BUILDING THE MINI ALCOHOL STOVE

THE ALCOHOL STOVE



 

I, like almost every other prepper, first saw these stoves on YouTube.  I decided to make one.  Don't get me wrong, I am not re-inventing the wheel here.  There are great videos on how to make these, I will show the version that I made.  If you have never seen them before, make one.  If my instructions suck, download one of the videos from YouTube and ..... MAKE ONE. 

 

Get the principles down and you won't be caught short, because, you can even make one of these with a knife, and a thumbtack.  If you are the MacGuyver type, you can make it out of a rusty key and a stick.  or was that a rusty stick and a key?   Anyhow, this is the project I worked on.   For the record, I tried various building techniques and variations of hole size, number of holes, location of holes, and can sizes.  Bottom line is they all tend to work well. 

 

The only stumbling block I found was the fuel.  In the USA there is Denatured Alcohol and HEET.  In canada we have Methyl Hydrate, Rubbing Alcohol, and Fondue Fuel.  Those are the choices I had.  Fondue Fuel tended to turn the inside of my stoves blue for some reason.  Methyl Hydrate is the stuff us Canuckians use in our gas tanks to keep them from freezing (NOTE:  They come in handy dandy little bottles that are sealed for the apocalypse, or you can buy the gallon size.)

IF YOU ARE A DUMBASS WITH TOOLS ....  GREAT.... THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.

Parts

1 - Soft drink can (2 or more if you have strong hands, because you will bend the heck out of em, I did)
hmmmmm  I guess that's it for all the parts.  Shouldn't break the bank.

Tools

1 Blade (utility knife type)
1 Utility knife (separate from the blade for convenience)
1 set of needle nose pliers
1 piece of 1 inch something or other (I use wood)
1 piece of 1/2 inch something or other ( I use wood)
1 drill
1 stapler
1 #60 drill bit (if you don't have that go no bigger than 1/16" drill bit)
1 tube of high temp gasket glue (optional)
1 thumb tack or sharpened nail (optional)

Instructions

picture stolen from the internet

 

 

Step one,  Scoring the Opening

 

 

Any pop can will do.  Take your pick, but drink the contents first.  No sense letting the beverage go to waste. 

 

With the utility knife, score the inside of the top of the can.  Don't push hard, just push and turn repeatedly until you slowly find the blade working its way into the can.   Then stop.   Push the inside of the lid down lightly but repeatedly until it works its way completely loose of the can. If you don't like the jagged edge, you can do two things.  1) take a Dremel and grind the edge smooth, or 2) take a stick, or (I used) a piece of 1 inch PVC pipe and rub it against the edge to smooth it out.  Don't rub hard, or you will disfigure the can.  You can also do this at the end of assembly as well.

 

Scoring in the bottom of the groove

Can with top removed



Step 2, Marking the Holes

Mark the jet holes around the edge of the can with a Sharpee marker.  How many holes will depend on you.  I just made mine about 1/4 inch from each other, and on the flat part of the shoulder just above the bend.  Some of my prototypes had anywhere from 12 - 28 holes, and all worked fine.

Holes marked on can for jets

 





Step 3, Drilling the Holes

With a #60 drillbit, (or anything up to 1/16, but make sure its small) drill the holes into the shoulder of the can.  If you are finding your drillbit wandering all over, you might try using a sharpened nail, or thumbtack to start an indent where the bit will follow.  I found if you push too hard with the nail or thumbtack, you will have dents in the shoulder after the holes are drilled. 

Countersinking the holes with a nail for easier drilling.  

Step 4, Cutting The Top and The Bottom

Scoring the Can

 

 

Steelwooling the bottom of the can

 

 

Take a piece of steel wool and lightly dust off the paint on the bottom of the can about 1 inch from the bottom.  This will help prevent crimping once it is removed from the can.  The integrity is better at this stage of the build.

Take your utility blade (not the knife) and clamp it onto your piece of 1 inch wood etc. on a flat table.  I used my table saw.  To cut the top of the can, rub the can against the knife blade, gently, to score it.  When you start to feel the blade is working through the can.  Flip the can over and do the same with the bottom of the can.   You should have two score marks on the can. 

