An integral part of a tourist trip, winter fishing or hunting is cooking or heating food. For many objective reasons, sometimes it is not possible to make a fire. They have proven themselves well in this case gas-burners, but, with all the advantages, they have disadvantages: throughout the entire trip you need to carry a burner weighing about a kilogram, and at least two cylinders, the weight of which is on average 250 grams. If the hike is long, you will need more cylinders. In addition, such travel devices are not cheap. A camping alcohol burner is a good replacement for a gas burner: it weighs very little, the amount of alcohol required for its operation can even be transported on an airplane, and you can make it yourself. In addition, a homemade alcohol burner will always come in handy at home.

The principle of operation of an alcohol burner is the combustion of vapors fuel mixture.

Alcohol burner from a can is made as follows:

1. You will need two cans of canned food, coffee, etc., a piece of glass wool and fuel. Tin cans need to be washed well and dried. Then they need to be cut in half, a piece of glass wool should be placed on the bottom of one of them. You need to make a plug so that the cotton does not fall out, place it on top of it.
2. Holes are made in the bottom of the second can and placed on top of the first. They should fit snugly against each other and there should be no gaps at the edges.
3. Using an awl, you need to make holes with a diameter of 2 mm in the circle of the top can with a distance of 8 mm between them and 1.5 cm from the edge of the can. It is better to make the holes in such a shape that the metal is slightly bent upward. You should get from 16 to 26 such holes.
4. Using a syringe and a tube placed on its spout, alcohol is poured inside so that the glass wool or other material is saturated with it (you can put regular pumice).
5. Ignition is carried out as follows: with your own hands, an alcohol burner heats up from below, where the fuel is located, so that it begins to evaporate. After this, a lighter is brought to the holes from above, the alcohol vapor begins to burn.

Alcohol of at least 96% must be used as fuel; it can be replaced with salicylic acid or streptocide. As practice shows, the intensity and duration of burning of an alcohol lamp depends on the type of fuel. The most intense combustion is shown by fuel made from alcohol, while streptocide and salicylic acid are less intense, but their combustion duration is longer than that of alcohol. Gasoline cannot be used as fuel due to the risk of explosion. Kerosene is also not suitable due to the lack of a wick. It is better to use materials made from natural fibers as a material for alcohol impregnation.

Alcohol burner made from beer cans

Numerous videos contain detailed instructions How to make a spirit burner from aluminum beer or soda cans.

Alcohol burner from a beer can

To make an alcohol burner from beer cans, you need to do the following:

• Take two aluminum cans, mark them with a marker and wooden block cut line (about 3-4 cm from the bottom), cut.
• Insert one cut part tightly into the other.
• Make a hole in the center of the top jar with an awl for filling. Close the filler hole with the bolt. You can use a coin instead. This item is even better: when overheated and high pressure it will simply bounce, releasing the excess so that the can does not explode.
• Around the entire circle of the jar, approximately 16 pieces are pierced with holes with an equal distance between each other.
• Alcohol with a volume of 25-50 ml is poured into the filler hole and the hole is closed. You can put cotton wool on the bottom, as described in the case of tin cans.
• The alcohol lamp is placed on a metal base (you can use a metal lid), onto which a certain amount of alcohol is poured and set on fire.
• After 20-40 seconds, the burner will warm up and flames will begin to emerge from the holes.

Homemade alcohol burner: features

There are two types of DIY alcohol burner: open and closed. The manufacturing methods of the second type are described above. Open differs from closed in that it does not have top cover, and the fuel is ignited without preheating. Disadvantage of an open alcohol stove: high fuel consumption. Disadvantages of a closed burner: slow heating, side flames can be blown away by the wind, care is required when handling to avoid tipping over.

To use it for its intended purpose, you will need to make a stand for dishes. This can be easily done using ordinary wire. A stand for the boiler and other utensils is necessary in winter time years when cold dishes can extinguish the burner. If the burner without a stand is made of aluminum, it will only effectively heat aluminum cookware.

So my brain finally got around to putting together a working device for burning alcohol and heating/cooking food. Before this, 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. The result was two pieces, 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 this with ordinary pliers.

