DIY Beer Keg Stove ... advice welcome

[onfire]

Hello all,

I have procured two empty beer kegs (unused) and have the intention of turning at least one into a stove (potentially for inside my polish poncho / laavu thingy).

The kegs look like this:

I intend to basically cut out a door in the main body of the keg using a dremel tool and cutting disc, then cut a hole in the top to remove the white plastic widgit (probably using recycled car exhaust or similar as a chimney) and as there is a red plastic pouring mechanism at the bottom of the keg I guess I will have to cut this out and use the hole as a means of increasing the air flow.

I think I will keep the door higher up the keg so that i can use sand or similar to insulate the base.

Here is my rough plan so far:

Do you have any design tips / suggestions??

Thank you, Tim

 

[beeperboy]

Hi Tim,
I'm a new member to this forum. I love building wood burning stoves too. I've made several over the years, and here is my latest. It is also the smallest and lightest. It was originally a 20 liter oil pail. It keeps my campsite toasty warm, without the annoying smoke issues. It also uses 1/2 the wood of an open fire the same size. Of course it is much too heavy for backpacking, but I thought it might give you some ideas.

I have a couple of those beer kegs kicking around my basement, and I've been toying with the idea of making a small tent heater stove out of them too. The beer kegs we get here are 5 liters. Yours looks slightly larger.

I found another on-line builder who used 0.004" stainless steel shim stock as a roll up chimney.

BB

 

[nuggets]

turn it upside down and use the red hole for your chimney -side exit - then you can put a pan or kettle on the flat top to cook on ???

 

[onfire]

Thanks for the ideas already!!

Beeperboy - that is a great stove you have there! thank you for the pics. My mini kegs are about 9 pints, which cant be far off 5 litres. I dont know why but I was hoping to keep the stove upright (more space around it perhaps) but having said that I am having real issues with my 40gall oil drum fire (in progress) at the moment, as the smoke refuses to travel up the chimney!!

Nuggets - that is an excellent idea ... as long as the sand insulation prevents the whit plastic bit melting when its underneath the fire

 

[nuggets]

Thanks for the ideas already!!

Beeperboy - that is a great stove you have there! thank you for the pics. My mini kegs are about 9 pints, which cant be far off 5 litres. I dont know why but I was hoping to keep the stove upright (more space around it perhaps) but having said that I am having real issues with my 40gall oil drum fire (in progress) at the moment, as the smoke refuses to travel up the chimney!!

Nuggets - that is an excellent idea ... as long as the sand insulation prevents the whit plastic bit melting when its underneath the fire

you could remove it - that should stop it from melting !!

 

[beeperboy]

I dont know why but I was hoping to keep the stove upright (more space around it perhaps)

I like nuggets idea of using the red spout as the chimney hole, and then you could cook on the flat top. I can't cook on the horizontal version I made, but I use a gas stove for cooking. I was going to make a flat spot on the top for brewing coffee, but I haven't got around to it yet.

I am having real issues with my 40gall oil drum fire (in progress) at the moment, as the smoke refuses to travel up the chimney!!

You might need to add a smoke baffle to get the chimney to draw properly. A Google search should lend you some good advice.

BB