Simple easy You can make a spirit lamp with your own hands from ordinary beer cans. If you don't like beer, then Coca-Cola cans or any other cans are quite suitable. The main thing is that they are aluminum!
To make such a burner you will need a couple of cans, a stationery needle, glass wool (ordinary wool is fine, but with glass wool it will last forever), scissors and a book. You can make a stand for a saucepan from wire or an old metal hanger, but on a hike it’s easier to use improvised objects - a couple of stones or just make a small trench for an alcohol lamp.
However, let's return to how to make a homemade alcohol burner.
After all the tools have been collected, you can begin the process of making a spirit lamp.
To begin with, mark a straight line around the circumference of the jar. The easiest way to do this is to place the marker on the book and press it with one hand, while rotating the jar with the other.
So we mark both banks.
Now carefully cut around the circumference. You can use ordinary stationery scissors; the sheet metal is soft and can be easily cut with any scissors.
The result is two bottoms.
The lower part can be processed using a multitool, this will allow easy insertion top cover over the bottom.
We put glass wool in the lower part, place it with a small “slide”, so that it tightly fills the entire cavity of the homemade alcohol lamp. Glass wool is preferable because it is not subject to combustion and does not deteriorate from heat. Glass is very refractory, and glass wool is just a lump of thin glass threads.
We close our homemade alcohol lamp and use a needle to make holes.
The more holes and the wider the holes, the higher the combustion temperature will be. In the center you can make 5 holes for filling flammable liquid without disassembling the burner.
The entire process of making a homemade alcohol lamp can be seen in the video below.
In terms of “power”, a homemade alcohol burner is comparable to purchased multi-fuel burners.
Half a liter of water in the pot boils in 8 minutes. 40 ml of alcohol is enough for 25 minutes of burning. Half a liter of flammable liquid is enough for a week-long hike for 2 people, provided they have 3 meals a day.
Before starting, you don’t have to preheat the burner - just splash a little on the karaya and set it on fire, the alcohol burner will immediately warm up and the alcohol vapor will begin to actively evaporate and burn. Such a burner operates on the fact of expansion and evaporation of a flammable liquid at an elevated temperature.
As you can see, the burner turned out to be small and very efficient. It differs from purchased mixed fuel burners primarily in its small dimensions and, accordingly, light weight. In addition, it is easy to build from improvised means using only a multitool.
Tiger comments:
It turned out to be an interesting burner, small and light. It’s true that carrying denatured alcohol or white spirit with you in a bottle is inconvenient; it’s easier to just collect dry fuel.
Ivan comments:Simple, cheap, practical... This burner will come in handy when fishing. Lightweight, doesn't take up a lot of space.
GOLDEN EAGLE comments: VitalyIf you are outside the city, where there is no access to a gas main, then you have probably encountered the need to use a type of device. Quite often, people use stoves or stoves that operate from gas cylinders. An alternative solution can be homemade device, which operates on liquid fuel. If you are the owner suburban area, and periodically try to solve the problem of heating rooms and cooking, then, quite possibly, an alcohol burner will suit you. It can also become an indispensable attribute if you prefer to go on overnight hikes in your free time.
The main advantages of devices
The mentioned burner can easily be made by you yourself. You can take it with you to the garage, to the country house or on a hike, as well as to those places where there is no electricity, main gas or wood stoves. By using similar device you can quickly heat water, cook food or heat a room. This invention is suitable for those places where it is impossible to make a fire, since the device produces a flame that is almost invisible, but it will be enough for cooking. An alcohol burner has many advantages, among them good performance in difficult weather conditions. And this is true even if the outside air temperature drops to -40 degrees. If you make such a device yourself, you will be able to feel how easy it is to use, compact, economical and affordable in terms of purchasing fuel. The last factor can be called one of the most important benefits such burners, since alcohol can be purchased everywhere. Among other things, the cost of such fuel is low, especially when compared with kerosene or gas.
Burner manufacturing technology
An alcohol burner can be made in one of several ways. If you are new to this business, then you should choose the maximum simple technique, which does not involve the use of technology involves the use of two empty tin cans; they must first be cleaned and rinsed running water. After this, the products should dry well. In the central part of one of the cans, 4 punctures should be made using nails. The same holes should be made around the perimeter of the rim of the jar. This element will become a blank for the future burner, from which a flame will burst out when used.
