DIY Miniature Stove (video)

• kerozene
  September 26th, 2007 at 3:10 am

  Utillity knife blades,insulation and HEET? wth? who has that stuff just sitting around their house? (unless you’re an emo pyro tweeker who tears apart their walls to play with the insulation. In that case, I appologize.)

• JayW
  September 26th, 2007 at 6:45 am

  HEET not a requirement… there are many other fuels that work with these stoves. There are also smaller and more efficient versions (one called the V8 stove, that uses V8 Cans). Pretty cool stuff. And they actually work! Well!

  These can stoves are wildly popular among ultralight (and even just “light”) hikers. The most common fuel is not HEET, but denatured alcohol (which is very similar to HEET, and more available.)

  As for the insulation, it’s not actually even required, the stove works great without it if you build it right. So then all you don’t have “just sitting around their house” is a utility knife. And you’re cutting cans, so pretty much any knife would work.

• peach
  September 26th, 2007 at 9:54 am

  OK so I have to drag all this stuff on a camping trip- wouldn’t it be simpler and more compact just to bring a ready made camp stove?

• cuimhne
  September 26th, 2007 at 10:44 am

  I’m curious now…what is HEET exactly? Never heard of it.

• K!P
  September 26th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

  whats the insulation used for? and where to find the more efficient designs?

  also: peach: i guess its reusable

• Vonskippy
  September 26th, 2007 at 12:16 pm

  Apparently “Cuimhne” hasn’t heard of GOOGLE either.

  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=HEET&btnG=Google+Search

• NK5
  September 26th, 2007 at 9:25 pm

  The insulation is for safety. It will prevent the fuel from spilling or spitting out while in use.

  This stove is pressure based, and not very efficient. The Penny Stove is by far the best design, but very hard to make compared to this little guy.

  The best alcohol fuel is denatured alcohol, or methyl spirits. Heet is much easier to find, however. Almost all gas stations across the US carry it - it’s a common fuel additive that is 99% methanol.

  Thanks to Neatorama for posting my video!

• Sid Morrison
  September 27th, 2007 at 12:27 pm

  HEET is just a brandname for “drygas” — a bottle of alcohol that gets dumped in your car’s gasoline tank in winter to keep the lines from freezing if you’ve got any water in the tank. Depending on which variant you buy, it will either be methanol or isopropanol. The isopropanol will cost more but work MUCH better in your gas tank. Can’t comment in which works better in a stove.

• Antinice
  September 29th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

  Peach, you only have to bring a small bottle of fuel (garden-variety rubbing alcohol) and the stove itself. So we’re talking about 6 oz of weight that would fit into the pocket of a small backpack.

  For primitive camping or lightweight camping, this could do the trick nicely.

Want your own avatar? Get one for free at Gravatar!