My 1st Wood Burning Stove...suggestions...

[STICK]

I have been reading some posts about making my own wood burning stove lately, and decided to give it a try. So, I went and bought a coffee can and a soup can. I also went to Lowe's this morning and found some of the "hardwear cloth" and bought it. Of course it came in a 5 x 2 ft roll, but it was only $7, and now I can make all the pot stands I want! http://www.backpacker.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

So, I came home and made it. I followed the directions on the site I was following. I drilled 6 - 3/8" holes around the bottom of the coffee can. Then I drilled lots of tiny holes in the bottom of the soup can. I drilled 6 - 3/8" holes around the bottom of the soup can, and 8 - 3/8" holes around the top of the soup can. Next I shoved the soup can into the coffee can, and just like it said, the lip of the soup can caught on the rim of the coffee can, leaving around 1/2" between the bottom of the soup can and the bottom of the coffee can.

So, I took it outside. I collected plenty of wood, and broke them up into small pieces to fit easily inside the soup can. I put a few larger sticks in the bottom, then a few medium size sticks over them and lastly some small tiny sticks. I put some dryer lent on top of this. Once I got this all together, I used my firesteel to light the lent.After about 3 tries, the lent lit up. I started putting some small sticks on the top to help feed the fire, but it shortly died back out. So, I then used some HEET. I squirted some over the top of everything in the can, and then sparked that up. It immediately came up, so again I started placing tiny pieces of wood on top.

The fire started burning pretty decent. Once I saw it was going pretty good I put the pot of water on the pot stand. It burnt for a little while. I saw the flames coming out of the holes in the top of the soup can, like I had read it would do. But then it started dying down. I put a few more small pieces of wood on top, but it turned out that the fresh wood sort of smothered the fire (and it wasn't but 3 pieces). Here it began.

I took the pot of water off the fire, and then started working on getting the fire going good again. I struggled with this for about another hour and 15 minutes. The fire would die out, leaving some smoldering half-burnt pieces of wood. So, I would blow on it for a while, and when it would not come back alive, I used a little more HEET. That would work for a while, but then it would die out again. So I filled it up with wood to the top again, squirted a little HEET on it, then lit it up. Again, it burned good, and this time actually brought the water to a boil for about 30 seconds, but then began dying out again. Finally I decided I was done. I left the pot off the stove, and used a long stick to try and stir the partially burnt wood around. It would liven the fir up as long as I poked at it, actually producing a flame, but as soon as I stopped, so did the flame.I let it sit for about 45 minutes, and it never did anything else, so I dumped it out. There were some ashes, but mostly it was partially burnt sticks, that I have no idea why it wouldn't burn. If it were in a fire pit, these were the kind of sticks that would have kept it going.

So, I don't know what to do. I made a video, starting, and then at the end when I decided to call it quits. They are uploading, so it may be a while, but I will post them to my blog when they are done. If anyone has some ideas, or tips, or can just point out what I may have done wrong.....let me know. I will post a link to the videos once I get them up. They may explain things better than I did here.

And the wood was dry hardwood that had been laying around. What I thought was that the sticks burnt down and filled the holes at the bottom of the soup can, blocking off any oxygen needed to keep the flame alive. So, maybe using larger sticks would help?

Here is the link to the videos and some pictures:

http://stick13.wordpress.com/

[Mountain Wildman]

I have the Littlbug Junior Wood Stove, Starting the fire from the top as stated in your video doesn't make sense to me, I always go with the very fine tinder at the bottom with something highly flammable like leaves or the lint you used.
The littlbug is in pieces and can be easily wrapped around a sleeping pad and you don't even know it's there. Check out this video review on the Littlbug, Maybe it will help with your stove or as handy as you seem to be you could probably make one just like it. Hope this helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sesECu07Pxs

[phobos]

I have the Littlbug Junior Wood Stove, Starting the fire from the top as stated in your video doesn't make sense to me, I always go with the very fine tinder at the bottom with something highly flammable like leaves or the lint you used.
The littlbug is in pieces and can be easily wrapped around a sleeping pad and you don't even know it's there. Check out this video review on the Littlbug, Maybe it will help with your stove or as handy as you seem to be you could probably make one just like it. Hope this helps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sesECu07Pxs

I really like that littlebug, but the price seems a bit steep for me :X

[Mrs Baggins]

What was the cost to make it yourself? My husband has the Sierra Stove in titanium - $125 and worth every dime. It has the tiny battery operated fan to keep the fire hot and he loves it. Burns wood or esbit tabs, small and very lightweight.