This part must be cut off from the can so that the length of the side is equal to three centimeters. For this you can use household scissors, since the tin is quite thin, it is easy to cut with any sharp object. When an alcohol burner is being made, at the next stage it is necessary to cut off the bottom of the second jar; this must be done as carefully as possible so that there are no nicks. Otherwise, you will need to use a file or sandpaper.
Methodology of work
A piece of cotton wool is placed on the bottom of the burner, which should first be moistened in alcohol. Next, the structure is covered with the upper part so that it acts as a sealed lid. If you do not ensure tight contact of the parts, then in the cracks you can install strips of tin that remain from cutting the products. When you make an alcohol burner with your own hands, it must be used according to a certain principle. Alcohol should be poured onto the top of the structure where the holes are made. This must be done in such a way that the composition gets on the rim. The latter should also have holes. Next, the alcohol is set on fire, the tin heats up, and the heat is transferred to the cotton wool, which is soaked in alcohol. As a result, vapors begin to be released that will support the flame.
Final works
On last stage We have to make supports on which the cooking pot will be located. To do this, you should use two metal rods, which are driven in the shape of the letter P into the ground parallel to each other. During the cooking process, ensure that the device does not tip over. If you decide to make a product such as an alcohol burner with your own hands, then you should remember that such a device is disposable, since tin cans will no longer be useful for the next time.
Alternative manufacturing option
Useful homemade products may turn out to be somewhat more complex than the option described above. However, such a design will be distinguished by higher reliability, durability and strength. We'll talk about it further.
Preparatory work
In order to make a device with your own hands, you should prepare a compressor, it is best to use a car camera, which you can borrow from a truck. It will need to be pumped up from time to time. An alternative solution is a compressor from an old refrigerator. A receiver should be prepared, a plastic canister with a volume of 10 liters or less is perfect for this. The cork should be solid, it is advisable to choose a translucent one. Such useful homemade products are made from several elements, among them a fuel tank should be distinguished, for this you need to use a two-liter steel container, in the lid of which two tubes are soldered. One of them should be long, the other short. The first one sinks to the bottom of the tank.
Work technology
Alcohol can be purchased at the store, but the design is so simple that you can make them yourself. The fuel tank should be filled with alcohol, but not more than 1/2 full. A simple filter is installed at the compressor inlet. It can be done independently, using a funnel, on which a segment is stretched. The principle of operation of the device is ensured by pumping air with a compressor, as well as its further entry into the receiver under some pressure. It smooths out pressure pulsations. Then the air is sent to a container with fuel, where it mixes with alcohol vapor. The resulting mixture goes to the burner. You can adjust the intensity of combustion using a special screw that is on the burner.
Third manufacturing method
If you are thinking about how to make an alcohol burner, then you will need to prepare a flat metal jar, which can be a container for canned food or cosmetic cream. You will need pumice, as well as alcohol. The mechanism of such a device is extremely simple and does not require any special effort during manufacture. To create the device, you need to pack pumice into the container as tightly as possible, and then pour a certain amount of fuel on top of everything. These manipulations must be performed as carefully as possible so that the liquid is absorbed and does not splash out. Thanks to the presence of pumice, the flame will burn for 15 minutes, since due to its porous structure it will act as a fuel distributor. Such an alcohol burner made from cans will allow you to cook food, as well as heat a fairly small room like a garage or change house. To heat food, you need to build a stand for dishes, which is made of stones, wire or other material. The main thing is to take into account the requirement that the dishes need to be stable.
Main types of alcohol burners
A homemade alcohol burner can be open or closed type. Each of the above designs has its own advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to the device open type, then you may encounter not so high efficiency; combustion will occur over a larger area. This will promote abundant evaporation of fuel. Among other things, closed-type burners do not provide the ability to control the amount of remaining fuel. Such burners require external ignition, which increases the fire hazard. However, each of the listed burners can be made independently. It is important to remember that the operation of burners is based on the combustion of vapors fuel mixture. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to use substances that contain acetone or gasoline as fuel.
experimental part
The capacity of the tank can be equal to 70 milliliters, the nozzles need to be made in the amount of 16 pieces, the distance between them should be one centimeter. The estimated burning time can be 25 minutes per refill. As practice shows, the duration and intensity of combustion of such devices depends on the type of fuel. The best combustion occurs from medical alcohol vapor. If we are talking about situations where salicylic acid is used, then it does not burn as intensely. If you fill the burner with food alcohol, it will show least time combustion.
