The Penny Stove

Here's something I stumbled upon, it's called a Penny Stove and it's made from beer cans. Who could pick a better project? So I decided to make one this evening. It requires three Heineken keg cans, three irrigation stakes, some Everclear, and a penny.

I didn't know this at the time - I knew I needed beer and irrigation stakes, but I couldn't find the stakes on my route home from work. The beer was easy to grab. Drinking it was easy and cutting up the cans was pretty awkward. I thought I'd use just the pocket knife because if I needed to build one in a pinch... In the end it turned out to be easier to cut a good line on the can with the knife. the scissors kind of got in the way. Drilling the holes probably too a little longer but it was easy enough to do. I did end up using a scissors, a leatherman, and a sharpie.

I didn't know the type of alcohol, because I didn't dig deep enough so I just thought I'd use rubbing alcohol. I couldn't find the alcohol, so I used brandy. Judging from all of the torched houses I've seen in movies that the damn thing would explode so I wore my science goggles as a precautionary measure. Thankfully no one was there to take my picture. Well, brandy isn't as explosively flammable as advertised. So I looked harder and found the rubbing alcohol. I tried using it with limited success. I did get it to light on fire, put it didn't sustain the flame.

Upon reading deeper, it seems that I wasn't priming it, filling it, or lighting it properly. There's a shocker. Also, I guess rubbing alcohol can cause a steam bubble to form and blow the penny right off. So I'm holding off for now until I know more about how this thing is supposed to work and it'll give me a chance to get some of the right kind of alcohol - I do have camping fuel but I think that might be too high octane for the beer-can penny-stove.