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION HERE.  YOU HAVE SCORED BOTH THE TOP AND BOTTOM, BUT FOR NOW YOU WILL ONLY REMOVE THE TOP.

On the score line you just made below the top of the can, lightly press in and let the can metal pop back out, over and over until you see a split on the score line,  now press and repeat around the whole can, this will break the top section off.  KEEP THE BOTTOM ON FOR NOW. 

Step 4, The Inside Wall

The inside wall of the stove will create a gap between the outside wall and the inner chamber, where you dump the fuel into.  This gap is where the vaporization happens to make the jets work.  This wall will fit between the top and bottom halves of the stove, in the grooves, upon assembly.  The inside wall must be a bit wider than the top and bottom, so you will need to change the way it is cut with the blade.

I found that 1 1/2 inches worked fine for the cans I had.  So set your blade on the new jig that is 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 inches high.

The jig should be 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 inches from the table.  This is flexible

With the bottom of the can on top, score the can 1 1/2 inches from the bottom.

NOTE:  The 1 inch score mark can be seen while scoring the inside wall
 

Again, once you start to find the blade entering the can.  Stop scoring and work the metal back and forth until the pieces break free.  Do Not Force.

NOTE:   Ignore the fact that the bottom of the can has not been steelwooled.  This was to cost me later.  So don't make that mistake too.

Bottom, Inside wall, and Top almost ready for assembly

Step 5, Crimping the Bottom

With your needle nosed pliers, pinch and bend the edge of the bottom piece inward.  Repeat this around the periphery.  This will make for easy assembly. The crimp lines should only be about 1/8 inch from the edge of the can.

Step 6, Sizing the Inner Wall

With your utility knife, cut the inner wall, and remove approximately 5/8 inches of material.  This will make assembly a bit easier. 

Cut the inner wall

 

Remove approximately 5/8 inch

 

Fitting the inner wall inside the bottom

Place the inner wall inside the bottom of the stove and fit it into the grooved slot.  While holding it to size,  take a common paper stapler and put a staple into the side of the ends of the inner wall to secure its size.   Try to keep the staple about 1/8 inch from the edge. NOTE:   I found it works best to have the smooth part of the staple on the inside with the little legs folded over on the outside.  This will prevent them from snagging anything inside the stove.

Note the staple is close to the edge of the wall
 

Step 7, Flaring out the Top

 

In order to make the top easier to place on the bottom, during assembly, I found by rubbing it against another can bottom will allow the edge to stretch and flare out.  This make placing it over the bottom part easier.  Just rub it lightly over and over while on the bottom of another can.  This should flare the edge just enough to let it slide onto the bottom during assembly.

Step 8, Assembly

Take your gasket glue and run a bead around the top crimped edge of the bottom part.

Place the inside wall into the bottom half. Now place the top onto the bottom, making absolute sure it is on straight.  Be sure the crimps are not getting caught on the bottom of the top half.  Slowly, and with even pressure, push the top down onto the bottom while making sure the inner wall doesn't get hooked on the edge of the top opening.   Did you get all that?

Wipe off the excess glasket glue and let sit until dry.  Be sure that the top is on straight.  When the gasket glue is dry,  Take the pvc pipe and rub it inside the opening of the stove to push the rough edge closer to the inner wall.  You can now 1) fire it up, or  2) steelwool the paint off the top and make it pretty, then FIRE IT UP. 

Add some fuel to the inside opening and light the fuel.   It should take about 1 - 2 minutes for the can to heat up enough where vaporization will kick in and the jets will self ignite.  This is the Happy Time, when you first see the jets start to ignite. 

 

Difficult to see in the photo but the jets have just started to ignite.  Once they are all burning.  Place your pot of water / soup etc on the top of the stove and heat it up.

My timing showed it took 5 minutes to get the 3 cups of water to start boiling. 

NOTE:  I have seen 100s of variations of this little dream.  All seem to work fine.  So it is fairly difficult to screw it up totally.  Gasket Glue doesn't need to be used but I did it and it worked.  You can also make a wind screen and even a holder for it...  as I said, it is endless.   ENJOY.