DIY BB aka Gasified Wood Stove

[Steve Galchutt]

Originally built the Mark's Pennywood wood stove and was pleased with it's performance. However the more I read about the secondary combustion concept the more I became interested in the BushBuddy design. So I decided to see if I could build one out of available materials and keep it light and simple.

I cut off the beer can just below the top rim to allow the soup can to dorp inside but catch and rest on top of the beer can's top edge/lip. Next was drilling lots of holes!

[Steve Galchutt]

[Steve Galchutt]

Hmm, somehow the captions got wacked from above? I guess the pics tell the story. Boiled 16oz of water in ~10min with a hand full of twigs, bark and pine needles. Continued to simmer over the coals for another 10-15minutes. Sorry my scale needs a fresh battery or I'd post the weight …but it's light! I'll add this ASAP. Back to the lab for now.

Cheers, Steve

[Sam Haraldson]

Nice work, Steve. How tight is the fit between the soup and Fosters can?

[Steve Galchutt]

Thanks, It's less than a 1/4"? I thought it was more but the beer can is 3.25" and the soup can is 2.8"! Just enough to keep the aluminum from melting and still allow a draft effect. Tonight I'll get some flame shots to confirm the secondary combustion.

[todd]

Man, I'm impressed. Gotta make one!

Thanks,
Todd

[Doug Johnson]

SO COOL Steve! I'm totally on this one- a DIY project that I can handle for sure!

Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks-
Doug

[kevin davidson]

How much does it all weigh in at, Steve? Please get fresh batteries! :-)>

[Steve Galchutt]

Ok I robbed the battery from the bathroom scale for my postal scale to see what the Fosters BB weighed. Would you believe 2.2oz! Woohoo and with the riser/pot stand its 2.5oz. Can't wait to hit the trail with this guy!

AND I fired it up tonight to see if it's actually gasifying and doing a secondary combustion …here's the proof. Note the flames streaming out of the top holes. That's gasified wood fumes!

Have fun! Any suggestions welcomed, Steve

[kevin davidson]

Wow, all this and the price is right, too!
Jolly good show!

[Steve Galchutt]

AND Fosters doesn't taste too bad. It's surely not my favorite beer but the result is worth it.

=D Steve

[Steve .]

Steve, do you have the brand name & sizes for the different cans? I was smart enough to figure out the Fosters can…

I have to try one of these puppies as well…

[Adam Rothermich]

I've been tossing around the idea of making a BB-type stove since Franco posted his. I guess I need to get a hold of another Fosters can so I can get to work on making one of these. Lord knows there's plenty of spare wood in the Ozarks…

Adam

[Steve Galchutt]

The only can that's really important is the 24oz beer can. It should have straight sides unlike the Heineken can. The steel burner can that fits inside the beer can is a 15oz can. (approx. 2.8" dia) Mine just happens to be a Healthy Choice soup can. But I see lots of 15oz cans in the cupboard that would work! It's important to choose a can that has a rounded bottom and doesn't have a bead or lip on the bottom like the top where they join the top to the side of the can (see pic) Or it won't drop into the beer can. It's this lip that allows to burner to rest on the edge of the beer can.

The riser/pot stand can is an aluminum cat food can. Same size as a standard tuna can but larger than the one used for the cat stove. Sorry I don't have the specific brand. I need to go shopping and pickup some more to build a few of these stoves for friends soon.

The most time consuming part of building this stove is drilling all those darn holes in the burner. It helps to have a drill press. Maybe an alternative would be to cut the can's bottom out and drop in a screen?

Cutting the beer can is a little challenging. I've not come up with perfect cut method yet? If some one has a suggestion please chime in?

Hope this helps and let me know how it goes. Be careful and have fun! Steve

[Adam Rothermich]

When I cut the top off of my Fosters can to use it as a pot I used one of the side-cutting can openers. It worked great and left a clean edge. I just stole my from my mom but I would almost bet you could find one at Wal-Mart or your grocery store.

