The Funky Penny stove

Drake inspired me to make a "penny style" stove. Thanks. But of course, no stove is great unless it is a good match for your pot. So, I did some tweaking and came up with the Funky Penny. (Someone please tell me if this is new or not.)

Design: The base of the stove is the bottom of a Foster's can. The top of the stove is an inverted Coke can. I JB welded the two together. I was happy to find that the coke can fit well around the convex area on the bottom of the Foster's can. Total weight: .8 oz. (not too happy here ) My thinking was that a little bit of fuel around the outside of the coke can would help preheat the inner fuel, thus vaporizing and making it good for cold weather use. With the jets pointed more inward, I'd get a more precise burn for my Snow Peak 700 mug. I use a windscreen with a couple stakes through it, so that my pot sits 2.875 inches high. The stove is 1.375 tall.

Results: 1 oz. of fuel was used... .25 in the primer pan, .5 in the inner section of the coke can, and .25 in the top of the stove with the screw in place. I found the primer pan hard to get lit, but once lit it was fine. I put the pot on at the 30 second mark - because I wanted to be sure the primer pan was lit well. After 2:30 or so, the primer pan would burn out and the jets would be the only thing burning. At about 5:20, I got a strong rolling boil. (Sorry, I don't have a thermometer, so I just let it boil until it's without a doubt killed all the nasties.) Total burn time was about 6:40.

Conclusions: This stove is faster for me than my best version of the side burner Pepsi stove. I'm not sure that means much, since I could not get a boil on .75 oz, and had to use a full 1 oz of fuel. It is easy to make and burns well. I think that to better this stove for my pot, I'm going to try a V8 can top with a Coke can base. That should center the flame under the pot better as well as reducing weight. Other than that, I'll need to play with the height of the pot off the flame, then I should have a system that works best for me.

Tell me what you think. Any ideas?

Your boil time seems good but 2:30 seems like kind of a long time to prime. How much fuel do you pour into the priming pan?

Jason,
I used .25 oz in the primer pan. I thought that 2:00+ was a long time too, but I'm not terribly disappointed with the overall performance. Perhaps less fuel in the priming pan would aid in avoiding wasting heat up the sides of the pot.

You may not need as much prime as .25 oz. - On the original
penny (which I use all the time) by basically dumping the fuel into the top and lighting it, the heat from that serves to prime the stove as the fuel drops into the bottom just fine. in reasonably warm weather. I do add a priming tray to the regular stove (similar to your fosters can) when I carry one for winter time daytrips.

You might also want to try fewer, larger holes - like the penny stove design. I've personally found this works better for
me than many small holes,

I have to agree, perhaps 3 evenly spaced 1/16 holes pointed inward would work better. But again I love to experiment as well, just the wife won't let me buy any more fuel, heh.

hmmm... less holes but make them larger. They may be a good idea; I'll have to try.

I'll also try less fuel to prime, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get it lit with much ease.

That is a good burn time. Does the JB weld hold up well? I don't know the size of the V8 can,I know it's smaller. I scored Red Bull cans yesterday that I plan to use with my wick idea. I tried the idea you have and found that I didn't need the pre-heat pan. I just pour more fuel in the stove. One thing though, I couldn't get the stove to work with the fill hole plugged, a la penny style. I was using a large aluminum rivet. I tossed that and the stove works fine.

Yeah, I was suprised with the boil tme. I have had no problems with the JB weld, however over time, I would expect it to become brittle since it is exposed to direct flame.

I did lower with pot to just .75 to 1 inch above the stove and got a 22 minute burn - on just 1.5 oz of fuel. I figured that would be great for cooking, with the lid off the pot and doing some simmering/water for tea/water for washing face and hands, etc.

So... I got my V8 penny stove completed. I just used the simple two can design - one inverted into the other. I did not use a penny or screw for the center hole(s). I have 5 holes... 3 jets on the inside pointing towards the center and 2 filler holes. All are 1/16". I used a coke can as a primer, slightly hammering down the convex center so that the stove sits nicely on top.

I used denatured alc for fuel, filling the primer pan with about 2mL and the 20mL in the stove (about .75oz total). I lit the primer and started the clock. I got a hard rolling boil at 7:52 with a burnout at 9:20. I uses my standard pot: a Snow Peak 700 cup with lid and a windscreen-stand combo -which puts my pot about 1.25" above the stove.

I would like to thank all those through the years that have had a terrible influence on me during this addiction. j/k But I do appreciate the tid bits and outright critiques that I've received here. Now I can rest with a stove that fits my needs well. Thank you. (I'm going to take a nap.)