The temperature of the alcohol burner is high enough to heat the tent and cook food. When using alcohol devices, solutions that contain about 50-70% ethanol should be used. This allows you to extend the operating period, although it reduces the intensity of the flame. The design has the ability to boil 0.5 liters of water in 7 minutes, which is enough to brew tea or steam noodles instant cooking. During operation, do not overturn the device, as this may pose a fire hazard. As practice shows, if you throw cotton wool on top and then set it on fire, overheating can cause the alcohol to begin to evaporate greatly, causing the burner to simply break in half. The design of the burner is very simple, but before making it, many people wonder why use liquid alcohol when there is dry alcohol. The answer to this question will be higher heat transfer, which indicates the possibility of heating water faster.
Finally
Using a few, you can make your own alcohol burner, which will be able to help you out outside the city and on a camping trip on vacation. It is noteworthy that you can make such a device without additional tools. That is why it is so attractive to home craftsmen, who often prefer to relax outside the city. There is no need to take such a device with you; it will be enough to use tin cans, which can be prepared in nature. And after the first use, the device can be disposed of.
So, I continue the topic of burner construction. In previous episodes of me , this has yet to be corrected. Now I have come across a design that is very popular in the English-speaking travel community. In Europe, it is quite popular to use camping spirit lamps instead of burners. This gives several advantages at once - alcohol can be carried on an airplane, the weight of the alcohol container is much less than empty gas bottle. The weight of the spirit stove itself is negligible compared to the burner. You can, of course, buy an alcohol lamp, but homemade alcohol lamps leave store-bought ones far behind in many respects. The most popular alcohol stoves are made from cat food cans and beer cans. I especially liked the design of a spirit lamp made from beer cans and decided to try it out in practice. Fortunately, for the manufacture you need two cans of beer or lemonade and that's it. Total weight finished product tends to 10 grams. To make a spirit stove, I needed the following tools:
- Blade from a utility knife
- Clamp
- Drill with a drill with a diameter of 1 mm (preferably smaller)
- Scissors
- Marker for marking
How to make an alcohol lamp:
First we need to empty one jar and cut off the bottom from it. If you haven’t emptied the second jar by this point, then it makes sense to wait, although this is not essential.
Using a board of the required thickness and a clamp, we organize a small can cutter. After some experimentation, I came to the conclusion that optimal height planks should be 25 mm. Although there is an opportunity to experiment.
This will be the bottom of the future burner. The top will be inserted into it, so it makes sense to stretch it slightly by inserting a second, still intact, can on top. Attention - you must insert it very carefully so that you can later separate this structure. 5-7 mm depth is sufficient.
Now let's start making the top part. We empty the second jar. And drill holes around the perimeter. The thinner you find a drill for this operation, the more efficient your torch will be. In the first version of the burner I did this
However, upon further operation it turned out that this is not the most best option and I remade the top like this
The next step is to remove the middle of the bottom and cut off the top, as was done with the first jar. The result should be something like this:
Now we need to make the inner wall from the remnants of the cans. To do this, cut out a strip with the height of one half of the can plus the height of the narrowing of the second half. That is, it must be clearly larger than the width of the board that was used to cut the bottom. In general, it is necessary to make such a design
That is, on top you need to make three or four small cutouts in the form of a triangle or semicircle - about 3 mm high. These holes will be located along the bottom and will be used to allow fuel to flow into the burner. And you need to make two cuts on different sides, 2/3 of the width of the tape, so that you can secure this tape in the form of a ring like this
Once again, I draw your attention to the fact that the triangular cutouts should be located at the bottom, and the height of the resulting ring should be higher than the height of the bottom. After that, there remains a mere trifle - to shove the “top” into the “bottom”.
