DIY Gimbaled Stove

Methanol (wood alcohol) is toxic. Do not get it on your skin. I use denatured alcohol.

I made a "Penny Stove". Very nice. Easy to make, easy to start and well behaved. I used the soft drink can version rather than the larger Heineken beer can version. The only other changes were to use a #1 drill for the center hole and a #42 drill instead of 1/16" for the burner holes. Height of outer can 1", inner can 7/8". Also make a simmer ring from the top of one of the cans for when you want a reduced heat.

The only thing I dislike about this stove is the delicate priming ring. Later I may try to reinforce it.

Zen stoves has templates to make marking the hole spacing easier. I use this one for the 6 holes:

The above template was glued to the top rim with water soluble glue, allowed to dry, them trimmed with a razor knife.

To make this a more versatile stove, one to three warming (tea) candles can be placed in a cut-off soda can bottom.

Constructing the stove

Inner square

Rivets are used in the corner

HINT I bend the shapes, then cut it off from the stock to help conserve material.

We begin with the inner ring of the gimbal. Bend it from 1/16" stock. Nothing really critical, but try to make it a true square. I use a soft jaw bench vise. You can make a set of soft jaws from hardwood scrap, or just use cardboard as a spacer to protect the aluminum. Fold the strap along a scribed line and hit with a plastic to get a tight bend. Two opposite holes will have rivets, the other two get 6-32 machine screws.

Outer square

The outer ring is made the same way, except all four holes will get 6-32 screws. The ring MUST be big enough to clear the inner rings so it can swing freely.

From above it will look like this:
Top view

A U strap burner bracket
B Swivel burner holder, two pieces
C Adjustable pot supports (2)

Attach the two rings now with screws and double nuts.
The inner ring should be free the swing on the screw threads.

Burner bracket (A in the photo)

From 1/8" stock bend and drill the holes. The top two are drilled for 1/8 pop rivets.
The three holes on each side are adjustments for the pot height from the flame.
It can now be riveted to the two remaining holes in the inner ring.

Pot brackets (C in the photo)
Bend the two pot height brackets from 1/16 stock and drill for 6-32 screws.
You can attach these now and try the pot for fit.

Vertical supports

From 1/8 stock, bend and drill the two support pieces. The two pieces need to be identical. Offset is approximate, and you may have to make minor adjustments in the bend to make the gimbal swing freely.

Base
Base

Bend as above from 1/8 stock. Drill the two holes for the #8 machine screws.

Burner socket
Burner swivel

From 1/16 stock make two pieces as above. Don't let the precise length figure worry you. I just needs to fit snuggly inside the soda can base. Drill 1/8" and rivet to the U shaped burner bracket. This is where the burner will sit. In operation, the upper one is swing 90° to the U bracket for added burner support.

That's it. You can finish assembling it now. I may add a windscreen later.

Simple simmer ring

Simplest simmer ring Simmer ring flame

Tea lights. I found tea light prices vary an incredible amount at WalMart. The "flavored" ones run about $3 for 9, but others were $1.87 for a bag of 50!

I made 3 holes in ply scrap to hold 3 tea lights, then glued it to another square that fits where the alcohol burned normally goes. There is little risk in scorching food with them, and has become my favorite method.

Recipes (nothing fancy here)

Ramen noodles
The first thing I tried was Ramen noodles. Break the noodle brick enough to get it into the pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil. When it boiled, I blew the flame out, removed the pot from the stove with a rag. Then covered the pot with a bowl and allowed it to sit until cool enough to drain. This made the noodles softer than I like, so next time I will not cover it. Add the seasoning mix if desired and anything else that sounds good.

Hard boiled eggs
Three room temperature eggs fit nicely in the bottom on the pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil using the simmer ring. Boil about 4 minutes. Let sit until cool. This was more of a test for the stove since it is more practical to boil eggs before the trip.

Using tea lights
Oatmeal
1 cup water, 1/2 cup quick oatmeal, salt. This works very well, and I could swear it tastes better than when done in the microwave.

Ramen noodles.
I put the water to cover the dry noodles with the flavor pack contents, plus some crushed red pepper and dehydrated onion in the pot and fired it up until the noodles were done. Worked very well.

Grits (quick)
This did not work too well, but was edible. Better stick to the instant if you like grits.

Scrambled eggs
The eggs I tried were cold, so it took a quite a while. Not great, but it can be done.

Instant mashed potatoes
Nothing to it. Keep to the proportions indicated on the package.

NOTE: after all the above I am still on the same three tea lights. This makes the amount of fuel carried far less than it would be for alcohol.

Hints
Dehydrated onion, green pepper, and chives can be found in the spice section of your supermarket.

McDonalds has little "cream" containers, and Golden Corral has "honey butter", neither of which require refrigeration.

Long John Silver has tartar sauce and wonderful malt vinegar in packets.

Other places have soy sauce, mayonaise, and mustard.

While meant for ultra-light back packing, there are recipes on the penny stove site here

I will add more to this page if there is any interest.