Home Made Gear?

Cool good luck. I found that if the holes are too big the flames get a bit out of control. This was an issue for me because most of my pots are more tall and narrow than short and squat. Also, bigger holes will lead to a faster burn, and may not improve your boil time (but will lose simmer time).

A quick update. I finally managed to find some hardware cloth (welded wire mesh) last week, so can make decent pot stands (was using combo chimney/windscreen potstands before). I can now get a sub-4-minute boil on my penny stoves (with 500ml cold water), which is comparable to my Gaz system. The only thing is the quick-boil stoves are very fuel-inefficient, burning through the fuel very quickly.

JonWells wrote: Give us a pic Joshi!

I'll try get some tonight. Been playing during the day mostly, so difficult to get pics. Its also been windy, so windshield been necessary.

Below are pictures of 2 stoves, both 'penny' designs. The first one is made from ordinary colddrink cans. The second is made from a 200ml soda water mixer can (narrower). The pot is a Gaz aluminium pot, part of a nesting set (I love these pots). The windshield is from a foil baking dish. The lid is from an aluminium platter dish.

For standard tests I used 30ml meths (including priming fuel), measured with a syringe, and 500ml water.

The larger stove boils in about 4 minutes, with a total burn time of only 7 minutes or so. The smaller stove boils in about 9 minutes, but has a total boil time of around 16 minutes. (This is a longer burn that I would get with a cat can stove, with less fuel, and similar boil time, so much more efficient.) I'm not sure of total weight off-hand, (will try weigh tonight), but without fuel, its less than 200g, including the 2 pots. I'd be surprised if the stove, priming pan, windshield and potstand weighed more than 50-60g.

Photos:
The large stove after priming:


Large stove in action, with pot:


Boil with large stove:


Small stove after priming:


Small stove in operation, with pot:


Same shot, with flash (ie no flames):


Boil with small stove:

Nice.
My windshields don't have holes (they probably should) but they fit quite loosely, so enough space for airflow.

What are you using for windshields? I haven't been able to find some aluminium sheeting anywhere.

Do you find tin foil stable enough?

6 min 20 sec boil is not bad, better than my times. What pot do you use?

My kit's dry weight (ie no pots, lid or fuel) is 68g.