Stove Making

My two favorite home made stoves. The top stove is the first stove I ever made and it has accompanied me on many day hikes. This is a simple stove to make. Directions for making it are here.

The stove on the left I just made today and I'm very happy with it's performance. It is a bit like an ion stove but with an integrated pot stand. The part the pot rests on is made from both can halves and seems to be sturdy enough.

The fuel port is from the unopened top of a small tomato juice can I pressed the bottom of the same can into the fuel port and cut a hole it what used to be the very bottom of the can. I kept adding holes to the pot support part until the stove was getting enough air to burn fairly hot. The flame shoots out of the holes in the pot support. I was hoping that the flame would just come out the center hole.

I wanted to make a good stove to use with a Heineken can pot and this was not it! This stove burned for 17 minutes on about 2.5 Table spoons of alcohol but the water (1.5 cups) in my Heineken can pot never boiled.


When I used this stove with my grease pot (with no windscreen or bottom reflector this time) it ran for for 14 minutes, the water (1.5 cups) boiled in just seven minutes and then continued to boil for another seven minutes.

Both stoves have integrated pot stands. I really don't like having a separate pot stand to have to fiddle with. Both stoves are made from just one can.

I ran these tests outdoors using cold tap water. Air temperature was about 37F or 3C. I know most people start with 70 degree F water but I like to test in real world conditions and I hate measuring things too much. I cut 4 times and never measure, I just eyeball everything.