My old paint can stove is starting to wear thin in places after too many fires over the last 4 years. I prefer using a paint can rather then a pop can stove etc as the paint can is thicker and much stronger then the thin aluminum cans.

Below is the same stove as the old one. I chose this type of stove for it's:

- Cost: ($1.99) for a new paint can from the HW store.

- Simplicity and time to make: Less then 15 minutes. Taking the photos took up about half the time today.

- Durability: As above, the old stove is 4 years old, I could of got another season out of it but decided to replace it anyway today.

- Usefulness: With the small can size, this stove goes into the pack on all hiking trips, regardless if it is used or not. Many times we take a multi-fuel stove but they only last as long as how much fuel you want to pack for multi-day hikes. Also as you will see below, the holes drilled into the paint can are fairly small. On two separate occasions, we had a visit from the forestry people when there were open fire burn bans and they let us use the stove anyway as it was not likely to cause a fire from an errant spark emanating from the small holes.

So onto the photos, the first few are B/W as I did not notice that the camera had not been changed back to color after the last time I used it.


Start with a new empty 1 quart paint can from the HW store.


Measure out drilling points 1 inch apart on the top and bottom of the can. A cloth tape measure works great for this.


Drill the holes out. I have a drill press so it is much easier. It is hard to tell from the following photos but there are 2 sizes of drilled holes alternating.


File off the rough edges if you want.


Thats it, the stove is done.

Gather up some scrap wood and light it up. Out in the woods, I like using old dry pine cones as they burn hot and smoke free.


The new paint cans have a lining which needs to be burned off first. Don't breath these fumes...


Put the 6 cup coffee percolator on. It is a perfect fit on this stove.


As you can barely see, the fire burns nicely underneath the pot. Notice the remnants of the paint can liner on the rim of the can.


After the fire catches on, there is hardly any smoke. Of course this all depends on how dry the wood is to start with. In this case, the wood is dry as it has been sitting in my woodcarving room for a few weeks now.

The water in the percolator took 8 minutes to come to a boil after this photo was taken.

It looks like a good little stove.

Nice burner!! It would seem that more/bigger air holes would do better.

We used to put holes around the bottom using a juice can opener - the thing on the other end of some bottle openers that were used to punch holes in Hi-C juice cans. Does such a thing even exist anymore??

We would put a series of triangular holes around the entire bottom and top.

Many many moons ago, when a young Boy Scout, 100% of our cooking was done on charcoal grills made out of steel buckets the same size as those orange buckets you buy from Home Depot. The steel buckets came from a local candy factory - doubt you can even get them anymore.

Its hard to recall the details, but there were holes around the bottom, a grid of heavy wire w/ mesh above that (that's where the coals went, and then a wider grid of heavy wire above that (the pots/pans went on that).

Quart paint can... How big is that compared to a small coffee can? Not volume, diameter.

I'm thinking that with some minor changes, some stout wire and bit of hardware cloth to make an ash grill, this could be even better. But if I'm remembering the size of these can right, the rims might fit well together, so the coffee can could be a good pot

Ken:

The small holes are 5/32" and the larger holes are 1/4". The can is 13-1/4 inches OD so there are 26 holes total.

The wood burns quite well....possibly because 90% of the wood we have around these parts are pine, fir and cedar. As you know, these softwoods burn fairly fast and don't leave much of an ash pile. As I wrote earlier, I use pine cones over any other wood as it is superior in this type of stove.

I bought 2 paint cans so I may experiment with the other to see if larger / more holes makes any difference.

Ironraven:

Paint can measurements:

Circumference: 13-1/4"
Lid width: 3/1/4"
Height: 5-7/8"

Coffee Can:
Circumference: 12-1/2"
Lid Width: 3-3/8"
Height: 5-1/2"

I tried the coffee cans a few times previously. They use a different metal composition that does not hold up very well at all to prolonged high heat / cooling cycles as compared to the paint cans...in my experience that is. However this is a matter of preference, coffee cans are free....so to speak, once the original contents are used up.

What exactly is the coating and how long does it take to burn off? I assume one fire does the trick on removing it?

I am not sure what the coating is made from, but when it burns it has a real acrid odor and accidentally breathing in the fumes will give you a good coughing fit for awhile...much like burning Teflon does.
In regards to burning off the coating, it only took 2-3 minutes. I also checked the can afterwards when it cooled off and there was no trace of the coating left.

Those ODs look a little large, might want to re-check. Something less than 6 inches would be closer.

Thanks...I changed the OD to circumference.