Can it!

Erik here folks. I promised my favorite cousin that I'd write up how I made a soda-can alcohol stove, so here we are. This is a variant of a 'hobo stove' which might be made out of a coffee can. This is my second time making one of these; this time it worked. Here's the result, sitting on a silly base I made:

This stove runs on methanol, or methyl alcohol. Wood alcohol, in English. You can buy it at walmart, it comes in yellow bottles under the brand name HEET. It's normally used as a gasoline additive to make sure your fuel lines don't freeze up. You can also run small engines on it, or its cousin Iso-HEET (isopropyl alcohol for diesels). Methanol is toxic if ingested, and if you get just a few milliliters you could go blind forever. Watch out for methanol in moonshine! I understand lead poisoning is more of a moonshine risk nowadays given the homespun soldier connections.

Two tablespoons of heet was more than enough boil a cup of water with enough pressure to make my kettle whistle. I ran this stove for 20-30 minutes the other day without refueling. Cool!

Building this stove is very easy. You'll need two soda cans. Since I'm a ginger, I made my stove out of ginger ale. Cut the bottoms off both soda cans to the same height, say 1 to 2 inches. The trick to this is to use a rubber band to make sure you cut an even line all the way around the cylinder.

So you have 2 soda can bottoms (discard the tops). Now, you want to fit them together so they form a compact, closed cylinder. But you can't. Darn. The first time I tried this I cut opposing slots into either can and fitted them together. This worked horribly, and wasted my time. Instead, get some pliers out, and frill one of the cans until you can squeeze it into the other one. They should snap cleanly together, never to be separated again.

The first time I made one of these, I followed some advice in which I cut out the middle of the "top" of my new stove (the top is the side without a seam). This was a dumb move. All you need to do is pop 1 or 2 fill holes into the middle of the top of the stove with a thumb-tack. Finally, use the thumb-tack to make 16 holes evenly spaced around the rim, and you're done. Make sure you put it in something before you fuel it up, or you'll have a mess. I recommend a coffee can. Or dirt.

When I first tested the stove, it wouldn't light. Someone gave me some bad advice here, to cover the fill holes with a penny. The copper on the penny burned off, and didn't help it light. Turns out the penny was superfluous, without it the fill hole(s) will also make an additional jet.

I discovered the trick to lighting this stove is to fill the top with fuel and light it immediately before it drains into the reservoir - the flame spilling over the sides is a good thing. You'll see the fuel boiling, this is a good sign, and then the jets will light. It'll stay lit till it runs out of fuel.

I tried cooking a hotdog on it. This is ill advised as the fat drippings will cause a big flame up, and now my little stove has nasty burn stains on it. A single serving steel coffee cup is probably the best thing for it. Next time I'm out camping and want some morning coffee I won't have to give my dead camp-fire embers a forlorn look before heading for civilization.

If you've made it this far, you must be a relative, so here's an update on things. I bought a bike that glows in the dark.

So that's cool. Bicycling is my preferred form of exercise. My brother swims, my sister runs, and I don't really like either of those things. I tested a 20+ mile bike ride into my office last week, and this Wednesday plan to start regularly commuting.

Karl has discovered "Peanut butter jelly time" and asks why that banana wants a sandwich.

Claire had a doula reunion last week, and a small number of the dozens of babies from last year showed up.

We picked 2 names for the upcoming child. For now it exists in a dual androgynous state.

Here's a funny picture of our nasty little creature.

My kayak project continues, I don't have any fresh pictures, but get ready to see the cockpit recess.