How to make a wood gas light weight camp stove

[FGYT]

After success making pop can meths stoves I thought I would try a Wood burner and the Wood Gas ones looked interesting to try.

Food cans lend themselves very nicely and I am sure this isn’t original etc
A shopping trip to The Supermarket shopping by Can size and type i came back with cans for 2 sizes of stove this is the smaller version the larger will have to wait till i bring myself to Eat the dog food .

This is made from 2 Sainsbury’s Basics Sweet corn cans and one Sainsbury's Italian chopped tomato can cost under £1 even if you chuck the Food contents

The sweet corn cans have locking stacking ends ie the bottom is crimped to fit into the top so are secure when stacked and one of the reasons i chose them as it securely locates the top pot stand /wind break on the burner unit.
The tomato cam has a ring pull so when removed it has a nice clean edge and a lip to add strength

Tools: well I started with a hammer and a Flat screw driver sharpened as a cold chisel
But if you sharpen the end at an angle you don’t need the Hammer and can easily push cut the steel.

First off empty the cans because you need a lip for the top of the burner in the can open one of the sweet corn cans from the bottom using a top cutting opener so the crimp edge remains Swiss army knife or even the screw chisel .
The second sweet corn can you an open and remove both ends the tomato can is easy its a ring pull

Now you need to center the tomato can on the top of the sweet corn can and mark/note where it sits in relation to the concentric rings you will cut out a little smaller.

Now a series of Radial nicks. This allows the small can to push through if angled and screwed in past he bottom crimp (you may find a can with different crimps that maybe the same diameter a the body)

The Smaller can needs the Jet holes at the top and air holes at the bottom this is a bit of trial an error to balance the air flow on both the bottom air grill can be opened up later if necessary

The second sweet corn can has a large triangle to allow more fuel to be added and smaller ones to allow heat and fumes to flow out and evenly to the pan and sits nicely in the top of the bas can
I have punched a series of holes round the base for air intake though with an open bottom it can be stood up for air inlet

thei (above) shows the Modified screwdriver

First light up

This stove consists of 2 cans 3 3/8” dia by 3 3/8” high and weighs 3 3/4oz
If cur up the side the top can should clip round the outside of the burner for packing and still clip inside the top lip for use (though I haven’t tried this yet)

If you wanted you could open the burner can from the top at the correct diameter (see picture 1) and empty the contents from here this would leave the bottom intact and sealed but defiantly need the bas radial holes

The for the bigger one I’ve go a 650gm can of Chappie dog food for the base a bean can for the Burner and a Can of ham/bacon grill for the pot stand

 

[TobyH]

How much weight will it take? For example a billy can full of water?

 

[FGYT]

seems quite happy with my Zebra 14cm full up and 2.3kg
just wether stability is sensible at that pot size its happy if the stove is on a solid level base

 

[scanker]

I'm confused how the tomato tin comes in - is it inside the bottom sweetcorn tin to make a double walled burner?

 

[FGYT]

correct the smaller can is hanging inside the larger by the lip this gives a double wall and it is also shorter so an airgap underneth
its basically a home made verion of this reviwed by Pablo and with explanation to how they work

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25717

 

[scanker]

Cheers for that. I'm going to look into these I think...

 

[FGYT]

just tryed it with a Coke can meths burner as an alternative heat source
looks good

 

[oops56]

O K looks easy but why so big cant the bottom ones be 1/3 shorter and the top half as tall. it just to boil water not for a big meal or is it.

 

[FGYT]

the internal can on the bottom the bit with the fire in is only about 1/4 " shorter than the sweetcorn can and i ve left an airgap so i could put air holes in the bottom
plus its about the smallest can i saw and about as smallas i want to make the fire box bit as you ahe to be fairly carful on your wood size and prep to get the stove to work well
diameters are important to ( i guess ) to get the right double wall ie max inside burner space and min out side diameter but still enough air to the top vents

The top pot stand bit yes would be nice a bit shorter but again i didnt see a suitable can i will keep looking though
top feature in the upper can is it must fit inside the lower cans rim to securly locate
these cans do it exactly a smaller diameter can whould work to but have some movement but i will ty it if i see a suitable can on hte next trip to the shops

I dont want ot cut the can lengths down as this adds to the work / complexity of making and removes the rims this makes the cans very weak and leaves sharp edges something i wanted to avoid as much as possible

i think the outside Dims are abou the same as the fire box in the Buddy stove

and yes its not just for boiling water if posibble

ATB

Duncan

 

[faca]

hi I have made my Bussy gas stove copy using two old tins.
Time to build it 15 minutes
Weight 130 grs.
Performance, this weekend I´m going to try it:Wow: .
Pics no yet photbucket is off............

 

[RobertRogers]

great post

 

[FGYT]

a tuna can can be used to make a shorter top but makes adding fuel difficult and to be honest the larget can seems to give a much better burn

tuna can short top

larger top

 

[Alex.W]

on the burner, have you removed the bottom of the big can? ps. great idea!

