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Cat Stove: step 5 |
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Whether your building a soda can stove, Cat stove, Turbo V8 or Esbit stove, the windscreen is an important part of the stove. Simple changes in the windscreen can drastically effect stove performance. On my Turbo V8 stove I made two screens. One was as tall as the pot and had a 1/8" gap around and the other barely came to under the handles but had a 1/4" gap all the way around. Normally you would expect the taller and tighter screen to help transfer heat to the pot, but the truth was opposite. I boiled faster and with less fuel using the shorter screen that had better air flow. If you build a stove to the instructions on this site and still have problems, check the windscreen.
Measure for your wind screen height. A good rule of thumb is to make it to the bottom of the pot handles.
Cut the oven liner to the desired height, adding about 1" so there is room for error and adjustment.
Make your wind screen fit around your pot with about a 1/8" to 1/4" gap. Trim the top to the desired height. If your pot is too large, you will need to make a 2 piece wind screen.
*** Note: after much testing I have found that a wind screen should be large enough to have a 1/4" gap all the away around. Closer and you choke off the stove, further out and you loose heat. Windscreen height actually matters less than distance to the pot. I found that a windscreen as tall as the bottom of the handles was better than a tall one because it maintained better air flow and weighed less.***
Use the hole punch to make as many air holes around the bottom edge as you can.
Use paper clips to secure the wind screen at the top and bottom. If you have a two piece screen, you will need two extra paper clips.
I also add a bottom heat reflector. Cut the reflector from some scraps to be just a little bigger than the pot stand.
Go to the next step: Step 5
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