After seeing some comments about wood gas stoves on another stove ahead last fall, I decided this winter to have a try at making one. I bought two big cans of bean, one a bit larger than the other, grabbed my tin snips and a drill and went at it. Less than 60 minutes later I was done and went to my patio to fire it up. Have to admit my work was sloppy but I was amazed how well it worked, going from a small flame to a tall burning jet in less than a minute and continuing to burn for about 10-15 minutes with the 10 or so thumb sized chunks of wood I tossed in there.

I'd definitely like to give this a try in the BWCA this summer, provided there is no eminent fire ban. I will almost certainly make a second, slightly smaller one to take along.

My questions are two fold:

1 - for those of you who have made your own, do you have any specific bits of advice that worked well for BWCA usage?

2 - for anyone who has used one in the BWCA, do you have anything you can share that would be helpful for me using this for the first time up there?


Second image is about 60 seconds after first.

Could you provide more detail on how you made it?

quote Canoe42: "Could you provide more detail on how you made it?"

Sure, but keep in mind if I really knew what I was doing I would not have ask my questions! I really hope others with experience will chime in with ideas (or corrections). My final product was at best mediocre: the holes are very jagged inside, the cans don't fit super well, I may not have selected the best cans, may have too many, too big, or too few holes, etc.

It's basically two tin cans, one stuck inside the other, with a series of holes drilled in 3 locations. Below are very basic diagrams of how the cans go together and how it works. You can see in the right image above how the "jets" of hot air and wood gas have formed and are shooting up from the holes at the top of the inner can.

I just made my first prototype and have done several test fires here before I take it out to the field. I think it is a robust design, and only concerns are stability and wind tolerance. I plan to carry a small aluminum wind screen.

One thing I have found is split pieces of a larger log work better than twigs, must start the fire from top down, and do not add more fuel to existing fire. I also cut the length of the fuel wood not to exceed the top vent holes in the tire chamber

My unit has no holes on the absolute bottom of the internal fire can. So I get real good gasification and it burns for 12-15 minutes, plenty of time to boil water.