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Thread: Stove for AT

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisJackson View Post
    It's 1/4 inch squares. Home Depot. $12 for a roll. Have enough left over for gobs of stands!

    EDIT: correction-> it is 1/2 inch squares. Just went down to check the packaging.
    This is what mine looks like after cutting off every other wire. This one is two inches tall. You see I stagger the wires. Not sure if this helps, but it looks pretty.


    IMG_3974.jpg

  2. #42
    Registered User Moosling's Avatar
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    This is my Supercat, I switched from Canister stove. In Tests I have reached rolling boil in 4m20s (16 oz of water) in my garage, I haven't taken it out on the trail yet. I had some aluminum flashing laying around that I made the windscreen with. Hopefully I'll get at least close to the same time with a little wind and lower temps not really sure how slight of a temperature increase will effect boil time. This is my first attempt at a Alcohol stove, so we'll see how it goes, the stove acts as its own pot stand so with the stove under the windscreen the pot will sit at an correct level, I had to cut the wind screen down a little so the pot handle wouldn't get in the way.

    Anyway I look forward to using it, any suggestions on why this design may not work very well I'm happy to accept.



    supercat.jpg

  3. #43
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    Quote Originally Posted by Moosling View Post
    This is my Supercat, I switched from Canister stove. In Tests I have reached rolling boil in 4m20s (16 oz of water) in my garage, I haven't taken it out on the trail yet. I had some aluminum flashing laying around that I made the windscreen with. Hopefully I'll get at least close to the same time with a little wind and lower temps not really sure how slight of a temperature increase will effect boil time. This is my first attempt at a Alcohol stove, so we'll see how it goes, the stove acts as its own pot stand so with the stove under the windscreen the pot will sit at an correct level, I had to cut the wind screen down a little so the pot handle wouldn't get in the way.

    Anyway I look forward to using it, any suggestions on why this design may not work very well I'm happy to accept.



    supercat.jpg
    Your wind screen looks pretty much the same as mine. The Super Cat stove has been very popular for years and has been used successfully by many long distance hikers. However it does have some limitations. Andrew Skurka has been a proponent of this stove for some time, but has recently publish a blog post about its limitations. Again, it can and does work fine. Many people like it because of its simplicity and low cost. You seem to have an effective wind screen which will solve some (but not all) of the problems highlighted by Skurka.

    http://andrewskurka.com/2015/super-c...l-stove-flaws/

  4. #44

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    Quote Originally Posted by Odd Man Out View Post
    a blog post about its limitations
    The comments in the blog contain answers to most of the limitations. I'd add even more emphasis on the windscreen as the key to pot stability. Sized JUST larger than the pot and extending about 1/2 way up; and yes the pot has to be wide enough to cover the flame jets. I have a few small holes near the bottom of the screen, all that is needed for oxygen, and in high wind I hook some tent stakes through it. The usual dual rows of jets does make priming go quicker but that's silly to design for. One row is a far more efficient use of fuel overall. You hold the pot just off the stove rim during priming so there is little/no waste of fuel.

    I'd emphasize that you should hold onto the pot handle while stirring, as with most stoves. Finally, I carry a small piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil that I use as a stove base. That becomes my smooth, level surface (with sometimes some landscaping underneath). I shove the cardboard square somewhere in the pack where it presses against a flat surface to keep from getting warped during travel. I figured I'd have to replace this every couple of trips but my original square is in its fourth year.

    All that said I'm intrigued by the sub-one ounce $10 Chinese isobutane burner which I'm still awaiting.

  5. #45
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wil View Post
    The comments in the blog contain answers to most of the limitations. I'd add even more emphasis on the windscreen as the key to pot stability. Sized JUST larger than the pot and extending about 1/2 way up; and yes the pot has to be wide enough to cover the flame jets.

    All that said I'm intrigued by the sub-one ounce $10 Chinese isobutane burner which I'm still awaiting.
    Thanks for the advice, in my windscreen design I pinch it together with one of my wife's bobby pins, that seems to do the trick and I can keep the windscreen tight around the cooking pot which seems to help a ton to contain the heat around the bottom of the pot.

    Hope the $10.00 Iso burner works well for you, my friend had ordered one and loves it. And that pot in my picture is another Chinese items $10.00 a wallet friendly replacement for my old dingy pot.

    Your wind screen looks pretty much the same as mine. The Super Cat stove has been very popular for years and has been used successfully by many long distance hikers. However it does have some limitations. Andrew Skurka has been a proponent of this stove for some time, but has recently publish a blog post about its limitations. Again, it can and does work fine. Many people like it because of its simplicity and low cost. You seem to have an effective wind screen which will solve some (but not all) of the problems highlighted by Skurka.

    http://andrewskurka.com/2015/super-c...l-stove-flaws/
    - I appreciated the advice and the link you shared, the simplicity of the supercat makes me want to stick with it, like you said its tried and true. But as I mentioned I haven't taken it out of the trail yet so I'm looking forward to whatever tweeks and fixes I need to make, even to the point of throwing it out and going another direction

  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wil View Post
    The comments in the blog contain answers to most of the limitations. I'd add even more emphasis on the windscreen as the key to pot stability. Sized JUST larger than the pot and extending about 1/2 way up; and yes the pot has to be wide enough to cover the flame jets. I have a few small holes near the bottom of the screen, all that is needed for oxygen, and in high wind I hook some tent stakes through it. The usual dual rows of jets does make priming go quicker but that's silly to design for. One row is a far more efficient use of fuel overall. You hold the pot just off the stove rim during priming so there is little/no waste of fuel.

    I'd emphasize that you should hold onto the pot handle while stirring, as with most stoves. Finally, I carry a small piece of cardboard covered with aluminum foil that I use as a stove base. That becomes my smooth, level surface (with sometimes some landscaping underneath). I shove the cardboard square somewhere in the pack where it presses against a flat surface to keep from getting warped during travel. I figured I'd have to replace this every couple of trips but my original square is in its fourth year....
    Good call on the aluminum covered cardboard. I have done the same, but I cut a round disk sized to fit in the bottom of the pot. The cardboard helps insulate the stove from cold surfaces which inhibits fuel vaporization. The foil helps reflect heat up and protects the surface from burning.

    As for the wind screen, this is what I have done to get the optimum air flow. I make a wind screen with no vents, but prop it up perhaps 1/2 inch on some blocks and do a boil test. I then drop it down on a flat surface, punch a couple of air holes in the bottom of the screen, and do another test. You will probably notice the boil time suffer from lack of air flow. Then repeat, punching more holes until you get boil times that are close to the control test.

    I too have used this type of stove with one row of holes. The original plans for calls this a Simmer Cat. You do get a less powerful stove but that goes with more efficiency. One trick with alcohol stoves is to get a balance of efficiency and power that you are comfortable with. Another advantage with one row of holes is you have a much larger fuel capacity, if you need longer burn times.

    There is one more modification I have used with this stove. I have used a pot stand (just like the one pictured above) so the pot is suspended a couple of mm above the stove. This has a few advantages. One it makes the pot less likely to tip over with a wider pot stand. Also, the simmer-cat stove will burn hotter (between the simmer and super cat in terms of power). Also, you can put the pot on the stove (really it is just above the stove) right after lighting without having to wait for it to prime. This is more convenient and it also helps with efficiency as less fuel is wasted while the stove is priming. The stove will burn slowly as the fuel heats and then will bloom. If you get the gap between the stove and pot correct, it will not go out during this slow burn phase with the pot in place. Many people claim the built-in pot stand feature of this design as a big asset. I personally found that using this stove with a pot stand provides quite a few benefits and is not really much of an inconvenience.

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