at a hardware store. The stuff is made for plumbers who have to weld pipes near wood. You put a small square under the stove (a double layer is even better) and the charring problem is solved.
Stuff’s a little expensive, though.
Bob McCaw
Well,
I built two pepsi can stoves. One is a small one 1" high, I built it to boil up a cup of water for some coffee or something. And a larger 2" high one for doing some serious cooking.
I wanted a solid wall on the inside instead of the flimsy pieced together wall made from the side of a can. I used two pepsi cans for the top and bottom obviously, and then used a Starbucks espresso can to make the inner wall. I left the bottom on the starbucks can, and drilled three holes in the bottom of the can, for the vent holes.
The big can stove will bring 4 cups of water to a rolling boil in 10 min,or 2 cups in 6 min and maintain the rolling boil for 20 min before it finally runs out of fuel on 1.5oz of denatured alcohol.
I used 12 1/16" flame ports around the top edge of the stove.
Then I polished the stoves with a brillo-pad to make them all shiny.
These things are awesome. Why spend $79 bucks on a heavy jetboil when you can build a pepsi stove for about 4 bucks in pepsi and starbucks coffee.
Im sticking with the pepsi-can stoves. I wished I had known about these things 10 years ago.
bryan
Where do you get the hardware cloth for the pepsi can stoves to use as a pot stand? I bought some from home depot in the garden section but before I opened it I realized it was galvanized and cannot be used safely with flame. So I have to return that and look elsewhere. I found some online but it would cost a fortune to buy the minimum amount.
sparkee
Has anyone tried those flexable silicone pot holders from wal-mart. They make these flexable silicone rubber pans that you can actually put in the oven and cook stuff in. Ive also seen pot holders in there made of the same material. It says it can take heat up to 500 degrees. Seems to me like it would be a nice flexable light-weight option to keep from charring the tables. Not sure how hot that little stove gets though.
bryan
And if you are not so mechanically inclined like me, I used this option:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8726530152&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1
For $9 INCLUDING shipping, I think its a pretty good deal!!
Wendi