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Home Made Gear?

30 Aug 2011 08:41 #3860 by splatacat
Replied by splatacat on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
thanks for the comments guys, its good to hear different perspectives and will keep them in mind.
I definitely will not take a piece of gear into the wilderness that i have not thoroughly tested.

I have a few ideas for my tent, it will be able to be pitched flysheet first, or tent first or only tent depending on situations, and i'm thinking of how to make it bomb proof in the wind. Also i plan to have enough space in the tent for packs for safety. I'm also gonna make it so you can cook in the vestibule so in bad weather we can cook in relative comfort.

So far my stove boils 1 litre of water in 9 min and keeps it boiling for another 7 min with methanol as the fuel which is a clean burning fuel. i'm getting there.

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01 Sep 2011 18:13 #3907 by JonWells
Replied by JonWells on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
Jeez I had never even heard of a coke can stove before it was mentioned in this thread :thumbsup: , so I had to try make one, or rather a beer can stove!

Seems to work pretty well, the size of it compared to a gas stove is quite remarkable!



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02 Sep 2011 06:26 #3911 by intrepid
Replied by intrepid on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
Great thread guys, keep it going.

How much fuel do you need to carry for the coke-can stoves?
Take nothing but litter, leave nothing but a cleaner Drakensberg.

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02 Sep 2011 08:05 - 02 Sep 2011 08:06 #3913 by JonWells
Replied by JonWells on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
I got this from wikipedia:

"Ratings
Time to boil 2 cups (500 ml): ~12 minutes (45 ml of fuel)
Time to boil 4 cups (1 l): ~24 minutes (90 ml of fuel)
Burn time: ~16 minutes (60 ml/4 tablespoons of fuel)

Comparison with other stoves

The stove can outperform some commercial models in cold or high-altitude environments, where propane and butane canisters might fail. Roland Mueser, in Long-Distance Hiking, surveyed hikers on the Appalachian Trail and found that this stove was the only design with a zero-percent failure rate.[4]

Fuel usage (by weight) is about fifty percent greater than a butane/propane stove.[5] Can stoves weigh less than an ounce, compared with three ounces for the lightest gas stoves. Many commercial stoves also require special fuel canisters, adding to overall stove weight. No such canisters are necessary in a can stove; denatured alcohol can be carried in virtually any lightweight container, such as a plastic soda bottle. The weight advantage of the beverage-can stove is diminished by the greater fuel consumption (especially on longer hikes), but may still be offset by its reliability and simplicity.

Other attributes of the beverage-can stove are its nearly silent operation and its suitability as an emergency backup. Denatured alcohol is a (relatively) environmentally-friendly fuel that does not leave a residue of soot, although it is toxic to drink"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove
Last edit: 02 Sep 2011 08:06 by JonWells.
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02 Sep 2011 10:05 #3914 by plouw
Replied by plouw on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
Very interesting, i would just be bit nervous of accidentally squashing the can in my pack. :pinch: might have to consider making a hard cover of some sorts.

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20 Sep 2011 07:34 #4084 by nicolaasdekker
Replied by nicolaasdekker on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
I try make my own gear as much as possible.

I have been experimenting with super light alcohol stoves so that I don't have to carry so much gear with me to my local climbing crag or hike just to make a cuppa.

I have stuck to making them out of redbull/energydrink cans.

Good luck and keep us posted on your successes and your failures.:thumbsup:

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20 Sep 2011 07:47 #4085 by nicolaasdekker
Replied by nicolaasdekker on topic Re: Home Made Gear?

plouw wrote: Very interesting, i would just be bit nervous of accidentally squashing the can in my pack. :pinch: might have to consider making a hard cover of some sorts.


I just put it inside my tea pot, I take two stoves with inside my tea pot (note that if you use methylated spirits as fuel you should seal stoves in airtight bags before risking putting in inside kettles, pots, or muggs due to the methyl being highly poisonous) one full pressure stove that needs priming and one open vent which is easy to use and just as effective once pressure builds up but uses alot more fuel.

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20 Sep 2011 08:52 #4088 by splatacat
Replied by splatacat on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
An update on my stove, i get 1L of water to boil in about 9 min and keep it boiling for another 3ish min after that. total fuel used is 55ml of methanol.
The best part is my pot stays clean. not a bit of soot to be seen, thanks to the clean burning fuel.
I have made a new pot stand cause the wire one i made gets hot and collapses, it glows a bright red. was funny watching the pot slide to the side and slowly drop. the new one is a bigger one and from aluminium, both thicker and further from the heat. I still need to test if the alu will stand up to the heat(have my doubts).

My goal is to keep it as light as possible hence the aluminium, i think i can keep the whole cooking set to say 700g with 500ml fuel which should be enough for a 4 day hike.

All my cooking pieces inc the fuel fit inside the pot so that is a bonus.

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22 Sep 2011 18:26 #4119 by Boerkie
Replied by Boerkie on topic Re: Home Made Gear?
Well done guys! I'm really enjoying this tread. This stove will be my next weekend project because it has the added benefit of needing empty beer cans.:thumbsup: While at it....polish the bottom of the can and use it as an inverted magnifying glass to start a fire. Watch the video on youtube.

The one thing I'm gonna try is a "Leg-sleeping-bag" meaning a sleeping bag that got legs like pants. I get real claustrophobic in a mummy bag and end up kicking open the zip.

I'm also interested in the improvements and alteration you guys made to gear instead of building from scratch.
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19 Aug 2013 12:18 #58106 by Josh of the Bushveld
Replied by Josh of the Bushveld on topic Home Made Gear?
Don't know why it took me so long to find this thread. I'm very interested in making my own stuff.
I've made 2 fleece liners, and also done some small mods to backpacks (adding in hydration bladder sleeve etc).
I spent about 2 months earlier this year tinkering with DIY alcohol stoves. I tried at least 3-4 different designs, cat-can, penny, 'traditional' soda can. I settled on the cat-can, simpler, lighter and same performance. I probably made over 20 stoves in my experiments. If anyone wants to chat about it, I'm all for it :) I've used the cat-can stove on 1 hutted overnight (Summit Trail in Kgaswane) and was very happy with it. I'm now looking at solid fuel/Hexamine (ESBIT/Coghlans) as it seems simpler and possibly lighter.

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