 

[FGYT]

yes the bottom has been removed fully as you would when opening a can as you can see in the 3rd picture

you could choose not to do this

 

[faca]

hi here some pics.
I no too impress by it performance, works ok but to me is a pain to light on it.
All fire I use to are light from lower part of wood pile, with this stove design you have no access to the lowe part of wood pile so is no so easy to light.
Any user can show me soem tutorial to light properly it, thanks.
Anyway I enjoy myself making and trying it with no money investement ;-)

 

[Mang]

When I was younger I was shown a version of this which was to fill a small tin with fuel and invert a larger ventilated tin on over the top so it made a hot plate out of the bottom of the inverted large tin (hope that makes sense-I know what I'm talking about!).

As there's no direct flame onto a billy with the above etc I guess it's not as efficient, but I've made a sort of version of your one by using an Ox tongue or Corned beef tin off of a supermarket deli. They have to open both ends and push the contents out which leaves a large and sturdy tin and this therefore has direct heat with a smaller fuel tin sat on the ground inside the ox tongue or corned beef tin.

 

[KIMBOKO]

I think there is getting to be a little cross over here between Hobo stoves and Woodgas stoves.
As I understand it Hobo stoves are simple wood stoves using tin cans to create a small enclosed stove for cooking. The wood fuel is put into a prepared tin and burnt, further fuel is put into the stove as required, within the fire there is wood at all different stages of combustion. There is wood charing and giving off gas, there is the gas burning, and the charcoal burning, all giving off heat and competing for the available oxygen. As there is little control over the fire or air supply there is often a lot of smoke.
The Woodgas stoves are similar in that the purpose is for cooking but the idea was to control the burning by separating the primary fire (which turns wood into woodgas) and the secondary fire (which is burning a good mix of woodgas and secondary air with minimal smoke).

Recent developments into woodgas stoves has been towards finding a simple way of reducing the diseases caused by smoke from cooking fires in primarily third world countries. So the generated woodgas is being used to provide clean efficient heat in the form of a cooking stove.
There are versions that use a fan and a control system to regulate the primary air supply and efficiently mix the gas with air to burn totally without smoke.
Further research has been done to try to eliminate the fan and power supply by using the convection currents/chimney. With a simple air control added to the primary air supply, increasing or decreasing the air supply has an instant effect on the “gas ring” at the top of the stove.

Commercial Woodgas stoves use a charge of wood chip fuel which is placed into the stove and lit at the top. A chimney is then put on and clean, smoke free, heat should emerge from the top of the stove. If you put further fuel onto the top of the fuel charge it tends to interfere with the process of gasifying and a smokey flame is the result.

Some history. During the Second World War woodgas generators were used to power cars and vans, the primary fire was used to create the gas and the gas was used to power the car. In those types of gas generators the fire was started at the bottom of the fuel chamber and proceeded up through the charge of fuel, drawn up by the engine. This type of stove is called an up-draught stove as the gas passed upwards.
There were other gasifyers where a charge of wood fuel was placed in the fuel chamber which was open at the top. A fire was started at the top, and when the gas started to be produced the engine was started and the gas was drawn by the engine through the fuel downwards. These were called downdraught stoves.

(As the commercial woodgas stoves have a charge of fuel that is lit at the top and the gas goes upwards they have been called reverse downdraught gasifyers).

So I think if in your designs you are trying to control the primary gas production and secondary burning of the gas with a subsequent reduction in smoke, then I think you could call it a Woodgas Stove. Although I love the term Reverse Downdraught Gasifyer.

 

[BossCat]

Hi guys,

I got a couple of cheap tins from Woolworths with the view to making a woodgas stove. One of the tins has a rim made of SS & plastic. My first attempt was a bit of a Disaster (need to find out how to post pics on here).

After rumaging around all my cupboards I found an old Stanley Aladin Flask.

WARNING...
If you choose to try and make a stove from a flask (like I did) BEWARE that you should do this outdoors and in NONE windy conditions, as when you cut open the flask there a LOT of soot like stuff inside? I did it in my kitchen and now have a film of very fine soot evarywhere

After the soot disaster I kinda gave up on the flask idea. At the weekend I got a few more tins at a car boot sale. One of the tins from a nest of three slips neatly into the woolworth tin.
I drilled a few holes in bottom & just below the upper rim.
I then drilled 5 holes in the bottom of the outer tin.
This stove worked ok but didn't burn for long. I haven't tried a water boil test with this yet.

I went back to the flask stove and finished this it works ok but as with the first stove I haven't done boil test.

After looking at various designs of woodgas stoves I started to think outside the box?
I have ordered up a Double Walled ICE BUCKET of ebay.

Will keep you all abreast of my progress with the ICE WOODGAS STOVE when it arrives?

Tom