And I simply inserted the lower (small) part into the upper (which is larger). I pressed it with my fingers and leveled it with a thick book. By the way, I tried putting cotton pads inside the burner - it was bullshit. Because of the cotton wool, the alcohol does not boil as it should and does not evaporate evenly. The burner with cotton wool inside seems to “breathe”. The flame is sometimes larger, sometimes smaller. 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 poke holes for the alcohol to evaporate. 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 approximately 8mm. Then I added more smaller holes in between the larger ones. You can see it in the photo below.

And several small holes on top for filling with alcohol. Alcohol gets inside through these holes. When setting fire, I cover these holes with a coin.

This is what we ended up with)

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 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. 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.
Craft - 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!))

A little history

The original design of this alcohol burner is over 100 years old. The design of the alcohol burner was patented in 1904, and went into mass production in 1925. The production was carried out by the American company Trangia.

Figure 1 - Trangia alcohol burner

However, this type of alcohol burner became popular precisely because it could easily be made independently. Almost any aluminum or can, and the manufacturing process itself takes no more than half an hour.

Main types of alcohol burners

Countless designs of this burner can be reduced to 2 main types:

• Alcohol burners open type;
• Alcohol burners closed type;

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Figure 2 - Alcohol burners of open and closed types

Each of the above designs has its pros and cons. Open-type alcohol burners are less economical, since combustion occurs over a larger area, which contributes to more abundant evaporation of fuel. At the same time, in closed-type burners there is no way to control the amount of fuel remaining inside. In addition, closed-type burners require external ignition, which increases their fire hazard.

However, each of the alcohol burners presented above can be easily made independently, and the type of burner can be selected based on the tasks assigned to it.

Principle of operation

Despite the differences in design, the operating principle of these burners remains unchanged: first, the fuel mixture inside the burner is heated. After the intensity of fuel evaporation reaches its maximum, fuel vapors escaping through the burner nozzles self-ignite.

Figure 3 - Operating principle of an open type alcohol burner

Figure 4 - Operating principle of a closed-type alcohol burner

Please note: the operating principle of alcohol burners is based on the combustion of fuel mixture vapors. In this regard, it is strictly prohibited to use acetone-containing substances and gasoline as fuel.

Experimental part. How to refill an alcohol burner?

During the experiment, 3 samples of alcohol burners were made from aluminum cans.

Characteristics of alcohol burners:

• Tank capacity - 70 ml;
• Number of nozzles - 16 pcs. (at a distance of 1 cm from each other);
• Approximate burning time at 1 filling is 25 minutes;

The following were purchased at the pharmacy: septocide R plus (contains 63-64% ethanol), salicylic acid (contains up to 58-60% ethanol), medical alcohol (contains 96.4% ethanol).

Figure 5 - Alcohol burners and “fuel” for refueling them

25 ml was poured into each burner. fuel mixture, after which ignition was simultaneously carried out. The stopwatch started counting at the moment the flame normalized in all 3 burners.

Figure 6 - The flame is normalizing, the counter has not yet started. The burners in the picture (from left to right) contain alcohol, salicylic acid, septocide R plus.

Figure 7 - The flame has returned to normal, the stopwatch has started

Figure 8 - The burner filled with medical alcohol went out first (burning duration - 7 minutes)

Figure 9 - The burner filled with septocide went out (burning duration - 9 minutes 53 seconds)

Figure 10 - The burner filled with salicylic acid went out (burning duration - 11 minutes 20 seconds)

The experiment showed that the intensity and duration of burning of alcohol burners directly depend on the type of fuel.

The most intense burning occurs in the vapors of medical alcohol. Salicylic acid and septocide vapors burn much less intensely. In this case, the opposite situation is observed with the burning time: the burner charged with salicylic acid lasted the longest. Burner with medical alcohol showed least time combustion (note: in all burners the fuel burned out completely; no emissions of foreign soot or soot were observed during combustion).

As one might expect, the intensity of combustion is directly proportional to the percentage of alcohol in the fuel mixture. In this case, there is an inverse relationship between the alcohol content in the fuel mixture and the combustion time (see diagrams below).

