Homebrew Trangia stove kit PIC HEAVY. Dialup No Bueno!!!

[Dawgboy]

This is my dedicated bug out stove. This bag contains the stove plus fuel and a few little things to be a self contained cooking system, sans food. Enjoy the pics.



The kit consists of a Trangia Alcohol burner with simmer ring, a 1 liter Evernew stainless kettle and lid, a pot stand made from 1/8" Hardware cloth, an MSR Windscreen(Stolen from my Whisperlite), A 16 oz. bottle of 200 proof ethanol, A small bag of sundries, a rag, A cut down MRE Spoon, and a computer fan screen. The fan screen is used as a stabilizer on occasion. The Bag has instant coffee, sugar and salt, matches, and a Bic lighter. Also a bobby pin to hold the windscreen together.

I like the Trangia as they are very simple and foolproof, light and durable. Plus no soot or oily mess from petroleum fuel. It works very well and will boil a liter in about 8 minutes with this setup. It took a while to dial in the height of the pot stand, this is my 2nd one. I can also simmer as the Trangia came with a simmer ring. Also I think it is superior to all the cat stoves and pop stoves because you can store fuel inside it.

[drew5337]

Not bad, not bad at all. I award you 10 internets.

I've got a swedish mess kit, and like it despite its weight. I'm going back to kero/white gas stoves for the fuel efficiency though. I started out using a Whisperlite Intl, went to the trangia, then to a wood gas stove, and now going back to the Whisperlite (and a Dragonfly if Santa is good to me this year).

[Dawgboy]

And nobody commented on my dual use fuel? White Lightning! It's drinkable when dilute, and I get it for free from work as if you crack the bottle even once, it can never be used again for cleaning optics due to water absorption.

[Sealegs]

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You can sew alu barbeque foil with your sewing machine and use a hole clipper for air holes. Just in case you want to go all "UL" on your wind screen there.

[Some Guy]

And nobody commented on my dual use fuel? White Lightning! It's drinkable when dilute, and I get it for free from work as if you crack the bottle even once, it can never be used again for cleaning optics due to water absorption.

That's some crazy stuff you got there. I'm amazed that you also can not use it again once it's opened; but hey, more for you. I too have a Swedish kit like drew5337 and use ever clear as my fuel (much like your fuel, i too can drink or water it down to drink if i need/want some). I like the set up you have; I do have one question thou. Do you have a smaller set up or small cup. i notice you have a coil grate in your second and third picture and guessing that you use that for smaller pot or cup. I was just wondering if you have such a cup in your bag and don't keep it in that bag.

[Dawgboy]

Yes, I also have a USGI cup and a Nalgene canteen that goes with the BOB.

[gronch]

And nobody commented on my dual use fuel? White Lightning! It's drinkable when dilute, and I get it for free from work as if you crack the bottle even once, it can never be used again for cleaning optics due to water absorption.

Sweet stove.

Nice rocket fuel!

[BlueSilkRibbon]

I wants mew some 200 proof fuel for my errr stove on new years.

[TacAir]

Hpw 'tall' is your hardware screen potholder?

I made my holder from steel roofing repair stock, and based height over burner' measurements on the Sterno stove.

Thanks

[Bunsen]

And nobody commented on my dual use fuel? White Lightning! It's drinkable when dilute, and I get it for free from work as if you crack the bottle even once, it can never be used again for cleaning optics due to water absorption.

Careful with that. While a quick bit of googling doesn't turn up any definite information on the process used to distill that alcohol, some anhydrous reagent-grade ethanol is definitely not stuff you want to drink (even when diluted to sensible concentrations). Normal distillation against water can only get you to 192 proof -- at that point, the water and ethanol evaporate at the same rate and further distillation is impossible. One of the methods to get past that is to mix it with benzene, which pulls the alcohol away from the water. The benzene-ethanol solution can be distilled down to a few parts per million of remaining benzene, which gives you wonderfully pure alcohol for use as a solvent or reagent. But that remaining trace of benzene is enough to be seriously unhealthy if you use it in drinks.