One question; how long to you think the stove will last? I recall Franco saying that he felt comfortable using his for a certain number of burns before he thought it would need replacing. Do you think it would be a good idea to periodically go through and do a rebuild of the stove or does it seem to be holding up fairly well for you? From what I recall from burning trash as a child (I lived on a farm so no one came to get rid of our trash) the steel cans eventually got weak enough after many burnings that I could poke right through it with a piece of rebar.

Adam

[Steve .]

Good Cook Safecut works well but is pricy. Albertson's and Safeway have them.

Another choice I know of is the Orbi Safe Cut. Haven't used this one.

[Joshua Mitchell]

Good Job Steve… curious, what did you use for punching holes, a whitney punch?

[A Wilson]

Something to consider. In my experiments with tincanium stoves, I've concluded that it is important to restrict your primary air (fewer/ smaller lower holes)–otherwise you produce more smoke than the oxygen coming through the secondary (higher) air holes can provide. I've examined my Bushbuddy, and concluded that Fritz has done his calculations very precisely, and that's what makes it such a smokeless stove.

The serious stovers (see their discussion ongoing @ http://www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/) suggest a 5:1 ratio. That is, have five times more air going through your _secondary_ (upper) holes than through your lower holes. I might suggest more like 3/1 for natural draft (fanless) stoves. Following this ratio, more or less, should result in the kind of "candle" flame put out by the Bushbuddy.

BTW, if, sans pot, you see the flames climbing very high, this is proof that there is not enough secondary air–flames climb in search of oxygen, so to speak.

Hapy stoving,

Muskrat the pyro

[Jaiden .]

I'm wondering whether a ceramic engine paint might be of use on the can to increase the lifetime. Some are good to very high temperatures, and I don't think there would be any problem with toxicity, since the fumes wouldn't go into the pot.

Also, I've read a little on this, but I still don't quite "get" how they work… if you could, a little explanation of the airflow would be helpful, using your design as an example.

cool project…

[James Schipper]

Jaiden,

Here's a link for the Zen stoves web site, its probably the best stove resource on the net.

http://zenstoves.net/

Go to the "how stoves work" section, then the wood gas stove section for a detailed explaination with illustrations.

[donald buckner]

More ideas on how to cut open the beer can would be appreciated. I have the opener that leaves a smooth top etc. and apparently you cut your can below the top of the rim because I don't seem to be able to fit the 15oz can inside the beer can with the rim intact as the super duper can openers leave them. (yes I went to many grocery stores in search of the super duper non can destroying can openers). I made one can to go with the esbit stove sold through this website and it works great, but the can I found in the cubard that matches the one you used will not fit inside with the rim still attached. Ideas?

[Jaiden .]

Yes, I did read that page, but the stove in the pictures is very different. The zenstoves image shows all the airflow going upward, with extra air being added after the fuel and mixed in a high temperature zone which causes a strong updraft.

In this thread's stove, air can only enter the beer can on the bottom, and there doesn't seem to be any way to control how much air enters the inside can (top vs bottom)

I guess what I'm saying is I can't picture the airflow… maybe I'm just slow today.

[Douglas Frick]

>More ideas on how to cut open the beer can would be appreciated.

A classic method often used to make alcohol stoves from pop cans is to use a utility knife blade clamped into a book at the proper height. See "FIGURE 7" on this page. I use a C-clamp to hold the book steady, then I can use two hands to turn the can smoothly.

[donald buckner]

Thanks Douglas. Very helpful.

[James Pitts]

I cut the can with a pair of scissors. This works well.

As far as taking the TOP off of the can this is a different matter. The SafeCut can openener (and similar ones I have tried) just eat up the can. The diameter of the pop can is too small, I think. They don't work with energy-drink cans either ("red bull", etc).

Also, in the classic open-top stove design the bottom is cut out of the can. See the web page referenced in a prior post… image 5 I think. This picture could be captioned "how to cut off your finger with a pop can and a sharp knife"… but it does work. Just be careful.

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