I wanted to see how small I could make a wood gassifier stove. I found a half pint (8oz) paint can for the outer and a shaving gel can for the inner. The inner can has holes in the bottom as well as holes close to the top edge. The outer can doesn't have holes yet but it was on my fireplace grate so it could breath from the bottom. It took me forever but I was finally able to get it to light. I'm going to keep playing around to see if I can get to to be more reliable. The bottom of the inner can has many nail holes in it now but I think steel mesh will be better. If I wrap the outer can with insulation it may help as well.


In the picture it was going along nicely for 5 minutes with flames coming out the holes. It slowly died before all the twigs were consumed.

I made one out of a heineken can and a sardine can that works pretty well. Burns for about 15-20 minutes total.

I have built a few others too and I think they work best when they are about 2x as deep as the diam.

You definately need a lot of holes in the bottom of the outer can and a lot on the inner can too. That lets air into the side chamber up the sides and out the top into the combustion area chamber and thats what makes it burn really hot.

Pics. You can see how many holes I have in the inner can.
I came to the conclusion that the insulation was not worth the weight on this one, but it did help a tiny bit.

The wire grate did not really help either. Gots needs a lot of holes

I am going to work on another similar one this weekend.

http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z300/tammons3/Wood%20gas%20stove/

Edited by tammons on 02/03/2010 23:32:13 MST.