Here is a link to instructions for making your own camping/emergency stove out of empty soda cans. I’ve used this stove on lengthy backpacking trips (i.e., many weeks or even months of daily cooking in the woods) and it boils rapidly and cleanly. It uses alcohol—denatured alcohol (paint thinner) burns the cleanest, but in a pinch you can use rubbing alcohol or even high-proof liquor. In other words, you can get fuel anywhere—pharmacy, hardware store, paint store, liquor store.
I have backpacked, literally, thousands of miles and have seen and used all sorts of stoves. This one is the cheapest (almost free), lightest, and easiest. And it’s the easiest to find fuel for no matter where you are.
http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/pepsistove.shtml
The stove works best with titanium pots, which conduct heat most efficiently (you can get these pots at outdoor gear stores, or online at places like www.campmor.com). It is most efficient if you paint the outside of the pots black. Use heatproof stove paint (check at hardware store). You can burn it inside the house without fear of creating any dangerous fumes (although you do have to take the usual precautions against fire, since it has a flame).
The stove weighs only a fraction of an ounce, so it’s very portable. And you can always make a new one from two empty soda cans.
Good luck and happy cooking!
Can these be used for heat..does it let off heat while it is burning..
It does give off heat, but I wouldn’t count on it for more than keeping your hands warm if you sit near it.
just remember that the more adulturated the alcohol you buy the more toxins it gives off as it burns, so unless you paying a a drinking a tax on the alcohol (think everclear) all the alcohol you buy is adulturated so that it can’t be drunk, and I wouldn’t even burn one of these stoves without good air circulation.
I was thinking of makeing a small stove out of an empty coffee can. And useing twigs as fuel.It would have to be constantly tended and fed fuel when needed. But in many areas includeing this one, It is an abundant resource requireing no tools for the fuel preperation. Has anyone here ever appoached this useing a simular method. Would be very happy to hear your responses.
jack walt – at 16:34 — Whilst in Boy Scouts a long time ago, on a camping trip we were required to come up with a “unique” way for an individual to stay warm. My friend and I brought along a couple of coffee cans (we had to clear this with the Scoutmaster). What we did was punch a few small holes along the side at the bottom with a nail, so the flame would have some lower air feed, and did exactly what you mentioned: we used small twigs as fuel. Got a merit badge out of that one!
One of the things I certainly learned was that after the fire goes out in the can, you really want to wait for while before picking it up!!!
Thanks BroncoBill, The nail holes is one idea i was entertaining, Bendinding some metalic tubeing to feed it air, maybe more than one controled by placeing bolts in the inlets for control. I think a good pair of pliers to handle the stove would be in order. I was thinking if you had some bricks or stones available you could arrange them as a platform for the stove. And to control the airfeed. Anyway thanks again from one old ex boy scout to another.
jack walt – at 18:06 --- And to control the airfeed
If you use one the old style coffee cans that have a metal lid, you could use that on the top, much like a Weber BBQ, to control the draft from below. Fire would burn a bit longer…just balance the lid off-center so there’s only about a half inch opening…
Worthwhile information, Thanks again BroncoBill.
Hi Jack We called them “hobo stoves” and made them when we were kids.
http://www.castbullet.com/makeit/hobo.htm
I make a rat hole at the bottom, and use the old beer can opener (cuts a triangle hole) to make lots of holes around the top edge. I can boil water faster than any gas stove. Just burn twigs or woodchips. They are the greatest stoves ever. Just feed fuel into the rat hole door- or take the pot off and drop the fuel in. The flames swerl. It is actually very thermodynamic.
The coffee-can-with-twigs stoves that Clark described work great. There’s a more techno version of this stove called the “Sierra Zip Stove” that has a little fan, operated by one AA battery, that blows on the fire to make it superhot. The stove burns little pieces of wood, chunks of bark, pine cones, whatever.
I used this stove for 6 months on the Appalachian Trail, twice a day, to cook all my meals, and it worked great. You can even burn damp wood in it if you have something dry to start it with.
It does not take much fuel at all, so if you live in a wooded area, you’re set.
It does make smoke, so you need to use it outdoors or inside a fireplace.
The one drawback to this stove is that you need a supply of batteries—one battery lasted me about a week.
I have two of these stoves and plan to use them, and the alcohol stove, if necessary.
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