A couple weeks ago, we went camping with some friends. Which is my jam. But in the interest of not spending all our money on cool camping gear, I decided I wanted to try my hand at building a small alcohol stove. I did a lot of research on which types of stoves are best and there are a lot of pro’s and con’s for each type, but in the end I settled on a basic sideburner design.
- Doesn’t require a pot stand to stay lit (I used one anyway since its more stable)
- Works consistently
- Easy to find all the parts and doesn’t require anything but fuel
- Can light without a primer pan (some designs require this second part)
This stove can burn denatured alcohol (ethanol), HEET, and pure rubbing alcohol. You dont have to get the fancy and expensive “camp stove fuel” at REI to use this thing.
The stove is made from two 12 oz pop cans, and thats it.
Note
Ignore the little putty around the side – thats not supposed to be there, but I rushed my build and tore the side of the can and didn’t have time to start over. Be more careful than me.
You can boil 2 cups of water in about 3 minutes. So pretty good.
How to Build Your Own
Twenty-four jets are drilled around the side of the stove using a template at 15mm from the top.
There is already a pretty great tutorial for building this thing so I’m just going to link to it rather than write my own: http://zenstoves.net/BasicSideBurner.htm
And here is where you will find the templates to make your own: Print these out and tape them to the cans: http://zenstoves.net/Templates.htm
I also recommend getting a pot stand to make everything more stable: Freehawk Pot Stand
If you don’t feel like taking the time to make your own, this little guy is a great small backpacking stove that uses a small propane canister:Backpacking Stove