Basic Alcohol Stove Construction

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Priming pans are required for pressurized jet stoves (unless you come up with another method for preheating - candle, etc) but may also be used with hybrid sideburner jet stoves, which would allow you to set your pot on the stove and then light without needing to hold the pot above your stove while it warms up. Primer pans may also be needed to heat up any stove in very cold weather.

Please refer to Don Johnson's Video of lighting the stove to get an idea of how use your pan.

Options

Lightest - Take an aluminum disposable cookie pan or heavy duty aluminum foil and cut it larger than the diameter of a bean dip or tuna can or something else the size you would like. Form it around the can and trim down the edges to 1.5cm. Aluminum flashing makes a slightly heavier pan but is also more durable.

Made from disposable Bake Pan

Alternately you can use a crimper (see Special Tools) to fold up the edge of you aluminum sheet like a cupcake paper liner for a more uniform shape without sharp points.

Pot Pie Pan (left is trimmed down)

Small aluminum mini-pie pans (trimmed down or untrimmed) also work.

Light - Aluminum dip or cat food can - mark 1.5cm from bottom and cut.

Bottom of Bean Dip Can

If you have a mini stove made of 6oz cans, you can try using a 3oz aluminum can (Spam spread, cat foot, Vienna sausages, etc) if you cut it down shallow enough (less than or equal to 1/4 inch or 6mm) and/or set the stove down offset from center (to allow air to get down to the fuel). The diameter of this setup is just a tad smaller than ideal and may not work to your liking.

The bottom of a 12oz drink can may be used for a stove made from 6oz cans. Simply epoxy the stove centered on the 12oz can part or if you want to get fancy, you can cut out the circular ridge on the 12oz can part, slide it over and around the stove and epoxy it to the side.

Not as light - cut down a steel tuna can or other similarly sized diameter steel can.

You may also epoxy stove or concave section of another can bottom (to help center the stove) directly to your primmer pan for a little stability and convenience. If you do so, you may need to first burn/sand off any coating and drill a hole in the middle of your stove (to also increase fuel capacity) or primer pan (if you don't like the idea of a future fuel leak) to allow pressurized heated air trapped between the stove and primer pan to escape.

An alternative to using a primer pan is to epoxy or tying a wrap of fiberglass wick around the side of your stove.

Zen Backpacking Stoves