Supercat stove

[JasonB]

http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html


These little stoves are well worth the few minutes it takes to make one. I have various white gas, canister, and solid fuel stoves and none of them really out perform the Supercat when simply boiling 2 cups (or less) of water for rehydrating food or having a hot drink.

In my experience I would give the edge to denatured alcohol from the paint or boat stove departments with a very close second (maybe no difference) being HEET fuel antifreeze. Some of the other brands (Peak comes to mind) do not seem to have the same output.

[C-ya]

I like it. I think I'll try to make one. I have a can stove that works pretty well, but I like the simplicity of this one. I also like the write-up on the different fuels. Guess I'll be using that Red Heet in the vehicles. Got it cheap after winter one year, so I bought about a dozen bottles.

[gunplumber]

That is the most professional, awesome tutorial I've ever read.

[2 clicks low]

Good link alot of good information.

[MAINER]

Gotta be THE most bang for a buck product ever. Neat stove and the cat gets a meal.


Good read, thanks for the post. I have a few Swedish Military alcohol stoves, but think I'm going to give this a try.

[JasonB]

Originally posted by MAINER
I have a few Swedish Military alcohol stoves, but think I'm going to give this a try.

If you are talking about the brass burner with lid, oval pot and stand(some made by SVEA and others by Trangia IIRC) the Supercat will out perform them easily on boiling small amounts of water not to mention the weight difference isn't even in the same ball park.

The Swedish cook set is probably better on large volume cooking if that is a need, however that use would probably be better served by a white gas stove.

[jeager1234567]

I like the alcohol stoves. However, below around 15F the alcohol can be hard to get started. I found that everclear works best. It emits no soot the way Heat does.

Of all the alcohol stoves I have bought, made and used, the best one for bringing 2 cups of water to a boil is the simplest. I "made" it out of a Mickeys bottle cap and a Bud Light bottle cap. The Bud Light cap is just a heat sink that heats up from the burning alcohol and vaporizes the alcohol causing it to burn faster. Which heats up the cap more causing it to vaporize more, which burns hotter.....so on and so forth until you use up the capful of fuel. One Mickey's cap of Everclear will boil 2cups of water in 7 minutes. Poke 3 holes in the Bud Light cap to allow circulation and maximize the fuel burning.

It works great with a GI canteen, canteen cup and canteen cup wind shield. And yes, I have actually used it many times.

Here is the rig:
[IMG][/IMG]

Here is the flame when she is rollin':
[IMG][/IMG]


Here it is in use:
[IMG][/IMG]

Here it is in use with the lights on:
[IMG][/IMG]

[C-ya]

Originally posted by jeager1234567
I "made" it out of a Mickeys bottle cap and a Bud Light bottle cap. The Bud Light cap is just a heat sink that heats up from the burning alcohol and vaporizes the alcohol causing it to burn faster. Which heats up the cap more causing it to vaporize more, which burns hotter.....so on and so forth until you use up the capful of fuel. One Mickey's cap of Everclear will boil 2cups of water in 7 minutes. Poke 3 holes in the Bud Light cap to allow circulation and maximize the fuel burning.

Very cool!! I like that! I think I'll try one of these, too. Means I gotta buy some Mickey's, but hey, sacrifices must be made!

[lew]

Jaeger, brilliant! I'll give that a go first. The hard part is procuring the bottle caps, but someone has to do it.

[MAINER]

Originally posted by JasonB


If you are talking about the brass burner with lid, oval pot and stand(some made by SVEA and others by Trangia IIRC) the Supercat will out perform them easily on boiling small amounts of water not to mention the weight difference isn't even in the same ball park.

The Swedish cook set is probably better on large volume cooking if that is a need, however that use would probably be better served by a white gas stove.

Yeah! Those are the ones. They make a neat kit to have in the truck, just in case. The best thing about them is the burner. It can be filled with fuel, then screw the cap on and slip it in your pack for a hot drink with lunch. I do have a old Coleman single burner that uses white gas and a couple of their two-burner camp stoves. The easiest to use is a single burner propane, but not as much fun.

Bushcraft stuff is fun, but only when I'm comfy.

[RG Coburn]

I just made the "Supercat" stove. Used the bottom 2 1/2 inches of an old aluminum fire extinguisher cylinder. I drilled two sets of holes,8 over 8,staggered. The damn thing works,and good.I used yellow bottle "Heet" drygas. Its going out with me on the weekendend icefishing. It should heat the shanty and anything else I stick on it. And zero moving parts.

[RG Coburn]

I just tested it out here at home. I put a 2 quart pot/kettle on it,about 1 quart of room temperature water in it. It hit a rolling boil at 9 minutes. This little stove is definitely worth the effort to make.No pumping,no parts to lose or wear out.Its stupid simple. What I think might be worth crafting for it is some sort of stand to place it in,maybe heavy gauge wire framed.

[Deltaten]

What is old is new again......
Anyone remember the Coke can stove that Scouts were using 20-some years ago? Perhaps not *exactly* the same; but the Rube Goldberg/WECSOEngineering principles apply

While I can agree with Mark that a fine job was done on the test and results report; verbose doesn't even begin to describe it The author must be a technical writer of some sort.

I like the bottle cap "stove" Quite the miniature copy. A great display of "Necessity being the Mother of Invention"; or curiosity, in this case I suspect.

[JasonB]

Originally posted by RG Coburn
I just tested it out here at home. I put a 2 quart pot/kettle on it,about 1 quart of room temperature water in it. It hit a rolling boil at 9 minutes.

Now that is impressive and would have never guessed it would have pulled off 1 quart that fast.

[JasonB]

Originally posted by jeager1234567
I "made" it out of a Mickeys bottle cap and a Bud Light bottle cap.