Your stuff appears to be distributed and taxed as a food-grade, human consumable product, so it might be produced using a method that doesn't leave anything more toxic than the ethanol itself. But you want to be really sure of that before you start spiking your hot cocoa with your stove fuel.

[Dawgboy]

Pot stand height is 2 7/8 inches.

This Ethanol is the real deal and is not denatured in any way. We can't use any Petroleum products on our optics as it leave a residue. It's hic... quite drinkable in grape kool-ade hic...

[TacAir]

Pot stand height is 2 7/8 inches.

This Ethanol is the real deal and is not denatured in any way. We can't use any Petroleum products on our optics as it leave a residue. It's hic... quite drinkable in grape kool-ade hic...

Thank you sir!

[Dawgboy]

yer welcome! Note that the standard folding sterno stove is about 4", which is where I also started. In my regular camping kit I use the sterno stove and a trangia burner all the time. It is great with my 9 cup Moka express pot. Water biols much faster on the shortened pot stand though. I am going to make an adapter to raise the burner in the sterno unit and when I do I will post it.

[Chef]

I didn't notice the alcohol as I was distracted by the coconut milk.

Nice kit!

[111t]

Nice kit!

[coldshot]

Nice setup! I also use a Trangia but instead of a hardware cloth stand, I use a Clikstand w/ windscreen.

[xxxDarksidexxx]

I didn't notice the alcohol as I was distracted by the coconut milk.

i was checking out the tube of gamo raptor pellets! i prefer gamo rockets...

nice kit! its simple, and should work just fine. do those MRE spoons work ok without beaking?

i like the use of the computer fan screen.... seems ive seen that used before.

[Dawgboy]

The raptors are nice, they came with a Whisper. I have a tin of some other ones that I let the boy use.

The spoon is fine, pretty tough compared to what can be bought at a store but not the sporkocalypse. Part of this kit was the idea of being as cheap as practicable, and to be left in the car bag ready to get me home should it be needed. It has also been used on many camping trips, but I finally bought another burner last year for the camp kit. The fan screen has been used by many folks, for many uses. The single burger BBQ is redonkulous though.

[Dawgboy]

I made an upgrade to the kit after my last outing. I tend to use this stove a lot more than I had originally planned for camping as it's so dead simple. My pot stand was starting to fail though, and the Trangia 27 thread got me clicking on the web...

Enter the Vargo wind guard.




When I saw this on Goinggear, I noticed that the height was very close to what I had determined was optimal, so I ordered it. Just fired up the stove for the pic, but it looks like it will work very well, weighs nearly nothing, and packs better than what I was using. All in all, I think a great replacement. I especially like how easy it is to get to the stove with a pot on it. I am going to leave the MSR windscreen in the bag for now though.

[northernxposure]

Great looking kit! I really like the looks of that new Vargo screen, do you know the large dimension across the flats when it's open? I've almost switched all of my alcohol stoves to the Supercat style, so I want to make sure that my pot will fit inside the screen when it's opened up.

We get that fuel up in the lab also, burns crazy fast - I put some in one of my pressurized stoves once - Yep, went back to HEET.

Not going to lie, though - I was really really hoping to see a homebrew Trangia stove.

NXP

[Dawgboy]

I am using 91% from the drug store these days. The stand can be opened really wide as it's just hinged, but fully closed, 6", and folded in on itself, a 3.5" square, so it can easily handle a nalgene sized cup as well as an 8 or 10" pot.

[Towanda]

Nice kit!

I use S-L-X denatured alcohol for fuel in my Trangias. It works just fine.

Once it gets really cold out and we have some snow on the ground, I plan to do a side-by-side snow-boiling comparison of the Clikstand I reviewed a couple years ago, my Swedish mess kit, and my Trangia 27 cookset.

[Raven521]

i use the trangia also and use heat for fuel. works great and is fool proof. Nice wind screen too. I'll have to check that out. I would suggest using a titanium pot they've come down in price a lot. Some of the snow peak pots are really reasonable.

[bluesquid]

Very nice stove.

Carefull drinking that 100%. I was given a bottle of everclear and loved drinking it until my memory started to fade. Was like full on wet brain. I went back to beer and wine. lol