An Alcohol Burner From a Glass Jar and Aluminium Can

Grab your beer cans! Grab your soda cans! Grab your crafty hands... with... your other avilable hands. Grab some matches and iluminate the dar... oh no, also you'll need a glass jar, and some other stuff, and about an hour of work... But don't worry, it'll be ok, and eventually you'll be able to iluminate the darkness with your mighty handcrafted firemaking device!

Step 1:

But first things first. To make your own burner you'll need to cut the bottom part of an alluminum soda/beer can. The hight of it is determined by the dimentions of the glass jar you'll also need to find. Some of the jars of standart sizes fit into the aluminium cans almost perfectly. I've cut the can so that the cutted rim of it is aligned with the circular lip of the jar (see the photo). Just make it a bit bigger and then trim into size.

Step 2:

Punch two holes in the bottom of the can part: one is at the centre (for the wick), and one at the side to fuel the burner.

You can make only the centre hole and use a syringe with the neadle to insert the fuel by poking through the wick.

Step 3:

Here I'm using a metal eylets or grommets to finish the holes. I inserted the stem-like part of a grommet into the centre hole from behind and widened it to secure in place. Now it is a wick holder.

The mushroom-like stud part at the side serves as a plug for the filling hole.

Step 4:

Insert the wick. I used one I pulled out from a broom that we don't use by it's direct determination anyway.

Step 5:

Use some cauking to seal the gap between the jar and aluminium cap... and DO NOT use Yandex image search to check if word "cauking" means what you think it means in English... (I still do not know, but my eyes are keep bleading (I'm joking , I can handle it just with crying)).

Step 6:

Put pieces together and let the sealent to dry.

Step 7:

Meanwhile we can make a decorative strip to wrap around our burner. It's also helps you to hold the burner in your crafty or other available hands as it gets uncomfortably hot when is burned for a while. I'm using leather because it's withstand heat and looks great on metal. The seam is purely for decoration. The holes at the ends of the strip is for grommets. If you're get a pretty snug fit, you can just wet the leather and let it dry on your burner: It will dry and shrink and it will be enough to hold it well. Or use some glue, but make sure it behaves well at high temperatures.

Step 8:

Fuel it with something good and here it is: A CAN-JAR BURNER! I tested my, by letting it burn for a while to make sure it won't blow up putting everything around in fire and agony. It didn't, but, nevertheless, always be carefull while dealing with fire. I recomend to use it outdoors and never leave it without your attention. So have a nice crafting and thank you for your attention.

P.S.: If the logo at the bottom of the pictures grabbed your attention, you may be interested on clicking on this link wich will lead you to my "Nail Design" blog on Tumblr. It has nothing to do with nail art, but you may be able to find some more of my projects like this one (I do not update it very often though).