DIY Starlyte

The Starlyte (designed by Zelph) is my favorite alcohol stove. It is easy to make so long as you can get the right containers. It's one of the safest alcohol stoves around (nearly spill proof). It works in the cold where pressurized alcohol stoves fail. And most of all, it is a K.I.S.S. stove (Keep It Simple Stupid). Just add fuel and fire it up. There is no priming, no "bloom" time, no hassle. In decent conditions you should be able to boil 2 cups of water in 6min. with under 1 oz of fuel.

If you'd like to make your own, I can email you some pretty thorough build instructions (leave me a note in the comments with your email address). I'll just mention briefly what you need to build your own.

1. Aluminum Wedding Favor Tin (Target had them on clearance recently)
2. Fiberglass Insulation (Home Depot, Lowes, any Lumberyard)
3. Fiberglass Cloth (Walmart in the Auto supply section, or most any autobody or marine shop)
4. Aluminum Window Screen (Same place you find the Insulation)
5. Hardware Cloth (for the pot stand, same as insulation and screen)

Top view. Inside the tin are layered, from bottom to top:
Fiberglass Insulation, Fiberglass Cloth, Window Screen

Side view.

You can experiment with different sizes. I bought the aluminum containers here. The largest is a small catfood can and it will hold enough fuel to boil a gallon of water - good for group camping.