Spirit Stoves
In 1925 John E. Jonsson and his father in law started a company in Sweden to build what would become in my opinion the greatest storm proof stove, the Trangia. A stove with a base, wind shield, a couple of pans, spirit burner, frying pan, and even a handle that all collapses into one neat package. I have grown up with the Trangia always having one in my kit bag since I was in school taking part in Duke of Edinburgh award expeditions. There is one problem however, The Trangia is expensive. You do indeed pay for the quality, yes it will last forever but first you have to buy one.
Please note: this section is uncompleted as I am currently working on a better way of assembling the stoves stay posted I will update and provide instructions.
Building Spirit Stoves From Recycled Materials
Browsing some Internet bush craft sites, I came across plans for home-made spirit stoves based around various drinks and food cans, some used glue, tape, or even two cans. After a weekend of fiddling I devised my Minimal Waste Single Can Spirit Stove.
image-1: Stoves created in the development process.
To begin with I established some rules for my stove
- Must use only one drinks can in it’s construction.
- No glue or tape is allowed in the completed stove.
- Shouldn’t take more than an hour to build.
The ultimate aim of this project was to build multiple stoves with my scouts so using dremel multitools to cut the can and drill burner holes is out of the question. I had to find a far simpler tool system to use, taking a look around my local bargin home store revealed the solutions.
image-2:Construction materials and tools.
All that is needed to construct a stove is a single drinks can, a craft knife, a self striking centre punch, a marker pen, and a pair of needle nose pliars. No electric tools or dodgy nails in a piece of cork. The centre punch came from the bargain home store and cost a pound.
Construction of the stove proceeds in several easy stages
- Burner Ring
- Cutting Out
- Assembly
- Testing (My Favourite)
Stage 1 – Burner Ring
The first step is to punch the holes around the rim of the can that form the burner ring. 24 is best but anything from 16 upwards is where you need to be aiming.
- Remove the ring pull from the top of the can. (It’s not needed so can be recycled)
- Mark a line around the rim of the can, so that all the holes are lined up. This is best done by placing the can upside down and holding the marker pen flat on the table against it as the can is rotated.
- Using the centre punch, make the holes along the line. These should be about 2-3mm across.
When this is done you should be left with a ring of holes around the top of the can, this should be fairly similar to a gas ring.
Stage 2 – Cutting Out
Some sharp edges are produced during the cutting out of the can, please be careful during this stage
- Remove the top of the can by scoring around the groove. This method takes slightly longer but is much safer and provides a lip to crimp the inner wall into later.
- Cut the bottom section of the can away, I used a twin dvd box set as a template height. This can be achieved by holding the knife flat on the box and rotating the can against it.
- Cut the top section of the can in the same way as the first, this should leave a 1 1/2″ high section of material.