How to Make an Ammo Can Stove

Intro: How to Make an Ammo Can Stove

East to carry, setup and use.

STEP 1: Packed Up

The ammo-can in its travel mode currently carries my 1 liter Billy-Can (inside the Billy-Can, I carry tea bags, sugar, fire making kit, Montreal steak spice, a can of milk) two cups, the skewers and hotdogs

STEP 2: Construction

I started by drilled ten 1/2" diameter holes along both sides 1" above the bottom of the can and a 2" diameter hole in one end (to feed in the fuel) and ten 3/16" diameter holes along the top to put the skewers through (they would form the grill).

I use six stainless steel skewers cut to 1" longer than the width of the ammo-can and with the ten holes across the top I am able to make the grill as wide or as narrow as I need. Also they can be used as skewers to cook a shish-kabob if so desired.

STEP 3: Getting the Fire Going

Because of the shape of the ammo-can (the heat is always redirected inward and up) and the small diameter of the fuel (tI usually use dead twigs and small branched, nothing bigger than the diameter of my thumb and a little birch bark to get it going) the fire burns hot, fast and clean and there is very little ash left and after the fire is finished the ammo-can cools down very quickly, so cleaning up and packing up is fast.

STEP 4: Cooking

The ammo-can stove will boil 1 liter of water in 3 to 5 minutes depending on the type of fuel that is used,

With the ammo-can stove perched on a couple of flat rocks there is no scorching of the earth below and because the fire is contained in the steel ammo-can it works well in wet or snow covered ground conditions. DO NOT USE INDOORS!

Comments

[ugliknife]

For a larger stove, use a 40mm M-116 grenade can (PA-120).

[Mick Bevan]

Hi there....what did you do to the hinge pin of the lid? Did you cut it off entirely?

[bjcomp2384]

It is not a solid pin from the mfg, it is several little pins, and designed to be removed. That was taken advantage of. If you try and make one, remove the lid, before it jumps off, and bites your toes.

[Makerneer]

Nice and simple, I like it. Thanks for sharing.

[XMAN049]

Great idea! Simple but effective.

[darthbindy]

Fantastic idea! I'd been wanting to build one that would fold to save space, but this would double as a container, while probably being more sturdy than anything else... Love it.

[scuddzy]

Genius!!

[silveravnt]

This is brilliant!

[cody27]

like someone else i too have been into 4x4ing and outdoors most of my life and have used and seen these ammo cans re-purposed as many things but never this and at $5-10 a can ya cant go wrong.

thanks for the great idea, think ill have to make on of these.

[Ricardo Furioso]

Brilliant.
You've not only found a great way to reuse something, you've given a lot of other people inspiration to take what you've done and expand and improve upon your ideas.
Thank you.

[Stanislaw]

I like the design that you have created! Neat portable concept!

[sgt jacob j.]

well thats a smart desigh i like that butt have u ever thawt of maken one out of a biger amo can and ading a stove pipe that way u can use it to heat ur tent just saying

[Callum Snowden]

Yeah I've never seen any instructables on here on how to make a mini stove heater. A stove with a chimney to pipe the warm exhaust air into a tent

[sockless]

Pipe exhaust air into a test?

Sounds like a great way to gas yourself. If the soot etc doesn't kill you, the carbon monoxide will. That's also why you shouldn't use gas cookers inside without proper ventilation, and just never inside a tent unless you want to have a burnt down tent, with you inside.

[nazo13]

just curious if the paint is toxic or not

[The Ideanator]

Well now that looks pretty cool, I'll have to build one for the next time I go camping. Also I noticed that the sides are messed up from the heat and rusted, do you know if switching the original paint with something like stove/grill or engine paint would eliminate that problem?

[Schpool]

For the optimal size for cooking and portability I would recommend useing a .50 cal MG ammo can.

[th3_v1k1ng]

HI, built this.. but made a slight modification.... above the lower holes I drilled a number of holes and pushed thru some sturdy steel tent pegs.. to make a "bed" for sticks, twigs, brickettes to sit on.. means that more air can get under the fuel also if its on the floor it wont "burn" the ground...
I also intend to get some threaded bar.. drill a hole in each corner and use 4x25cm bar as legs.. these legs can be pushed into the ground to stop it from falling over.. or overbalancing.
I tested the stove with a kettle on 1 side and found it a bit unstable.. I wanted to boil the kettle and have a pan on the other side with say soup in it... and have a brew and meal at the same time.

I'll pop some pics up as soon as I've finished.

[th3_v1k1ng]

Hi.. I've done the bits and pieces I said.... and have pics..
Changed my mind slightly about the bar and used 4 big bolts. Welded a nut on each corner to screw the bolts into.. which means they are slighly adjustable to make the top level to cook on.

http://www.thebookonline.org.uk/images/10112010606.jpg

Is a pic of the stove..
Great idea, going to be take this to a LOT of bike rallys and events, when I;m camping with the dog. Thank you Donkycat for the idea.

[louisecross]

Would banging a couple of tent pegs in against either side of the box work to stabilize it