Rocket stove made from tin cans

[gestalt]

I've been downloading all kinds of survival videos off of YouTube onto my spare iPhone as kind of a "bug out device" and I came across these things called rocket stoves. You can make them out of ductwork, bricks, cinder blocks, steel tubing of thicker walls for durability or my choice tin cans. Basically for the concept of using the cheapest and most available materials.

The principal is that they achieve a very efficient heat generation by using air flow and vortex forces to not only burn the wood, but also the wood gas. The result is a nice hot, smokeless stove that can cook food with very little fuel. They are promoted and used in the 3rd world, but I find that they could be very useful for camping, survival or just a fun alternative to using the kitchen stove in a urban environment.

To build mine I took three large soup cans, like the family sized ones. The concept is to make a "L" shaped tube, the bottom of the L is split horizontally. The fuel is burned on the top of the split and air comes in from the bottom. When the air, flame and woodgas hit the elbow something like a toroidal vortice makes a complete burn. I just mitered one can into the other at a 45 degree angle. I used a section of a third can to extend the chimney a bit. Some aluminum tape seal the joints. The platform that the wood burns on is made from a piece of scrap from one of the cans pounded flat.

It fired up right away and the only smoke was obviously from the coating of the cans and the glue from the tape burning off. Now the first order of business is to see how fast it it can boil water. I filled the kettle and used some box tube to make a space between the kettle and the opening. This narrowed the chimney and provided only a small strip of the base of the kettle actually getting heat. So these weren't optimal conditions. Soon I will be using two #10 cans to make a housing with the space between being filled with wood ash as an insulator. A BBQ grate will provide a good surface to place cookware.

16 minutes later...

The kettle is whistling Dixie and my tea is delicious.

I also came across this guys build http://ecorenovator.org/forum/biofuels/1052-building-rocket-stove.html and it is a great example of an institutional grade rocket stove. He grills, roast, boils and bakes with it made from a old water heater tank and some scrap steel.

 

[gogo]

You might enjoy "penny stoves" also:
http://www.jureystudio.com/pennystove/stoveinstruct.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove

They are alcohol burners made from beer cans. Here's your excuse to learn how to make a still for the alcohol, too.

 

[Samd]

Hey, apparently there is a benefit from insulating the outside of the cans? I saw one cast into a concrete block - looked kinda 'designer'....

I guess for extra insulation you could line the cans before casting, and use spent ash as a filler for the concrete...

 

[spinningmagnets]

These can also be built into the ground, dig out a "V"-shaped hole. Once you get the tinder burning, the rising heat in one leg pulls air down the other leg. This is a great survival fire when you are mobile and trying to avoid detection. A hot fire has very little smoke, and the actual flame is below ground so its hard to see from a distance. If you see someone you actually want to signal, you can light some kind of torch. edit: found it, called a "Dakota fire hole" http://survivaltopics.com/the-dakota-fire-hole/

A short time between striking flint to steel to start a fire, and when the sulfur-tip disposable match was invented...there was a brief period when the "fire-piston" was in vogue. Just an easily made piston inside a cylinder, 25:1 compression ratio, operates just like a diesel. Prepare the small tinder next to the wood, put some fluff (made from scraping a dry branch) onto the piston.

Insert in cylinder and briskly compress, pull out quickly and the fluff will be burning. For camping, you can make fire-starter out of melting cheap candles onto cotton balls.
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Use-a-Fire-Piston-166378679
http://www.instructables.com/id/SLAM-ROD-FIRE-STARTER-IGNITION-BY-AIR/ FF to 3:22, first 3 minutes are "how to make"

 

[Dauntless]

Oh heavens, I get a little too busy for you guys for awhile and what do I find on my return?

Let me tell you my fortunate little experience with "Survival" books. Starts late gradeschool, on into my time at the Don Bosco Technical Institute, where I founded the "Bomb Club." Amazing all the noise we made on campus without 'The Shaft' (As we called the ever stalking principal) homing in on us.

So before school ended I guess my sophmore year, I built my own personal 'Big Bertha.' In case you didn't know, the real 'Big Bertha' was the "Paris Gun" that shelled some French city or another during World War I from an INCREDIBLE range, leaving Europe in fear of it into the beginning of the 2nd such war. Shortly before midnight on the 3rd of July, I walked on down to the nearby courthouse, set it in the parking lot, jumped in a nearby ditch and waited for the 4th of July to begin. I was wearing earplugs and muffs over them; who knows, I might be dear right now if I wasn't.

It was loud right through my ear protection, plus I felt the concussion down in the ditch. There were dogs barking all over the place, I could see miscellaneous lights coming on in the distince so I figured there would be cops in a few minutes. Rather than risk the exposure in the streets, I ran down the nearby bridal trail that would dump me a few blocks from my house, but also lead to another trail where I could seriously disappear if I was chased. (I grew up around this place.) At last alone on the street heading back to my house, my story was ready if some cop pulled up and asked what I was doing: "I'm looking around to see what might have blow up. Did you hear it?"

Oh darn, I couldn't wait for trash day. Such a problem to live in a neighborhood where people know you well enough that they're all guessing WHO was responsible for this. I didn't have the nerve to go running off to some anonymous downtown receptacle carrying this, I felt like there were so many eyes on me. So at the bottom of one of our cans, in additional to a bunch of water soaked powders, was a sack of books with titles like 'Steal this Book,' A Poor Man's James Bond,' etc.

Have you figured out why I call mine a "Fortunate Experience?" I still have all my fingers, my vision, my hearing, (Even with all that ear protection, damn that was loud) as did anyone else who was ever around when I was playing with instant death as a hobby. Outside of a bit of a mark on a near new parking surface, I didn't even create any real property damage. Not everyone has the good sense to give these things up when these things give them fair warning. Hell, not everyone has the good sense to wear serious ear protection when playing with instant death. Those books sure don't teach you anything about safety.

A 'Rocket Stove?' Basically an open blast furnace without the furnace. . . . More people die getting ready to survive this way than ever successfully survive this way. The Penny Stove is awesome. The rocket stove is best saved for some serious use, AFTER you seriously learn how to handle it.

Today I kicked, of all things, an empty plastic one quart oil container, field goal style. I discovered that my dishwashing soap in water wasn't releasing so much of the oil afterall. (I'm still working on ways to reuse the HDPE.) The spout was up, it blew an air blast 6 feet up so I felt it on my nose and smelled oil. Good thing I didn't have acetone or MEK in there before, eh? Amazing what can go wrong when you screw around. But did you learn anything from it?

 

[Samd]

 

[Samd]

Inb4
"More people die getting ready to survive this way than ever successfully survive this way"

 

[full-throttle]

:lol:

You are too polite Sam, just plain GTFO will do

 

[The fingers]

T minus ten seconds and counting........

 

[wineboyrider]

Alcohol, fuel and wood fires? Ah hope springs eternal!