Mississippi-Mud Forums

My boys and I spent the afternoon playing with drink cans and sheet metal and made us each a backpacking stove. We got the plans here: http://zenstoves.net/BasicTopBurner.htm

Looks great rez my grandpa built something close to that. But he used. Them small green bottles of propane for his cell phone!

Those are fun to build and play with and they work very well in the field. Just a great way to spend the afternoon with the kids. Try one of these they don't require carrying anything that can be spilled, so unless you run out of cubes there is pretty much no chance of not being able to cook. Down side is they tend to be a little slower than a good alcohol stove. But they are easier to make for those of us with limited talent (like me)
http://zenstoves.net/SolidFuelBurner.htm

I always backpacked with a folding Sterno stove like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Sterno-50002-Singl...B000OD158E

No spills with the sterno, and one can would cook 5 or 6 meals easily. The stove is very sturdy, too. Would hold a pot of stew to feed 4 or 5 campers without fail.

Res, how long does it take to get a cup of alcohol from a setup like that? I cannot believe you are teaching your kids how to make alchohol at their ages.

better yet. drink the alcohol and eat a cold hot dog lol

We are using denatured alcohol, but distilled alcohol will work if it is strong enough.
I know a few people who have operated their own stills in the past. One of them has the same name as me.

We made more pot stands like the one in the picture, but out of aluminum.
The stove weighs .4 ounces. The the stove and stand together weigh a mere 1.5 ounces.

Alcohol stoves are really cool and with a little practice you can get really good and filling them with just the right amount of fuel to cook what you need so you don’t have to fight emptying them or waiting for them to burn out of fuel. The fuel doubles as part of your first aid kit and can not only be used to clean a wound but also to cool an overheated hiker. They are very efficient, burn cleanly and can provide heat in a semi-enclosed space without too much worry about fumes. You can refill or refuel at almost any ranger station etc so the fuel is pretty easy to find if you need to and you can build one with a knife in an emergency if you have to.

The down sides are they can spill easily and the fuel is fairly heavy and you have to be careful of leaks.


Just about every hiker owns one even if they rarely use it anymore. And the skill of building one is one of those milestones that become a life memory. Res your boys will remember for the rest of their lives the day they hung out with dad and learned to build an alcohol stove. Theres nothing better than that

I can see us eventually going to more elaborate stoves if we stick with it, but as you said, they will probably always have these little momentos.

They look kinda' cool, too.