Ex-aerosol Can Camp Stove (Any Fuel)

Okay, before I start this instructable, a few things:

Please be very careful if opening an aerosol can (definitely make sure it's empty)

Please be careful with the resulting sharp edges

Please be careful with flammable liquids and the resulting fire

Please be careful with whatever you make hot on top of this stove

Please be responsible where you use this as you don't want to cause a bush fire.

With that out of the way, lets look at how we can use an old aerosol can to make a camp stove.

Also if you like this instructable, please vote for me in the Survival Competition....Thanks

Prep the Can

I had this old can left in my van for a while, for the record LPS1 is kind of like WD40.

I started by making sure that the can was empty of both liquid and gas.

I drilled a series of holes all the way round the bottom of the can, this is to let air into the bottom of the flame and get things good and hot. I have also since found that it's a handy feature when you quench the fire with water that it all rushes out of the 'stove' and you don't have a heap of drying to do to be prepped for the next time.

You need to remove the top of the can, I like to put and elastic band around the can and use is as a guide to draw the guideline. My philosophy is that is may not be perfectly straight but at least the cuts will line up .

I used the cutting tool on my Dremel to follow the line and remove the top of the can.

Preparing the Pot Mount

I decided to use some old Mechano pieces I had lying around to make the pot stand for the top of the stove.

The first problem I had was that Mechano is flat for the most part, but it is really easy to bend so I spent a little time with the pliers setting a curve on the triangular pieces until they roughly matched the can. It wouldn't have been the end of the world to leave them flat but it would have distorted the can.

I bolted the Mechano plates in using the normal Mechano nuts and bolts.

Add the Supports

I used some long bolts with self locking nuts as stops into one of the slots on the edge of the triangles.

I then used some of the bent Mechano pieces as pot stands. I would have like to use longer ones but this is what I had available.

The mounting of the angle pieces is important, I used a long bolt with a standard nut first and locked it tight. I then slid on the angle piece and followed with a self locking nut until it was nearly tight but not quite. This allows the pot stands to fold down out of the way to make the stove more compact for transport.

Test

The ides of this stove is that it can use any fuel you have available.

For my test I balled up an old odd sock, I sprayed the sock with PCB lacquer (from another aerosol can and very flammable)

I gave the fire a few mins to get hot and then added the pot with about 1/2 L of water. It took about 15 mins to come to the boil, it's slow but I suppose an old sock is not exactly jet fuel. I will try it with a few other fuels and try cooking say on a pan rather than boiling as well.

One other warning: Please don't cook directly in the flame, something like marshmallows or meat on a stick, the fumes from some of these fuels are toxic and would enter the food so pots and pans only!