Months ago, I made and played with one of these: Pepsi Can Stove.

I bought a large can of alcohol at Home Depot, made several versions of the above, got pretty good results, then put it away and forgot about it. Until Charley.

This stove and a small metal cup reheated / cooked chili, oatmeal, ravioli, etc. I was amazed how well it worked. Water boiling for oatmeal in just a few minutes. The first few times I actually cooked with it, I kept cutting back on the amount of fuel since I tended to overestimate how much I'd need.

They're easy to make (in a pinch you can make one with just a knife if you score the can carefully) and cheap. The fuel seems pretty safe and a small bottle would last through a couple of days of meals at least.

Obviously, you can do better with more expensive equipment, but you can't beat this thing for the price / performance.

If you decide to try one, google for "pepsi can stove" or "alcohol stove". There are lots of design variations. The one I posted above isn't exactly the one I have. I can't find the page anymore, but mine doesn't require any tape to seal it. The basic idea is the same for all of them, though.

do you mean this one: http://hometown.aol.com/walkingfire/halconstove.htm ? I made loads of them aswell, they work very well indead. I did use more tools than just a knife, though.

And the grandaddy stove sites of all.
http://wings.interfree.it/html/main.html

Yes! That's it exactly. It was so simple, I didn't bother bookmarking the page.

For most of the variations (sounds better than "attempts" :-) I used a Leatherman Squirt to help tear the can and make the fold over tab cuts. Just to make sure I could, I built one with only a knife. Takes longer, but it is possible.

It's scary how thin Aluminum cans have become. You actually have to be careful while making these, or you'll screw up the can.

One improvement I made: I found it works better (for me) to punch 16 or so evenly spaced holes in the can instead of all the little vertical slits as shown in the article. The Squirt's awl works ok for this, thumbtack even better.