In theory, after we stretched the bottom in the previous steps, this operation should go smoothly, I even saw a video where it was possible, but it didn’t work out for me. Therefore, to simplify the process, I cut out a small pry bar from the remains of the can - visible in the photo on the right - and made a small cut of 5-6 mm on the top can. After that, things got more fun and I got these two alcohol lamps
IN big hole Alcohol is poured on top - it takes about 25 grams of alcohol to boil half a liter of water. Then the alcohol is ignited through a large hole and begins to burn, after about 1-2 minutes the alcohol begins to boil and alcohol vapors escape through small holes and are ignited from the central flame. At this moment the burner is considered to have started. At this moment, the access of oxygen to the central hole stops and the flame escapes only from the holes around the perimeter. After this, you can place a pan directly on top and boil water. The trouble is that if you make the holes too close to the center, then when you install the pan, the flame goes out due to lack of oxygen. I had to put the pot on a small tarpaulin stake to avoid fading. Because of this, I had to make a second version, which was devoid of this shortcoming. In the next series, I will show a video of working burners with measurements of the efficiency of both burners. And now I will list the mistakes that I made while making these two copies - I hope this will help you not to repeat them:
- If you make the burner higher than 3 cm, then it does not start and its use is inefficient
- Initially, I tried to drill the central hole with a large-diameter drill - as a result, the can completely wrapped around the drill, like a rag, and had to be thrown away. The center will have to be cut with a knife.
- You should not pour liquid paraffin into this burner - it will not work, and it is very difficult to wash the paraffin out of there.
That's about all I learned in the process of making these spirit lamps.
Update from 19 December: Made spirit lamps from the same materials. In my opinion it works much better than this.
So my brain finally got around to putting together a working device for burning alcohol and heating/cooking food. Before that, there were several attempts, but they were all crooked, like my hands. And today, after reading a couple of complete articles about the subject and choosing the simplest and most effective alcohol lamp, I ran to the store. I bought a couple of cans of beer, not ordinary cans, but 0.75 liters with thick side walls, and started sculpting. 
First of all, the jars were emptied into my mouth. Then I amputated their lower parts. It turned out such two details, one higher, the other lower. The one that is lower will serve as the lower part of the spirit lamp, and the one that is higher will serve as the upper part. 
I treated them with sandpaper so that when burning the alcohol lamp would not smell like paint, which would probably burn. 
I made the edges of the lower part corrugated so that it fits into the upper part more easily. I did it with regular pliers. 
And I just inserted the lower (small) part into the upper (which is larger). I pressed it down with my fingers and smoothed it out with a thick book. By the way, I tried to put cotton pads inside the burner - this is bullshit. Because of the cotton wool, the alcohol does not boil as it should and does not evaporate evenly. A burner with cotton wool inside, as it were, "breathes". The flame is more, then less. Extremely unstable. I then removed all the cotton pads and now the burner is empty. 
And this is what it looked like after assembly. 
The next step was to pierce holes for the fumes of alcohol. To do this, I used a regular self-tapping screw; it was very sharp and easily pierced the aluminum wall of the spirit lamp. Holes with a diameter of approximately half a millimeter were located 3 mm from the top edge. From hole to hole, I made a distance of about 8mm. Then I added more smaller holes between the larger ones. You can see it in the photo below. 
And a few small holes on top for filling with alcohol. Alcohol enters through these holes. When igniting, I close these holes with a coin. 
Such a contraption turned out in the end) 
This type of burner requires warming up before ignition. To do this, I cut out a tray from ordinary foil in which I will place the burner. When igniting, you will need to drop 2-3 ml of alcohol into this tray and set it on fire so that the flame heats up the alcohol lamp and the alcohol in it begins to boil. In the future I plan to make the tray stronger. For example, from a can of sprat. 
Without hesitation, I decided to immediately try out the most complex device I had learned :) Installed it on cutting board tray, put an alcohol lamp in it, and poured exactly 1 liter into an empty kettle cold water.
Everything is ready for testing! I measure out 30 ml of alcohol with a syringe, pour it into a glass so that everything is like in camping conditions, let’s imagine that I don’t have a syringe and I measure it by eye :). But for the purity of the first experiment, I do everything clearly. I pour alcohol into a spirit lamp straight from a glass. 
