I hope this is in the correct place - Mods, please move it if it is wrongly listed.
I am sure I saw a link to Shoe Polish stoves on BushcraftUK but the search facility isn't being awfully helpful right now!
As part of a Tutorial Enrichment activity with my college students I had them reusing soft drinks cans to make whistles and then pepsi-can stoves. At the same time I tasked each group with making a shoe polish tin stove ... only we didn't have many polish tins and ended up with a range of different air rifle pellet tins instead. We test burnt the various stoves after they made them but I only did a proper test on the tin stoves tonight.
To make the stove we took an empty metal tin and filled it with carefully cut strips of corrugated cardboard which were spiralled until the the tin was tightly packed. This done the students lit candles and melted the wax carefully over the cardboard but, as this was done outside, the wax didn't sink to the bottom of the tin and congealed on the top of the cardboard ... until I took a blow torch to it!
The wax stove lights easily enough with a lighter which melts the wax and uses the cardboard as a wick. The stove quickly established itself and I popped a pot with a mug-full of water onto a very temporary stand to see how long it took to boil (about 4 minutes incidentally).
The water boiled easily enough despite it being around 4 degrees outside and with a slight breeze. The only mod it really needs is a wire pot stand to keep the pot above the cooker.
I am led to believe that the stove has 5 or 6 boils in it before it needs recharging (although this could be done in the field) and I look forward to putting it to the test on my next camp-out!
I am sure I saw a link to Shoe Polish stoves on BushcraftUK but the search facility isn't being awfully helpful right now!
As part of a Tutorial Enrichment activity with my college students I had them reusing soft drinks cans to make whistles and then pepsi-can stoves. At the same time I tasked each group with making a shoe polish tin stove ... only we didn't have many polish tins and ended up with a range of different air rifle pellet tins instead. We test burnt the various stoves after they made them but I only did a proper test on the tin stoves tonight.
To make the stove we took an empty metal tin and filled it with carefully cut strips of corrugated cardboard which were spiralled until the the tin was tightly packed. This done the students lit candles and melted the wax carefully over the cardboard but, as this was done outside, the wax didn't sink to the bottom of the tin and congealed on the top of the cardboard ... until I took a blow torch to it!
The wax stove lights easily enough with a lighter which melts the wax and uses the cardboard as a wick. The stove quickly established itself and I popped a pot with a mug-full of water onto a very temporary stand to see how long it took to boil (about 4 minutes incidentally).
The water boiled easily enough despite it being around 4 degrees outside and with a slight breeze. The only mod it really needs is a wire pot stand to keep the pot above the cooker.
I am led to believe that the stove has 5 or 6 boils in it before it needs recharging (although this could be done in the field) and I look forward to putting it to the test on my next camp-out!
