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.