[phobos]

Stick.. Seems to me that you might need some sort of fire grate to hold the sticks/coals up off the bottom of the can, That might be why the fire is going out. I have virtually no experience whatsoever with woodburning camping stoves, but I do own a smoker that has a fire box. And in my firebox, I have a grate that holds my logs off of the firebox floor. If i didn't have that, it would be extremely hard to keep a fire going once it begins to ash, not too mention hard to get the fire started. Just my two cents :]

[Mountain Wildman]

I really like that littlebug, but the price seems a bit steep for me :X

Yeah,
Me too, I waited for Campsaver to have a 20% off sale and got for $47.16
Worth it to carry as a backup, Uses wood or alcohol stove, could probably use esbit as well, And 5.2 ounces not so bad. And it takes up no extra space in my pack, wrapped around my cooking pot.

[Mountain Wildman]

I would use very fine wood shavings in the bottom with tiny sticks, get those lit and then add your larger sticks once you have a flame. That's how I do my camp fires as well, never had even the slightest hard time doing it in progression, tiny to small to large. Works every time, I have never had a fire go out on me either, I'm not trying to boast, just saying it's no lose if you start with tiny and go up from there.

[Wags]

a fire will go out for 2 reasons.

-not enough oxygen
-not enough fuel

i'm guessing yours is the oxygen part...

personally i don't use a double wall setup for my wood stove. it seemed overcomplicated and unnecessary

[Edie]

You need more air holes in the bottom, my stove had the same problem, I made more holes on the bottom and the sides.

[STICK]

I am thinking that I will make a few more holes at the bottom of the coffee can and see if that will help with the air flow. I am also thinking of cutting out the center of the bottom of the soup can and using some of the hardware cloth to make a grate to sit on the bottom of the soup can since there will be a hole in the middle of it.

One thing I have found that is kind of turning me off to the wood stoves is that it takes a long time just to boil some water. By this I mean, getting the fire going, feeding the right amount of wood to keep the fire going to bring the water to boil, and then waiting on it all to burn completely down to scatter the ashes without little pieces of nearly burnt up wood. This in combination of the soot all over the pots, the overall size of the stove, and the fact that the stove is all dirty and still contains some ashes, well, it just does not seem worth it to me (yet...) I am still willing to try it out some more though, cause well, it's just fun stuff! :)

I have really come to love my alcohol stove. Light weight, small, easy to use and virtually no maintenance. it's simple, and clean. Also, it takes about 2 minutes tops to cool down enough to pack up so it is quick and easy. Of course the alcohol stove had to grow on me as well when all I knew was my canister stove....

Thanks for all the reply's and the suggestions.

[phobos]

I would use very fine wood shavings in the bottom with tiny sticks, get those lit and then add your larger sticks once you have a flame. That's how I do my camp fires as well, never had even the slightest hard time doing it in progression, tiny to small to large. Works every time, I have never had a fire go out on me either, I'm not trying to boast, just saying it's no lose if you start with tiny and go up from there.

You are eactly right. Stick if you follow that method you should have zero problems.

[phobos]

I broke down and bought directions ($5) for Jim Falk's Compact wood stove. I absolutely love it! It gives me another option other than my alocohol stove. Its very compact (fits perfectly in my snowpeek 900 set) and doubles as a wind screen / Alcohol stove stand when I want t go that route.

Heres a link to a video of mine in action:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v212/infinitepwnz/Compact%20Wood%20Stove/?action=view&current=VID00006-20100628-1855.mp4