Making a Pop Can Meths Stove & Hobo Stove

[Shewie]

Just made a couple of alcohol stoves this morning, I've been meaning to try one for ages too.

I use two coke canes and ended up with something around 50mm high. I remembered something I read on the Zen site about using an unopened can to make the bottom part open up a touch, it worked a treat on my second attempt. The first one split as I pushed it down, with second one I gave it a bit of veg oil and it went on much easier.
I don't have any of that ally tape yet but I still tried it out in the garden. I half filled it with meths and popped it in a hobbo to act as a windbreak, sparked it up and then popped my mug on. It took about seven minutes to get a rolling boil, I ran in the house and made our lass a brew , back outside with another mug full and boiled that up in the same time. I left it to burn out to see how long it would run for, it took half an hour from lighting so I'm dead pleased with that.

Gonna make some more now

[Ashley Cawley]

Half an hour? Wow that's good, any chance you could post up a pic of the design you've put together?

[Shewie]

Just charging up my camera batteries Ash

It's identical to the one in your link except a little taller, and it's Coke not Pepsi

[TinkyPete]

Here are another couple of sites that have inspired me with my pop can stoves hope these help people:

http://zenstoves.net/
http://users.sisqtel.net/losthiker/pikastove/

The Zen stove site even has printable plans and alot of information on meths burners and cookers

[Shewie]

These are what I've knocked up today, gonna try some more tomorrow too

Left to right ...

First attempt (crushed while putting together so didn't bother drilling it), Second effort - Stands about 50mm high (the purple line shows where I filled it to and got the half hour burn time), an attempt at a pressurised version - Lyons golden syrup lid for priming pan (the fire cement holding the nut inside failed after the first burn )



All good learning though

[Martin]

I love those Rich. Need to have another look to see if I can find mine in the garage. Great work there though, and inspiring to have a go at one of the pressurised ones.

Martin

[Ashley Cawley]

Thanks for sharing that with us Shewie, they're looking good .... right so it's Coke not Pepsi!

[leon-1]

Thanks for sharing that with us Shewie, they're looking good .... right so it's Coke not Pepsi!

Nope it's red rooster not red bull.

The first one of these I made was a pepsi can stove (they were still made from steel), since then I have used all sorts. The Mini Photon Stove has a base made from a tin of tomato puree can and the top from a generic energy drink can (Red Rooster, Red Bull or the like).

[MikeWilkinson]

Hi Shewie,

Those stoves are looking good my friend, I'll have to dig the camera out and get some photo's of my penny stove. You don't have to worry about the screw failing or the can exploding with the pressure build up. If it gets too much the penny lifts and you get a central burn until the pressure drops back down - see the link to the penny stove on the first page, nice and simple.

Here is the photos added. The last two are the differences between correct priming and over priming.

[Shewie]

Hi Shewie,

Those stoves are looking good my friend, I'll have to dig the camera out and get some photo's of my penny stove. You don't have to worry about the screw failing or the can exploding with the pressure build up. If it gets too much the penny lifts and you get a central burn until the pressure drops back down - see the link to the penny stove on the first page, nice and simple.

Cheers for that Mike

I got chatting to some of the guys on the hammock forums last night and one of them suggested at least three small holes in the centre as opposed to one big one,no need for a coin either apparently. I'm going to give one a go this evening and see how it works.