Homemade Camp Stove

Measure the bottom of your camping skillet or pot, and then use that to pick out a paint can, coffee can, or a big juice or vegetable can. You ideally want a can a bit wider than your cooking pot. Do not pick a can that has a white plastic liner on the inside.

Cut away or remove the lid. Wash the can inside and out, and remove any labels. An old paint can might need to be cleaned out with paint thinner.

Cut out a hole in the side of the can, along the bottom end. Do not cut off any part of the bottom rim of the can. This hole will be what you feed fuel into the stove through. It should be between 3 and 5 inches wide and can be either square, rectangular or circular, depending on what you prefer and find convenient. A simple way to get a nice, neat hole is to trace it with a marker, poke a hole along the tracing with a nail, and from there cut the rest away with metal clippers.

Poke ventilation holes around the outside of the can, near the bottom. Between 3 and 6 vents raised 2 or 3 inches from the bottom. Poke another set of similar holes around the top, once again about 2 inches from the top rim of the can.

Poke a matching pair of holes on either side and under the top rim of the can, aligned so that you can run metal tent pegs through them. These pegs will be the support struts for your cooking pot.