Penny Stove with Wind shield.

A penny Stove is a simple and excellent camp stove. It does require having a liquid such as denatured alcohol to run. I got my set of instructions off of  instructables.com.. This set is fairly easy to make and works great.

In the next few blog entries I will try to cover Heat and cooking. The last blog was  how to make a simple solar cooker. this one deals with making an alcohol camp stove. 

First you need the materials. 

3 empty pop or beer cans salvaged out of the garbage

1 tomato juice can large

1 either a can ( whitch is slightly bigger than the juice can of natures pride syrup packed sweet potato's. or large can of refried beans)

1 1/16 inch drill bit

1 1/8 inch drill bit

1 1/4 inch drill bit.

1 small hammer

1 penny

1 paper punch

1 scissors

1 exacto knife

First wash two of the pop cans out then turn one over. in the center drill an 1/8 inch hole

Then put in the 1/16 inch drill bit and drill eight evenly spaced holes around the curved edge of the can.

Now take the exacto knife and hold it on top of a 2 by four put the bottom side down on the table and score the can. the distance should be approximately 1 1/2 inch from the bottom of the can

Once the can is scored you need to separate the bottom section with the holes in it.

to do this you take the exacto knife and put a small puncture in it. I found that by puncturing above the scored mark ( towards the top of can) and then slowly cutting to the line worked the best.

Then peal the top section away from the bottom.

Once you have the two pieces apart I took some fine sand paper and sanded on the inside of the can for any rough edges.

Now take the hole punch and punch approximately 1/4 inch below the curved edge

I punched eight equally spaced holes below the burner holes then snipped with a scissors to the top of the hole.

Now take the second can and put the exacto knife on the two by four and separate. this is the bottom of the stove. take the third can and place on top of the new bottom piece and tap it with the two by four setting accross the top can so that the bottom piece stretches a little bit. ( I found this works the best instead of just rotating the can along the edge. don't tap to hard other wise the can will split)

Now I fit the top piece into the bottom and slowly work it into place you might have to trim a couple of shims to put on the top of one of the holes to fit the two sections together.

make sure you don't try to force it though. the top should fit in to the top edge. You now have made your penny stove. to test fire the stove ( this will help to melt the printing on the can so that the two pieces adhere to one another. put alcohol in the stove place a penny over the center hole and fire her up. It took a couple of minutes for me to get it fired the first time. two ounces of denatured alcohol lasted for about twenty minutes.

Once this is done and the stove has cooled take the fine sand paper and sand where the seam of the two cans.

Now to make the base and cover take the juice can and mark approximately 1/2 inch above the stove. 

around the bottom about a quarter inch up drill eight evenly spaced 1/8 inch holes. at the top take the 1/4 inch bit and drill one set of eight evenly spaced holes  then right below that drill eight off center holes cut the can I used a hack saw then sand the top edge so that it isn't sharp.

Now to make the pan holder.

take a clothes hanger and cut four pieces approximately one inch longer than the can with the holes in it.. make these into hooks.

once you have the four hooks you can fashion the pan holder which is nothing more than a fashioned hook and eye and square to fit the four hooks after they have been inserted into the can.

Make it a little snug so when it is hooked it will pull the four posts snug. you now have the stove made.now open your can of sweet potato's and make them or your re fried beans you now have your top this can be all put together and carried with in a pocket or a knapsack. when it is being readied to travel you take the pot holder and it acts like a strap to hold the camp stove together..

Good luck and have fun camping..