Diagram 1 - Dependence of combustion time on fuel type

Diagram 2 - Dependence of combustion intensity on the type of fuel

When using alcohol burners, it is recommended to use alcohol solutions containing 50-70% ethanol (for example, Septotsid R plus). This will extend the burner operating time, although it will slightly reduce the intensity of the flame. It would be advisable to use this burner for heating food on hiking trips and picnics.

Watch a video about making an alcohol burner:

Alcohol burners are useful for those who like fishing, hunting, and hiking. In one of the previous materials we talked about using a vessel from an asterisk. Today we'll look at a way to create a larger burner using an aluminum can. Many may wonder why make an alcohol burner if dry fuel is sold in stores. Dry fuel can also be used to brew coffee or prepare hot tea while camping, but practice shows that an alcohol burner does this much better and more efficiently.

Let's watch a video of an alcohol burner from the author of the homemade product:

What do we need to make a homemade alcohol burner?
- Aluminum can for soda, beer or other drinks;
- Round nose pliers;
- Four matchbox;
- Stationery knife;
- Medical alcohol;
- Felt pen or marker
- And scissors.

First of all, we must cut off the top of the jar. To do this, we need to make a cut with a stationery knife and tear off the unnecessary part with pliers.

Next, we put two matchboxes, a stationery knife on them with the blade towards the jar and cut off the lower part.

The same procedure will be done with the top of our aluminum jar, but this time with four boxes.

We apply two matchboxes to the cut off upper part, but this time we do not cut it, but outline it with a felt-tip pen or marker.

On the resulting line we place marks or dots every centimeter and make cuts with scissors so that they start from the line to the very bottom of the piece of the can.

Our alcohol burner is almost ready, and all we have to do is assemble its component parts into one whole. To do this, lightly fold the bottom of the top piece of the jar so that it fits easily into the second.

All that remains is to pour medical alcohol into our burner and test it.

Attention!!! Medical alcohol, like the burner itself, is flammable. When using it, be sure to follow the fire handling and safety rules. Keep the burner away from flammable materials and mixtures. Do not add too much alcohol as this may cause the burner to explode and cause serious injury.

The burner is working, which means that another homemade product was made successfully. This way we can boil approximately 250 ml of water in just 2 minutes using approximately 15 ml of alcohol.

Alcohol burners are often found in equipment stores. A homemade alcohol burner will be no worse, and the main thing is that everyone has the material to make it. It (the material) is also available in any landfill. Such a burner can be made from waste material in field conditions and use where it is not advisable to burn a fire, for example, in a shelter or so as not to attract undue attention. After all, the fire can be seen from several kilometers away. On such a homemade burner you can easily boil water for tea or bum packet (instant noodles).

Burners can, in principle, be made from any cans of stewed meat, coffee, condensed milk, etc. We will consider the option of making them from cans of carbonated drinks (beer), which are very common in any landfill:) cans. Cut a hole in the bottom of the jar as in the picture below.

It turns out something like this.

Drill holes as shown in the picture. To ensure that the holes are located symmetrically, we use a lined stencil. In field conditions, of course, you can do without a stencil and pierce holes, for example, with a small nail or whatever comes to hand. It is advisable to make the holes small.

We cut off the cans. One at 30mm and the other at 20mm.

The result was the following parts of the future burner.

From one of the remaining cans we cut out a blank like the one in the picture below. We make holes in this blank.

After cutting the workpiece, the next part of the burner is obtained.

Next, we insert the final part obtained into the previously prepared part. Let's look at the picture, everything is basically clear there.

We put the remaining part on the resulting structure and get ready product. Before doing this, it is advisable to coat the inside of the part. of blue color some kind of adhesive-sealing solution.

It is best to refuel the burner with alcohol. In extreme field conditions, it can be filled with other flammable liquids. Before ignition, a burner filled with alcohol must be slightly warmed up so that the alcohol begins to evaporate, because in our burner it is not alcohol that burns, but alcohol vapor. Further, vapors will appear on their own as a result of heating the burner during its combustion.