Introduction: Gas Bottle Wood Burner

Gas bottle wood burners are very easy to make, efficient, and are perfect for late night parties. If you turn them right up, the middle can start to glow red, you can put a kettle on the top, or cut the top off and add a hot plate. These are really easy to make, and be changed however you want.

Step 1: Materials

You will need:

-Gas Bottle (The main image is a 13kg bottle)

-A length of 6 Inch Diameter Pipe For Chimney (I Used Lorry Exhaust)

-Something For a Handle (I used two bolts welded together and a scrap piece of metal for latch)

-A Section Of Heavy Duty Hinge, Average Door Hinge Wont Be Strong Enough

-Box Section For Air Vent (~3 inch square for medium bottles, double for large bottles)

-Length Of Rod For Air Regulator (Optional, for damping fire down)

Step 2: Drain

Make sure the cylinder is mostly empty before draining the last of the gas out!

Unscrew the gas valve in a ventilated open space, preferably outside, away from open flames and sparks.

Turn the bottle upside down, then wait for a lot more gas to come out.

Wait until gas stops coming out, then unscrew the valve from the bottle, which requires plenty of force, and probably a vice. A little more gas should come out.

Turn the right way up, then fill with water, using positive displacement to remove the last of the gas.

Leave the water in until you are ready to cut.

Step 3: Prep

First, you will need to empty out the water and cut the guard off of the top of the bottle.

Mark out where you want the door, about 6 inch from the bottom weld line for the fire base and big enough to put logs in.

Mark a hole for the chimney on the opposite side from the door, just below the top weld line and just smaller than your chimney diameter (~5 1/2 inches).

You could have the chimney coming out of the top, but it is more efficient with it coming out of the back of the burner, as it heats the top of the bottle instead of going straight out the chimney.

Mark out a section for the Air Vent, Making sure the bottom weld line of the bottle is just below the top of the vent, about 1 inch off the bottom of the actual bottle.

Step 4: Door

Carefully cut out where you have marked the door using an angle grinder.

Once cut, remove the section you have cut out, and position in the opening where the door should go.

Offer up the hinge, and test how the door opens. Move it until the door opens well, and doesn't catch too much on the bottle.

Once you have found the correct place, clamp the hinge to the door and weld it in place. You may need to remove the door from the opening to do this, so mark where the hinge is going on the door so you don't lose it's position.

With the hinge on the door, place the door back in the opening, and weld the other side of the hinge to the bottle, making sure the door will open and close without catching too much.

There are loads of ways you can make a latch, you can see a couple of different ones above.

Step 5: Chimney

Using an angle grinder, cut around the marked section for the chimney opening.

Clean off some of the powder coating around the opening and then weld the chimney to the opening.

The chimeny should long enough to keep smoke out of your face but not so long the weight causes the burner to be unstable.

Having the chimney come out the back of the burner makes it burner slower but also makes it a bit unstable.

Step 6: Air Vent

Use the box section to mark out the hole for the vent and then cut using an angle grinder.

Position the vent and weld in place. It should stick out about 4 inches.

For anl air regulator, find a section of metal just big enough to rotate inside the box section.
Drill a hole either side of the box section in the center.
Push a section of threaded rod through.
Weld the section onto the rod, so that it will rotate when the rod is turned.
Bend one end of the rod 90 degrees so that it can be adjusted.
Put a nut on the end of the rod so that the friction will hold the valve open.

Step 7: Finishing Off

To keep heat in, fill the hole where the valve was with weld.

Fit some steel flat section to cover the gaps around the door.

Step 8: Lighting

To light, use screwed up scrap paper just to the top of the air vent.

Close the air vent.

Light it, and use some small sticks to get the fire going.

Once the sticks have caught, put on small logs, and once they have started burning, place bigger logs on.

When the fire has a good base, open the air vent.