Sometimes I go down these rabbit holes and get obsessed for a week or two. This time, I started making camp stoves out of pop cans! I don't intend this post to be a DIY instructional but instead I wanted to share my
I guess I found out about this concept when browsing reddit. I think on the camping and hiking subreddit, someone linked a video where a guy built his version of these camp stoves. I was immediately attracted to the idea because of the simplicity, low (basically free) material cost, good performance, and lightweight. I'll go over each of these.
Simplicity: All you really need to make these is a pair of scissors, a knife of some sort, thumbtack, and a little elbow grease. These can essentially be made with materials and tools sitting around the house.
Low material cost: Once you have the tools in hand, the cost to create each stove is just that of an empty pop can! I'll admit, I did a bit of recycle can diving to get some for free.
Good performance: With a bit of denatured or rubbing alcohol, you can boil water, cook some sausages or brats, warm up a can of vegetables, or other things. These can get pretty hot and stay cooking for 15+ minutes depending on the amount of alcohol.
Lightweight: For a use case which requires very lightweight gear for cooking, these rock. I'm not sure what a pop can weighs, but they're common enough that I bet you can imagine for yourself.
In researching this topic, I learned that there were many styles. I tried creating a few: inner capillary wall, outer capillary wall, and the normal inner wall style. Here are some pictures of my creations!
I cooked some raw bratwurst using a little stove with a cast iron pan. They turned out very well!
