SUPER CAT Alcohol Stove
Last update: April 27, 2007
UPDATE
IN PROGRESS
The original SUPER
CAT article is being updated to include much of the knowledge that's been
gained by myself and others since the design was first published more than
two years ago. In the meantime, you may want to check out the new stand
design that's discussed below. Jim Wood.
NEW
STAND DESIGN
A second-generation
SUPER CAT stand is discussed in this thread on
the Lightweight Backpacker Forum. This design offers several advantages
over the original and will be discussed more thoroughly in the upcoming
SUPER CAT article update mentioned above.
MANY THANKS to Zen Seeker for his feedback and templates for the SUPER CAT stove. Be sure to visit the Zen Seeker website for all things related to backpacking stoves. An excellent resource.
NEW
FEEDBACK FORUM
The SUPER CAT site
has now been incorporated into Jim
Wood's Base Camp. Anyone wishing to leave comments about the SUPER CAT
stove and stand are invited to do so in the new
feedback forum.
Click on thumbnails for larger pictures.
Sample
photos from build instructions.
Description
The SUPER CAT alcohol backpacking stove is probably the simplest stove that one can build.
It's made from a single 3-ounce aluminum pet food can that serves as both
the stove and the pot stand. Once you've gathered your materials,
it takes only a few minutes to complete.
It's also one of the hottest burning stoves of its kind. I've found that I can consistently—under ideal, no-wind conditions—bring two cups of water from cool room temperature to a full rolling boil in under 4 minutes (testing conducted near sea level). Others, using slightly different hole configurations or wider pots, have reported even faster boil times (see feedback page for more details).
This stove was originally developed in early 2004, followed by the documentation of the design in a white paper completed in March of that year (as you'll note from the date of the build instructions). About ten months later—on January 30, 2005—that paper was released into the public domain. Since that time, the SUPER CAT, judging from the continuing feedback that I've received through a variety of means, seems to have become the most popular build-it-yourself alcohol stove in use today.
Build Instructions
Click here to download a copy of the SUPER CAT build instructions. The document is an Acrobat (PDF) file about
1.6MB in size, and contains text, photos and diagrams that will allow you to
easily construct your own stove. For best results when printing, I'd recommend
using an ink jet with a high quality setting.
If, for any reason, you have problems opening the PDF file, there's an HTML version of the instructions available here. The HTML version is not as nicely formatted as the PDF file, but the content is the same.
NEW! Please feel free to leave comments about this project in the new feedback forum.
Have fun... Jim Wood.
Copyright © 2004-2007 James E. Wood. All Rights Reserved.