Homemade Wood Stove

I don't know how many of you like to build your own gear, but I thought I'd share a stove that I made a couple of months ago. With the abundance of wood in the Natural State, fuel should not be a problem. It really only takes twigs and pencil-size sticks to bring 2 cups of water to a boil in about 6-7 minutes. This is not for every situation, but if you are wanting to try it on a nice mild-weathered weekend, it would lighten your load significantly. I did use this stove on the weekend that we got 2-3 inches of rain and it worked well even with damp fuel. Just used some lint soaked with Purrell as a fire starter. The stove and pot together weigh only 6.5 oz. and there is no fuel to carry. (Sorry the pics pasted out of order).

1. This picture shows the stove set up for a wood fire to be built on the fire pan, seen in the cutout on the side of the stove can.


2. This picture shows how the pot nests in the stove and then both pack up nicely in a mesh bag.


3. This picture shows the pot set in the lower position for use with a solid fuel tab, such as an Esbit tab. You could also
put an alky stove on the fire pan and use the stove as a wind screen.


Just wanted to share this one with you. Let me know what you think.
UL

Great little homemade stove. Was this the same one you had on the trail with you? I like it... Maybe Jay could use this to lighten his load. Got my pack today... New ULA Catalyst. Going to load it up tomorrow... to see how it feels.. Lew

That is totally cool. I am probably going to have to look at an alternative to my 15 oz. Jetboil, but, I suuuuure do like it.

That is an awesome little fella though. Nice work man.

Yeh, Lew. This is the same stove that I had with me that weekend. I know you are going to enjoy that Catalyst. Let me know.
Jay,
This isn't the only stove that I use. I also have an Optimus Crux that I really like. Those Jetboils are great little stoves too. This is just another one of those options we have, should you want to lighten your load a bit. The nice thing about this little wood stove is that, say, you wanted to thru-hike the OHT or the OT, with this stove, you would not have to carry any fuel with you, thus making your total pack weight much less. Just an idea, and thanks for the kind words.
UL

That really is an awesome stove. I've been wanting to make a wood burning stove, but between a lot of soot and them being a little bulky, I haven't done it. Do you ahve either of these problems with this?

P.S. Any chance of you posting directions of how to make this for the DIY'ers on this site?

Willky:
I have not noticed any problems with soot with this stove, but I did burn out the stove can first before using it to heat water in the smaller can. This gets rid of the plastic coating on the inside of the can. I also wait until the fire settles down a little before putting the pot can on the stove. This also prevents the build-up of soot. As far as plans, here goes:
http://www.outdoors-magazine.com/spip.php?page=article&id_article=155
I did make one alteration in the construction of the stove. I used a regular top-cutting can opener to remove the lid, drilled holes in the lid, and then used it as the fire pan, supported by two supports made of clothes hanger, instead of using the 20 gauge steel sheet that the plan calls for. Works great.
UL

Thanks for the weekend project UL, between paddling the cadron today, getting my vermicompost pile going, and now this...I'm going to have an awesome weekend! Thanks again.

willky:
Care to share the finished product with us. Just curious how your stove turned out.
UL

Between paddling, cleaning, and helping my folks at their house, the stove got put on the back burner. Sorry, but I'm hoping to get on it this week or this weekend. I promise I'll post when its done.

Hahaha willky1... you put the "Stove on the Backburner" lol... too funny.

Eddie

Haha and believe it or not, that was purely by accident. Pun not intended.

UL,
I finished the wood burning stove last night. It is pretty awesome, and from the looks of your pictures, a little different from yours. Starting from the bottom, I cut out the bottom of the coffee can I used and made that the fire plate that the wood will sit on. This way, clean up will be a little easier because anything that falls through the holes on the fire plate will fall on the ground. It looks like I might have put a few more holes around the bottom too, because the drill bit I used was one size smaller than the .25 inch it called for (not sure exactly what size it was). I cut my side hole 3.5 in by 1 in. It is low on the can, just above the holes, and that isn't very desirable. If I get very much wood in there, the pile almost clogs up the feeding opening. Wish I had put this higher. I also used three sets of two holes to support the cup/pot. I figured that by doing this it would add some stability to the pot when it was over the fire. Today I have to make a stuff sack for it to all fit it, but other than that its finished.

Sorry there are no pics, my camera is broken and I'm currently looking to get a new one. Thanks for the idea!

Hey Kyle.. get a new camera so we can see the stove... I want to see it dude.. lol

Eddie

haha I'm working on it eddie. I've missed out on a lot of good pics from the trail by not having a camera.

I looked at several today in fact. The Nikon looks promising but atlas it does not do RAW.

Eddie

So what are the advantages of this RAW you mentioned a few time? I feel like I might need to know about it.

Oh.. its a file format that allows you to go back into the images after they are made and reprocess them. It allows you to change a lot of different things. Almost like having your own darkroom in your computer. Yes you can do this with typical jpg files but that leaves artifacts in the files itself. This does not. It allows the file to be just as the original. JPG has so many flaws in it that its not really sutible for much more than personal pics at home and web stuff. The JPG file is actually a self deteriating file that discards image info everytime you hit the save button. RAW does not do this. Right now its mainly only used in DSLRs. I was hoping that the new cool pix used it, but it does not. RAW is a pro tool but everyone can take advantage of it. Now it does require a addtion to your software and before you can print to most web sites or file sharing or other simialar program you have to save a copy in either jpg or other format. I just use Adobe Photoshop and can print from there. Also I send my final images to Atlanta for final printing and the place I use can use the RAW file directly. But even my proofs I save to jpg and take in to walmart. They are only proofs so don't care about the fine tuning. Only the general quality.
Guess I should take this discussion to a new thread. Keep it out of everyone elses treads.... lol
Eddie

haha, sorry I asked, but thanks.

UL (or anyone else who has an opinion),
How do you, or is there a way to curb the problem of all the soot getting on everything when I use this stove? I realize there is going to be some soot, but the hotter the fire (i.e. a bed of hot coals) the less soot. I know this happens because there is a more efficient fire burning, and the intense heat burns the fuel (sticks) cleaner (at least this is how it works when I'm making alcohol stoves). And, I know how I lit the stove, but how do you (or ya'll) do it?

Is it something like the jet boil has, or is it more like a wind screen?

willky:
If you let the fire burn for just a couple of minutes before putting the pot on the stove, this should reduce the accumulation of soot on the pot can. It is also important to use dry tender and fuel. This will help cut down on soot accumulation. The last time I used this stove, I really didn't have a big soot problem. Just remember to burn the inside of the stove can out before you use it with the pot can so that you burn out the plastic liner of the stove can.
UL

Kyle, the one I am expermenting with is actually like the ones that we use to use on the old pot belly stoves.. more liken to a damper in the flume actually... The old store where I grew up had one. It would cause the stove to really heat up and there was not any smoke coming out. Like I said earlier though, most my ideas dont work so will be interesting to see how this one is lol.
Eddie

so is it almost like a ceiling that would go just over top of the fire?

Yep
Eddie