Introduction: ARToo Stove - TrashTech #2

Let me present aRToo - a simple stove design I've made when I've acquired few steel drums of various sizes.

My initial intention was to build a waste incinerator and on this afternoon I've built not one but three of those. One of which was an ordinary oil drum with holes drilled at the bottom, the remaining two were of aRToo design.

Name came from a famous robot from a sci-fi movie [I'll let you guess which one] as the drum is standing above the ground on "legs". This clearance is there to provide air for combustion and access for removing ashes. Fuel [wood] is feed from the top through openings cut in the original bottom of the drum. I've made those in a way that it provides support for a cooking vessel.

aRToo is screwed to a piece of steel sheet to provide stability. You might raise it by placing some bricks or other spacers underneath, this would insulate hot steel plate from the surface it is placed upon.

Despite awkward access it's rather easy to start a fire - just use sticks that are small enough to start with, the draft comes from the bottom and wood quite quickly catches fire. Once it's ON the fire burns like hell :-)

What you need?

  • Steel drum of any size
  • Flat metal lengths [I've used aluminium and some offcuts of shelving]
  • Steel sheet [slightly bigger than drum's bottom]
  • Bolts & nuts
  • Drill & drill bits to drill holes
  1. Drill the holes and cut openings in the drum.
  2. Cut, drill holes and bend the legs
  3. Attach legs to the drum, then aRToo to steel plate!

That's it! Well done!