What is the height/diameter on the Mickey's cap and/or is their a non-alcohol equivalent for a dry area?

[jeager1234567]

The Mickey's cap is 1.5" in diameter and 0.56" tall, so it holds right at 1 tablespoon of liquid or half an ounce of liquid.

I came up with it on the trail when my coke can stove, similar to the wild cat stove, got stepped on. The Mickey's stove weighs a fraction of an ounce, so I carry a couple in case one gets destroyed. Even if it gets smashed flat, if you can unbend it and if it still kinda holds fluid you can use it. It's like the AK47 of alcohol stoves.

Each year I take a week off of work and hike on the Appalachian trail. Usually, I park my jeep where I want to end up and get a shuttle to where I put in, then spend the week hiking the mountains back to the jeep. From a personal stand point, it is good to blow the cobwebs out of your head. From a preparedness / survival standpoint, one gets a really good feal for the amount of food you need and the ammount of gear you need when moving through rough terrain. One also learns alot of little tricks like the mickeys stove when thing do not go exactly as planned.

Another effective stove to heat 2 cups of water is to use a third to a half of a chapstick tube wrapped in a little piece of paper. Set the paper with chapstick wadded up in it in a pop cap and light it. The paper burns and the chapstick melts. The melted chapstick, which is basically parafin and alcohol, wicks up the burned paper and will burn like a little candle. That was my original mickeys stove, as I was out of alcohol. But alcohol works better and the chapstick leaves a soot.

Of course, either of these is a very effective fire starter.

[jeager1234567]

A tip for the chapstick firestarter / stove:

Smear the paper with chapstick before adding the chuck of chapstick. This especially helps if the paper is wet, or you can use a leaf. Then twist the thing up like a hersey's kiss. If you use a magnesium fire starter, the chapstick is sticky and will hold onto the Mg shavings. Then when you are sparking at it, you only need one of the sparks to hit a Mg shaving and she will start on fire.

[saltshaker]

Originally posted by jeager1234567
A tip for the chapstick firestarter / stove:

Smear the paper with chapstick before adding the chuck of chapstick. This especially helps if the paper is wet, or you can use a leaf. Then twist the thing up like a hersey's kiss. If you use a magnesium fire starter, the chapstick is sticky and will hold onto the Mg shavings. Then when you are sparking at it, you only need one of the sparks to hit a Mg shaving and she will start on fire.

That is a great idea..... I use dryer lint and I slop it w/ Vaseline.... Makes it water resistant and the poly cotton blend in the lint is a great spark catcher.......Salt

[RG Coburn]

Originally posted by JasonB


Now that is impressive and would have never guessed it would have pulled off 1 quart that fast.

I just double checked the capacity of the pot. It was 1 quart boiled,exactly. water temp was probably 60 degrees or thereabouts.Don't expect exactly the same result melting snow or ice,or icy stream water. Larger gap in temperature rise. The stove I built,you can stand on,literally.

[RG Coburn]

It didn't seem to burn as good today,on the ice,as it did at home. I was in the shanty,maybe 40-50 degrees inside. Couldn't get the same burn-thru-the-holes effect I got at home at 70 degrees. Got the alcohol to boil while burning,set the pot on it,the flames burned out the holes,but subsided fairly quickly. Perhaps larger holes,I don't know for sure. I burned it without a pot setting on it,it heated the shanty fairly quickly,but gave off a flame about 8-10 inches high.Not ideal in a confined space.

[longhair51]

I like the supercat stove. Mostly I like messing around trying to make something cheap and useful. These little stove/burners fit the bill. I found a website devoted exclusively to these little stoves.

stoves

[Nevarwinter]

I hope to take my wife camping this spring. I'll be making my own supercat stove now. Great link. Thanks for posting.

[JiminTexas]

Here is another home made stove. I like this one because you can regulate it somewhat.

http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/

[JasonB]

Originally posted by RG Coburn
It didn't seem to burn as good today,on the ice,as it did at home. I was in the shanty,maybe 40-50 degrees inside. Couldn't get the same burn-thru-the-holes effect I got at home at 70 degrees. Got the alcohol to boil while burning,set the pot on it,the flames burned out the holes,but subsided fairly quickly. Perhaps larger holes,I don't know for sure. I burned it without a pot setting on it,it heated the shanty fairly quickly,but gave off a flame about 8-10 inches high.Not ideal in a confined space.

I wouldn't think you would get this problem in a few days time, but was it with the original bottle of HEET? Unless they have changed something, those bottles do not reseal well and I noticed a similar drop in performance before switching to a screw top bottle.

[davedude]

Made a supercat from a 3 oz fancy feast cat food can today. Tested it with methyl alcohol for fuel and a small aluminum pot loaded with two coffee cups of cold water. Primed for 30 seconds, and set the pot on. Nice blue flame out of the holes. Did not get the water to boil but it was almost there when the two tablespoons of alcohol burnt out.
I'm impressed. Thanks for posting that!

Dave Dude

[RG Coburn]

What sized holes did you use? I used 5/32 drill on mine.

[davedude]

RG I have a hand held paper punch just like the one in the article. It has been sitting in the drawer for decades--never used it---until now! It easily punches a clean perfect round hole 0.245" in diameter. Very nice. I followed the instructions in the article for the hole locations and spacing.

Hard to believe such a tiny little thing that weighs nothing can do what it does. I'm gonna try it with a different pot ( I like the Fosters can idea). The pot I used had very thick walls and too much mass.

I thought I had a good fuel bottle for the methyl alcohol, a nice wide mouth plastic bottle with a tight fitting screw cap. Most of the alcohol in it had evaporated. Not good for long term storage!

Dave Dude