drthumbs' Venom alcohol stove

I have been toying with alcohol stoves for many years now. For the most part I have stuck the designed of others. While the designs of others have influenced this one greatly, I am calling this my own.

It is a pressurized stove that does not need a pot stand. It has a large fuel capacity for a long burn time but can be adjusted by simply using less full. It is more durable than most stoves if its type.

It is heavier and larger than a lot of alcohol stove designs.

This is a tutorial on making one with items I had on hand, not with the best tools for the job. This is just to help show the ease in building.

I selected the aluminum bottle from a venom energy drink. Any aluminum bottle should work with this design, but I prefer venom. These have thicker walls than any beverage container that I have found. This make for a heavier stove than others out there, but it is much more durable. These bottles also work great as fuel containers. I chose not to remove the paint. I kinda like the way it looks with it, but simply sand it off if you wish.

Step 1: Select bottle.

Just about any aluminum or stainless steel bottle can be used.  I have selelected a Venom energy drink bottle because aluminum is easier to work with, free, and has thicker walls than any other beverage bottle. 

Comments

[skeckler]

Using ~4oz of HEET it boiled six cups of water in five minutes. An awesome design for sure. The best I've ever used.

[megaman49]

if you make another one you should try placing the jets at the top of the inside of the bowl. then it would not only be self priming but the jets would light automatically (though probably at the cost of greater fuel consumption).

[jemb103]

Do you have to light the holes? I mad one with something else and the burners didnt light on their own. Do the flames go out easliy?

[Airth]

What did you use to half it? A hacksaw? Looks like you rolled the edges of the bottom half out a bit as well.

[snowluck2345]

this is so weird, this is exactly what I did, however I did four cuts on the lid which you flipped. I did mine about a year and a half ago. I painted mine recently with high temp black paint recently.

[streetpunk99]

I just made one of these today, well two but i scraped the forst one because it had a awful run time, im talkin like 2 min. and it beasted through fuel. I kept the top from the orig. and cut a different bottom. Making the new bottom 3 and a quarter inches verse the 2 inches the first bottom was. which gave me ALOT more burn time. Im talkin over 20 min. I am suffering from a little vapor loss though because i didnt JB weld the inner and outter together so maybe ill do that which should make the fuel last longer since it wouldnt be bleeding off vapor as much/fast.

I lit the inner fuel first letting it heat up, then lit some of the jets, then they finished lighting themselves. It was ready to "bloom" at 1:45 and boiled water in 3:30. I then added more water so the orig. 2 cups wouldnt boil away, I filled the GSI 1.4 litre pot almost to the top. which stoped the rolling boil but let me continue with my test. I let the flame run out totally which was at 23:30. As a guess after i filled the pot to the top, id say the added water was back to a boil in less the 5 min.

I havnt figured out how much fuel it holds and dont even know if its efficent. But im impressed with the amount of time it burned for, and id imagen i could add less fuel if i only need a few mins. of burn time.

[streetpunk99]

Update: I JB welded the inner and outter together and it honestly made the runtime worse. still blooms the same and boils the same, so i dont know whats happening to it now that the inner and outter are JB welded together? Id rather have them seperate but figured id do like everyone else did and connect them.

Just for future ref. id leave them alone, just press fit together. I was useing Alcohol and not HEETbut i seriously doubt it would make that big of a diff. Still got 16 min. of run time which is more than enough. Like i said in my last post i didnt measure the exact amount of fuel, just filled to the same spot each time i tested it. and again used 2 cups of water to start off testing and finished with a 1.4 litre pot full to time the exact runtime.

Great litle stove over all, cheap, if not free. fuels easy to find and cheap. Worth messing around with because its so simple. just dont be stupid and make the outter to tall ti fit inside your cook kit.

[streetpunk99]

Re Update: Used my stove today, worked ok, but the cold ground seemed to cut the runtime short, didnt even boil water. need some mods seems to work likea charm indoors though haha.

[dmdsanchez]

I just made one and it works great I had to use a 1/16 bit instead of 1/32 and I think the flames where a bit too high. I will try and get a 1/32 bit and see if I can get better flame control

[urbanpirate]

first one i made did not work.
second was pure AWESOME

[squenchmeister]

I just finished making one of these using this design. I tested it by making some coffee. I works great, even with the 90% isopropyl alcohol that I used. The only problem is that the flames were a little too high. I am going to make a second one with smaller holes like this one,. over all this is the best hobo stove that I have ever seen, which is simply due to the fact that the Venom cans are so durable.

[MXR789]

This is a great instructable. I will be making one in the next week or so. Would it be easier to drill the holes before pressing the halves together? I have made a few other alcohol stoves out of pop cans before. With the 'open jet' stoves that I made, I found it easier to drill the holes before cutting the can.

[drthumbs]

If you are using a power tool of any kind, then it is easier to pre rill the holes if you already know the placement. I attempt to get the jets as high up as I can and usually drill them by hand. In this manner I prefer to drill the jest last.

[MXR789]

I normally use a Drill for the holes and that's why I was worried about drilling through both walls. I have not been able to find the right bottle yet, but hope to soon. Thanks.

[Philthy.Sohoza]

Did you use your Leatherman file to make the flow ports?

[drthumbs]

yes I did. You can use a hack saw or any other metal saw you have.