Charcoal Starter

A "chimney" type charcoal starter, so that junk mail, found sticks etc. can take the place of lighter fluid in your barbecuing tradition. Made of two cans and a coat hanger...couldn't be much cheaper.

By the way: be very careful about fire and sharp metal. If you don't think you can handle both fire and sharp metal without hurting yourself, do not attempt to follow these instructions.

Step 1 Gather Tools & Materials

Build Materials:

• Coffee can (or other large, tin-plated steel can)
• Coat hanger (no fuzz, plastic etc., just bare wire)
• Small can (from olives, individual servings of pasta sauce, etc.)
• An abundance of caution. This will be used up quickly, due to all the sharp edges and dangerous tools involved. If you lack caution, be sure to have a few units of blood and a field suture kit, instead.

Build Tools:

• Can opener (both cut-around-the-lid and punch-a-triangular-hole)
• Needle nose pliers
• Tin snips, or similar (I used the black ones shown)
• Hammer
• Nail Um...or similar.

Use Tools & Materials:

• Pot holder or oven mitt
• Charcoal, or other solid fuel
• Paper, cardboard, small wood, or other tinder/kindling
• Matches, or a live coal stolen from the neighbors

Comments

[its a lion]

how about using the coat hanger itself for the legs. you could make an arrowhead shape (sorry for lack of better wording) and squeeze it together to put through the holes. that way you dont have to deal with sharp metal, and there is no way it is going to slip unless you load 15 pounds of charcoal in it and it bends... the only thing i can think of is it falling over, but your loop covers that for them too, it may just have to be a little bigger. or maybe bending the extra bits that are inside of it back through one of the nail holes and bending it over to secure it would work. perhaps i will try that and post my results. now... who around me drinks coffee... wow... i reread that, and i definitely do not have a knack for describing things.

[calikoala]

using a coat hanger without anything else to take the weight won't work. When the charcoal begins to get hot, it will cause the hanger to soften and the whole unit to fall over which could be a hazard. I am surprised you could use the hanger as the handle without some kind of heat shielding between the can and the handle.

[polyparadigm]

Well, you notice I recommend using a hot pad to pour out the coals. The bottom portion does heat up, but not as much as you might think, since air is constantly being sucked past it. But your warning to oogitsmelol is well taken: experimental fire apparatus in general is likely kind of dangerous. I tried to emphasise this, but it can't be repeated often enough.

[polyparadigm]

Please do try it, and if you'd like to collaborate, I can put commentary to your photos. Cans of this size will also be available at restaurants that use canned food.

[its a lion]

well it looks like it may not work. i did manage to find a coffee can in a cabinet, but my parents kind of stopped the process short. "what are you doing with those coat hangers?" crap... since i have $0 it looks like if i do manage to make it, it will be sometime in the future after i make some money and get some new tires.

[polyparadigm]

Ah, yes, do pay attention to your parents, especially when they say "don't accidentally burn down our house with plans you got from the internets." I agree with calikoala that you'll have to design the coat hanger section carefully if it's to work; relying wire to resist bending when it's hot is likely to fail, but you may work out some scheme where all the parts that bear weight are under compression, or where all the parts that need to resist bending stay cool enought because they're at the very bottom. Good luck with the tires, and the positive-net-worth project as well.

[its a lion]

haha thanks. the 20th was my birthday, so i got some money to pay for the tires, and a little bit of spending money, so that is taken care of. and i didnt know that the coat hanger would soften as it got hot, so that probably wouldnt work. and yeah burning down the house would not be fun... and i like the "positive-net-worth project" i may have to use that some time.

[unjust]

very nice. i made mine out of a piece of galvanized stovepipe, cutting up ~2" dividing the bottom into 8th and folding up every other piece to support the charcoal, and then cutting around and rolling a handle out of the upper portion, but this method leaves many fewer pointy bits and is better for a less skilled metal worker. also less of a need to precook it to remove the nasty galvanizing, although probably still a good idea.

[polyparadigm]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it! By the way, coffee cans aren't galvanized, they're tin plated. Not only is tin much less toxic than zinc, it also has a much lower vapor pressure, meaning it won't evaporate onto your food as much. I tried to warn people against plastic coated cans...I would hope that would go without saying, but one never knows.