Making my own alcohol stove

“I decided to try making my own alcohol stove to see how easy or difficult it could be. It only took a couple of tries before I got it right.

Tools used:

box cutter
tin snips
power drill with 3/16" and 1/16" bits

Materials used:
two empty soda cans
a small hexhead screw



Attempt 1:
First, I cut the bottoms off both soda cans using the box cutter. Modern soda cans use just enough aluminum to hold in the soda and the pressure, so they are very easy to cut with a sharp box cutter. I cut each can such that there was about an inch of the cylindrical section of the can still attached to the bottom.

Then, I cut another section of one of the cans about an inch and a half high, giving me a strip of aluminum 1.5" high and as long as the circumference of the can. I took this and formed it into a smaller cylinder with overlapping ends, which I then sized by placing in the can bottom which I intended to use for the bottom of the stove. Once I had the proper size, I cut small slits in both ends of the strip, from the top of the strip on one end, and from the bottom of the strip at the other end, lined up so that when slotted together, the strip would form a cylinder of the diameter needed to fit into the bottom of the can. I also cut small angled slits in the bottom of this cylinder which I then formed into triangular holes to allow alcohol to flow from the center chamber into the outer chamber of the stove, where the alcohol is supposed to vaporize and flow through the jet holes in the top of the stove.

Next came the top, or burner part of the stove. This is the part I apparently screwed up, although I have read instructions which said to make it this way. I took the other can bottom and completely removed the concave bottom from it using the box cutter and the tin snips. This was difficult, but I did manage to do it. Then, using the 1/16" drill bit, I drilled 12 holes around the periphery of the edge of the can, just on the other side of the lip from the part that had just been removed.

I then assembled the three parts together. I placed the small cylinder in the base of the stove, then I fit the top over the base and pressed the two pieces together. Unfortunately, when I did this, the side of the top piece split, but not so bad that the stove appeared unusable.

I then took the stove outside and tested it with a small quantity of isopropyl alcohol. Although the alcohol burned, I couldn't tell whether or not the burners were actually working or not, and I knew my wife would be peeved if I used all the alcohol, so I held off on further testing until I could acquire some other source of fuel.

A few weeks later, I purchased from denatured alcohol and tried this in the stove. I filled the stove with alcohol and lit it. As far as I could tell, the jets in the top of this stove never worked, although it is difficult to see an alcohol flame in daylight. I declared this stove a failure and proceeded to attempt 2.

Attempt 2:

I salvaged the base and inner cylinder from the first stove, and cut a new top from another soda can. This time, instead of cutting out the entire concave bottom of the new top, I simply drilled a 3/16" hole in the bottom. I then found the proper-sized hexhead screw to use to fill this hole after the stove was fueled, so that the bottom could then be used as a priming pan. I then drilled 8 1/16" holes around the periphery of the new stove top. I put the new top on the old parts, pressing carefully so as not to split the side of the new top, then I took the assembled stove outside for testing. I carefully filled the stove with alcohol, but still spilled quite a bit on the ground. Then I put my plug screw into the hole in the bottom of the concavity of the stove top, and poured a little more alcohol into this space. I lit the alcohol with a match, and the stove lit. And the alcohol on the ground lit. And the alcohol on the top of the can of alcohol lit. Fortunately there wasn't a lot on either the ground or the can, so it quickly burned off. I got a pot of water and doused the can anyway, just to be sure.

Meanwhile, the stove was merrily burning away. After all the alcohol burned out of the priming pan, I held my hand a foot over the stove, and could still feel heat coming from it, so I knew that the jets were working this time. I held the wooden end of one of my used matches next to one of the jets and watched it char, so I knew for sure that the jets were working. Success! I then put a pot with a little water in it over the stove, and in a few minutes, the water was heated to almost boiling. The stove then ran out of fuel.

I tested the stove a few more times, with a windscreen and without. Those trials will be recounted in another post I have prepared at home, but was unable to post because of the TT downtime this weekend.”

“Welcome to stove tinkering.

If we ever actually go hiking together, we can have a good stove show and tell. :)”

“Bit, your first attempt wasn't a failure, perhaps. For the stove to work properly, you NEED to place the pan over the flame. This extinguishes the center flame and allows the outer ring (jets) to be the only source of fire. This slows down the rapid burning off of the alcohol.
Also, Isopropyl alcohol sux, try the mentholated rubbing alcohol * ”

“my approach to testing stoves: test the new stoves at dusk or at night so you can see the flame - it gives you a much better feel as to how the stove is really working when you can see the jets etc.”

“All good ideas. The one I have now seems to work pretty good, except I have problems lighting it unless I have spilled a little alcohol on the ground around it. No doubt HOI's tea candle setup would fix this problem.”

“Surely you mean methyl alcohol, not mentholated! That would be very smelly, and clear the sinuses of everyone for a half mile!”

“HOI,
Thanks for the book. I will put it to good use. Although I don't think I will be as knowledgeable as you anytime in the near future.

BAMA”

“I use denatured myself...You can find it at Walmart, or your local home improvement store :)”

“BAMA - its good to hear that it got to you OK”