Rocket Stove From Old Tins

I didn’t have much to do on a Sunday afternoon, and I still had a few old tins lying around. One of them was a large coffee tin, which I had always thought about turning into a rocket stove. Now was the time. Fun fact: the coffee tin is from the brand Reuser and Smulders, a Dutch coffee roaster. For an international audience, you could turn 'Reuser' into 'Re-user,' which is very fitting for this project.

The great thing about this project is that the total cost was exactly zero! It was made with materials I already had. The following materials were used:

1. Reuser & Smulders coffee tin, like the ones used in restaurants.
2. Perla coffee tin, which my mother used to use when she still made filter coffee.
3. Small tin for Senseo coffee pads. Who even uses Senseo these days? ;)
4. A Cointreau tin, which I once received as a corporate gift.
5. A mini flower pot; I wonder when my wife will notice it's gone.
6. A leftover piece of stone wool, a remnant from a renovation.
7. Gravel; I still had half a bag lying around."

I started by marking out the wood feed. It needs to be set at an angle of about 45 degrees so the wood can slide into the combustion chamber. The initial plan was to cut this out using a sort of knockoff Dremel. Unfortunately, it gave up after just a centimeter. That was, of course, a bit of a disappointment, so I took a moment to reflect with a Club Mate. I could have gone out to buy a new one, but hey... the whole idea was to keep this low-cost. So, I started looking for alternatives. Unfortunately, my tin snips weren’t at home. So, back to basics: I made a hole, used small cutting shears to trim it, and hammered the edges flat. The result is a bit less neat, but it works!

Next, I did the same for the Cointreau tin, which will serve as the combustion chamber. I also cut this one out using small cutting shears. Then, I used hairdressing scissors to cut the top of the Senseo tin at an angle and removed the bottom with a can opener from the kitchen drawer. This part will go on the outside, so it retains some rigidity.

I placed some stone wool on the bottom and set the Cointreau tin on top. Then I fit the Senseo tin through both holes and... it fits. Awesome!

This step actually has two purposes:

1. The Cointreau tin is too short, so it needs to be extended somehow.
2. You want a narrowing for the airflow, which works well in combination with another tin and a flowerpot.

For this, I cut down the Perla coffee tin. I did this again with the hairdressing scissors. The idea is to place this piece on top of the Cointreau tin's lid, with a narrowing in it. I was missing a part for this, so I walked around the garage and found the solution among my wife’s gardening supplies. A small metal flowerpot would do the trick. I also had to cut this one down, but I used an angle grinder this time, as the material was too thick for my cheap method with the other tins.

Here’s what I did:

1. Shortened the Perla coffee tin.
2. Removed the bottom of the Perla coffee tin with a can opener. Again, to keep its rigidity, as this side will be at the top of the stove.
3. Made a hole in the Cointreau tin’s lid to fit the half flowerpot.
4. Made a slightly larger hole in the Perla coffee tin’s lid to fit the half flowerpot.
5. Placed the lids of the Cointreau tin and the Perla tin on top of each other, aligning the holes.
6. Inserted the half flowerpot through the holes in the lids and tapped it with a hammer.
7. Added a piece of the Perla tin to extend.
8. Sealed any gaps with stone wool.

I placed the structure on the Cointreau tin and then stuffed the inside of the coffee tin with stone wool. I filled this up with gravel because it's a simple filler, but also to add some weight for stability.

Then, I needed to make a hole in the lid of the coffee tin, and tadaaa! A rocket stove!

And then it was time for the test! I lit it up. Since nothing was welded or sealed, I wasn't sure what to expect. But it works really well! There’s no escaping smoke where I didn’t want it, and the fire burns nicely. Of course, it’s not the same as my Envirofit rocket stove, but it’s definitely good!

And what better way to test it than by boiling a pot of water on it? I decided to make a quick, simple pasta to put it to the test. All in all, I had a great afternoon and enjoyed a delicious meal. A perfect Sunday!

I’m not sure what to expect in terms of its lifespan, as it’s all thin tin. But that’s the beauty of making something useful from materials you weren’t using anyway, allowing you to get a few more uses out of them. This rocket stove may not win any beauty contests, but the idea was to have fun with it. Mission accomplished!

And just to add a note of caution: be careful with fire!