I think the tin can camp stove, aka buddy burner, is ready for a revival. Be it for emergency preparedness or backyard camping, you can make these in about 30 minutes. Here’s the video on how I put one together:
A Few Precautions When Making the Tin Can Camp Stove
- Melt the wax in a double boiler or carefully on a hot plate
- Hot Wax is flammable! So be careful
- Use this stove outside, OK?
First of all, I just need to say BE CAREFUL. Hot wax and open flame require you to pay attention. You can wax you buy at the hardware store, furthermore, you could melt down a bunch of old used candles. Wear gloves while handling the wax melting container. Make sure the cardboard doesn’t have any labels or tape attached to it, because burning plastic isn’t great.
While you may have some tin cans in the house, you might want to seek out the ideal tin can. Cans that are not lined with an interior coating nor have a plastic or painted on label are best. Its actually hard to find such cans. The one in our video had a painted on label, consequently, it smoked and burned. Again, reason to use the buddy burner outside.
I have seen other posts that suggest using the bottom slot as a sort of air damper to control the flame. I have not tried this, as a result, we have a high heat, always on burner to cook our eggs. Maybe if you punched fewer holes up top there would be less air flow. I suggest finding a small fry pan at the dollar store or a yard sale for this. We used aluminum foil to hold our fried eggs, but a fry pan is easier.
