smallest practical woodgas stove

[Corso]

I've a mind to make a woodgas stove and was wondering if my idea of making one out of a standard Baked bean can is practical

I'm looking for an as compact setup as possible but how small can I realy go?

I'm thinkinf standard bean can with a sweetcorn can inside - I'm pretty sure it will be ok as a brew kit - the dimentions seem bigger than the

foldup pocket stove you can get here

anyone have any experience with compact setups?

 

[RE8ELD0G]

For me this is a case of go big or go home.
The one i built from a dog food can with a bean can inside only burns for 2-3 mins before needing restocked and then it takes 1+mins for the new wood to light and burn properly, also if i put too much wood in it will take ages to light.

In total to bring 500ml to a rolling boil in a bcb crucader mug with plastic lid takes 10+mins defending on how good ive been at restocking the wood at the right time.

Just not good enough for me, will be buying a Biolite stove for xmas they are much better.

 

[Shewie]

A Lyles golden syrup tin is almost identical to my Bushbuddy in size, strong too. If you can find a second tin to nest nicely inside the rim then you're 90% there. I've kind of tried to marry a few up but never found that perfect second tin, there will be one out there though.

 

[Corso]

For me this is a case of go big or go home.
The one i built from a dog food can with a bean can inside only burns for 2-3 mins before needing restocked and then it takes 1+mins for the new wood to light and burn properly, also if i put too much wood in it will take ages to light.

In total to bring 500ml to a rolling boil in a bcb crucader mug with plastic lid takes 10+mins defending on how good ive been at restocking the wood at the right time.

Just not good enough for me, will be buying a Biolite stove for xmas they are much better.

would regular feeding not solve this issue

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

i did a potato can with a standard bean tin in. with wood it was carp but with wood pellet it boiled my msr kettle and 500ml of water no bother. Its not very practical though. Wood pellet is a superb fuel for all wood gas stoves as it gives fantastic density of fuel. far better than you will get with twigs etc. My biolite is like a forge on pellets but its not half as good on twiggs

 

[spandit]

Remember, the smaller the stove, the smaller the fuel needs to be and the more feeding it will require. You may end up with a lightweight, compact stove but one that needs a mountain of prepared fuel to do any actual cooking

 

[Andy BB]

i did a potato can with a standard bean tin in. with wood it was carp but with wood pellet it boiled my msr kettle and 500ml of water no bother. Its not very practical though. Wood pellet is a superb fuel for all wood gas stoves as it gives fantastic density of fuel. far better than you will get with twigs etc. My biolite is like a forge on pellets but its not half as good on twiggs

Paul - would you buy the Biolite again, having used yours for a while? (sorry for the thread hijack!)

 

[Andy BB]

Remember, the smaller the stove, the smaller the fuel needs to be and the more feeding it will require. You may end up with a lightweight, compact stove but one that needs a mountain of prepared fuel to do any actual cooking

Agree with that. As much as I like playing with my Wild Woodgas 11 stove - I find the whirling flames very soporific - the Emberlit stove is much easier to both feed through the side entrance - and can use much thicker and longer sticks - as well as controlling the heat.

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

Paul - would you buy the Biolite again, having used yours for a while? (sorry for the thread hijack!)

Well..My main observation has been that fuel needs to be bone dry for it to work efficiently and ensure a good charge output. Its superb on pellets and will burn long enough to cook a meal with the fan on low. Last week at White Rose Wood the damp conditions made it a PITA to keep regular charge output

My main reason for buying it was the usb out and if used with pellets or bone dry wood this feature works properly. The stove is 1kg so i can still carry a lot of charging packs and a ti woodburner for less weight. Ive just ordered the element 2.2 for Estonia and will take 20amps of charge pack for less combined weight than the biolite

Short answer - dont think i would buy again

 

[Teepee]

A sweetcorn can is approaching unusable IMO without a fan. It will be very finicky on foraged fuel and won't provide much power. Your better off going for width, either with an empty 100ml gas can(they last longer) or a non-ribbed Evaporated milk can.
Another good combustion chamber is the stainless cup off a flask as it won't rust through very quickly. A lip can be formed by bending the edges over in stages gently with pliers

You can go smaller, but a fan or bellows is needed to supply enough air.

This is at the practical size limits of whats possible with a fan blown stove;

 

[Gailainne]

I've made one of teepees and it works great, but I only tried it with wooden pellets.

I had a play with a garlington stove a few years back, heres the link to the post I did, theres a few links in there that might be useful

 

[Corso]

forgive me what are wooden pellets?

 

[Teepee]

Pellets made from compressed biomass. The wood based cat litter pellets or the proper home heating biomass pellets- both burn well in these type of stove with a fan.

 

[jackcbr]

Here's the golden syrup tin one I made a while back. Read through and there's a bit more info.

http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83556

I've also made a mini version out of a small golden syrup tin and a small tin of condensed milk.

Not really tested it fully to see if it is really effective, but did get it burning. As Spandit said, you'd need to have a lot of small full ready to go.

 

[DavidJT]

I made a small one by nesting together the two sizes of Lyles syrup tins. Takes a bit of tinkering but you can get a nice tight fit.
Really good wood gas effect, but found it much too much fuss to constantly feed the fire, and it often went out.
If I made another I'd go significantly bigger.

 

[Papa Tac]

I've made a score or so, from lilliputian to gargantuan, and found the minimal size for the burn chamber to be about the size of your fist. As others have stated, anything smaller requires intensive feeding. They gassify just fine, but you gotta work to get a boil. Like the wife says, the bigger the better...
Hey, is that the milkman again?