I came across this website a while ago when looking for a new stove to take with me when I go camping. Seeing how my idea of camping involves walking for a few hours into the middle of nowhere weight and size is a big issue. There’s a company that sells these stoves, made from old coke cans for about ten quid. They’re called Antigravity alcohol stoves but seeing how my neighbour is a hardened alcoholic and has a bin full of potential stoves I decided to have a go at making one.

So, after checking he was out I had a root through his bin and found a few tins. Several minutes of chopping and bending resulted in this

As you can see it’s a popular Scottish drink and looks a little black. That’s what happened after I lit it for the first time. They run on methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) which is something I don’t have in my house for reasons that escape me. I do however have a lot of lamp oil. Lamp oil burns therefore it must be good to use.

wrong!

lamp oil doesn’t set on fire that easily, it’s like trying to light diesel or cooking oil. You have to sort of boil it up first to get the vapours escaping and then it burns very well. So I whipped out a small gas stove I had, put some lamp oil in a pan, whacked it on the heat and gave it a good boil. At the same time I carefully placed the stove I’d just made into the – now smoking – pan of oil and applied some fire.

You know that cool sound when things suddenly set on fire? 

It’s supposed to look like this when it burns…

Mine resembled this…

Will go and buy some meths tomorrow and try again. It was working, but the flames were a bit too “vigorous”.