Minimalist one can double wall stove

[nikos]

Hello,

I've made a very simple stove today and I d'like to share the idea (in case nobody already made one like this).
So, the thing is to find a can whose top has a slightly conical shape. (The one I found is a (terrible) taiwanese coffee but I am sure the shape is very common)

1 - open and empty the can
2 - cut off the top (2 or 3 centimeters) (A)
3 - cut off the bottom part (same.. +/- 3 centimeters) and drill holes all around it (let's say in the middle) (B)
4 - encase (A) upside down into (B). No need to push or to force.

You end up with a kind of cup. Pour some alcohol inside and light it. After few seconds, flames should come out from the circular holes.

http://habanita.free.fr/stove/1.png

http://habanita.free.fr/stove/2.png

(sorry for the quality of the pics)

Hope this helps somebody cooking good stuff out of a crappy coffe can !

[zelph]

Nice idea, thanks for sharing.

I remember a salmon/fish can being conical in shape. I'll search to see if a stove was made from it.

Does the flames remain the same size or do they get bigger as the stove heats up?

Photos are nice!!!!

Have you made other stoves?

[nikos]

Hi Zelph, thanks for your message and your inspiring stove work !

Yes, the flames get bigger.
Here's a tiny video to give the idea.

My first test gave these results :

lighting the stove : 10 sec
boiling 500 ml of water (with no lid) : 5 min 10

It's less or more the same results of a genuine french P3RS, but much more simple and fast to do.

EDIT : here's the shape of can i used : - from a chinese grocery

[zelph]

Good video!!!

Here is the thread that has a photo of the can with taper. Look on the 2nd page. That can would make a nice stove like yours. One problem though, it is made of steel, not aluminum. It will take longer for the jets to light. Stronger than aluminum.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3446&hilit=tapered ... n&start=10

Nice to see people in your country making their own lightweight stoves for camping. Can you show a picture of the bottle of alcohol/meths that you use, please?

[nikos]

Hi !

My can is made of some kind of ferroalloy (except the top which is luckily made of aluminium). As you can see on the video, it takes only 10 sec for the flames to transit to the holes.
If your can is made of steel, what would you think of a rolled piece of alluminium from a pepsi can, bathed in the alcohol. It might help accelerate the heating ?

Something like that :



I tried it yesterday on a penny stove :



But didn't do any efficiency test, just assuming it would help to transmit the heat and maybe (but I am not a scientist ) create a peripheral chamber to concentrate the alcohol vapor (?) ... very empirical ...

The alcohol I use is ：



from a pharmacy.

(btw, i noticed that most of asian canned products use the very same can)

[zelph]

It's ok for stoves to take up to 1 minuit tofor the jets to light. a popular presurrized stove takes 1 min. to light but buyers dont mind. The stove is the White Box Stove and is made of aluminum.

The rolled aluminum would surely help heat the fuel and cause it to light and burn faster.

Thank you for the photo of the alcohol. I will put a copy of it in another thread.

[nikos]

Finally, i've just discovered that it works just fine with a normal coke can. All the same and fits even better.



edit : but the stove has to be turned face down, and pressed hard enough. Thus the two pieces fit together permanently.

[zelph]

Very nice explanatory diagram of it's construction. On a scale of one to 10 I give it a 10, top rating

How long of a burn time can you get with the coke can size?

I'm amazed at the ingenuity of stove builders. They make life interesting. A small DIY stove can heat a cuppa water for a nice warm drink when out for a stroll or in your appartment. We see denatured alcohol stoves that burn clean, a fuel that we have on hand for medicinal use. Lots of great ideas have come about in the last 5-6 years. Nikos is part of the soloutions

[nikos]

Hi Zelph,

Thanks for your kind words. But I think the solutions comes from the forum itself ! From someone idea, someone else bounce on an other....

The classic coke turned into this stove takes :

(indoor)
11-12 minutes to burn 10 ml of alcohol 70%.
7 min to boil 500 ml of water

(outdoor)
7 min
5 min

It takes 2 minutes to DIY the stove.

[zelph]

indoor)
11-12 minutes to burn 10 ml of alcohol 70%.
7 min to boil 500 ml of water

10ml is very very efficient and have not heard of a stove being that efficient to boil 500ml of water. Do a few more tests and see what you come up with