I pour 3 ml of alcohol from a syringe into the tray to warm it up. 
I throw a coin on the filling holes and light the alcohol in the pan. The flame is almost invisible, it is transparent blue. But it heats up well! 
I put a kettle with a liter of water inside on the alcohol stove and note the time! 
A minute later the alcohol lamp warmed up and flames appeared from the holes. After another 30 seconds, the alcohol in the tray burned out and the alcohol lamp began to look like an ordinary gas burner. It burns evenly, without extremes. Slightly smells of burnt alcohol. The kettle boiled 12 minutes after ignition. The alcohol lamp itself, filled with 30 ml of alcohol, burned out for a total of 13 minutes. Just enough for a liter of water) 
I'll try to insert a video of this unit in action here. You can see even burning, at the end the kettle boils and whistles slightly.
Master - it's interesting! :)
Bottom line: after spending a little time and alcohol, I made a beautiful, useful little thing that will help me drink tea and cook soup on rare trips. The price of this alcohol lamp is zero. But the effectiveness was a pleasant surprise for me! In order to boil 1 liter of cold water, 32 ml of alcohol and 12 minutes at room temperature. Here. Thank you!))
In European countries, they have been using such an alcohol lamp for a long time, replacing a conventional burner with it. We can find and take note of many advantages of this device. For example, in a type of transport such as, say, an airplane, you can easily carry alcohol. Containers for alcohol weigh much less than a gas cylinder, etc. And about the significance of such a spirit lamp on winter fishing you don't have to talk at all. Therefore, we suggest making such a spirit lamp with your own hands; it will be very useful in everyday life.
Buying an alcohol lamp is also a piece of cake. But, if you take all the advantages and characteristics, it will be better to make it yourself at home. In order to make an alcohol lamp, they usually use containers made of tin cans. Such cans can be, for example, cans of canned food or beer. In order to make an alcohol lamp, you only need a couple of drink cans. The design itself is not complicated at all. And it is made quite quickly and simply.
So, let's start simple. You need to empty the first jar of its contents, rinse and dry thoroughly, and then cut off the bottom. You can immediately empty the second jar, but you can do this later. It's not so important here. Next we will need a board certain thickness, in order to cut jars. It is best if the height the desired board it will be twenty-five millimeters.
The next move is this: we take the jar, put it on the table, and then press it tightly against the blade and twist it. It will be enough to make no more than fifteen revolutions. After this, the bottom can be easily separated from the top of the jar. The cut off part will serve as the bottom of the future burner. We will further insert the top into this part. Based on this, we insert our second jar on top (still whole). In order for the upper part to fit easily, it needs to be stretched a little. We insert it very carefully so that in the future we can easily disassemble our structure. A sufficient depth of about seven millimeters.
Having completed all these steps, we begin to manufacture the future upper part. If you did not release it earlier, now release the contents of the second jar. After emptying, drill holes around the entire perimeter. For greater effect, use a thinner drill bit.
After the completed manipulations, we proceed to the next ones. Remove the entire middle of the bottom and cut off the entire top of the can. This is what the design should look like.
From the remaining parts of the jars we make inner side. We will need to cut out a strip. To do this we need a special formula for us. The length we need must correspond to the height of half the jar plus the height of the narrow part of the second half of the jar. Simply put, our resulting length should be much greater than the width of the board we use.
In the lower part we make several cutouts in the shape of triangles, the height of which should be approximately three millimeters. These cutouts are necessary so that our fuel flows into the inside of the burner.
To complete the work on our equipment, we need several actions. To make the folding process even easier, we use the remains of the jar. We cut out a small mount from them. And on the top of the jar we make a small cut, about six millimeters.
Our alcohol lamp turned out great. The alcohol itself is poured into the largest hole at the top. To boil 500 milliliters of water, we need only twenty-five grams of alcohol. Next, through the same larger hole, we ignite the alcohol. The combustion process begins, after a couple of minutes the alcohol begins to boil and the vapor of alcohol seeps through small holes and it is ignited from the central flame.
Our alcohol burner is working.
