Yikes! Hurricane Gustav!

[SeaCat]

Lisa,

Here is something you should have, or at least know how to make. I have two of them even though I have a propane camping stove and my house stove is gas. It makes for a good emergency backup. (It also works good for a little camp stove.) Oh and you can use De-Natured Alchohol in it, no need to buy H.E.E.T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ILdn1WjWI&feature=related

Cat

 

[DesertPirate]

Lisa,

Here is something you should have, or at least know how to make. I have two of them even though I have a propane camping stove and my house stove is gas. It makes for a good emergency backup. (It also works good for a little camp stove.) Oh and you can use De-Natured Alchohol in it, no need to buy H.E.E.T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ILdn1WjWI&feature=related

Cat

Cat that is just very cool and disgustingly useful. Guess I'll need to make a couple.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Damn! I'm impressed. That is so simple and you could pre heat the stove with a couple of wooden matches before lighting it. Every kid should know how to do this . . . uh, maybe every kid over 11, that is. BOOKMARK!!!

 

[SeaCat]

Damn! I'm impressed. That is so simple and you could pre heat the stove with a couple of wooden matches before lighting it. Every kid should know how to do this . . . uh, maybe every kid over 11, that is. BOOKMARK!!!

Somehow I don't think I'll tell you some of the other things I make around here. The field stoves work well but give people the willies when they find out what fuels them and the other things well,,,,,,,,

Cat

 

[Weird Harold]

They shouldn't have disasters right when you wake up with no coffee, I couldn't hardly think.

Oh well, in texas we are still valiantly hangin on, courageously battling the elements, and I made some coffee so the emergency has somewhat subsided.

Lisa, you must be horribly fearsome befor eyou've had your coffee. I notice Gustav (or what remains of him) has decided to head for Kansa City and Chicago instead of continuing into Texas.

 

[starrkers]

Cat that is just very cool and disgustingly useful. Guess I'll need to make a couple.

I second that!

Umm, what's HEET?

 

[SlickTony]

That is so cool!

When I was a Girl Scout, we made something called a Buddy Burner. When I Googled the procedure, I realized that I'd remembered it more or less correctly, and it had been over 45 years! I'm proud of myself.

The emergency heat source preferred by Scouts, WW II GI's, and homeless people everywhere

THE BUDDY BURNER

Have fun with it while camping or save the lives of your family in a winter no-heat emergency. Make them and distribute them to homeless people, or give them to charities involved with providing assistance to homeless people who don't live in shelters.

Materials: Plain corrugated cardboard (not printed with bright inks or coated with wax or plastic) flat tuna cans, flat pet food cans, and/or flat pineapple cans, and their lids #10 can (the large institutional size) candle wax or paraffin.

Tools: punch-type can opener tin snips

Procedure:

One:

Cut the cardboard in strips whose width is the height of the can -- across the corrugations, so that the holes show. Roll the strips until the cardboard roll fits snugly into the can.

Two:

Melt the wax. It is best to use a double boiler, as if the wax gets too hot, it can burst into flame. You can improvise a double boiler by putting water in a large pan, and then setting a smaller pan into the water. Each tuna can will take about 4 ounces of wax.

Three:

When the wax is melted, slowly pour it into the buddy burner so that it runs down into the holes and saturates the corrugated cardboard and fill the can to the rim. You can put a small piece of cardboard sticking up or a candle wick in the middle to help start it, but this isn't required. Let it cool and harden. To light it, set it on a brick or concrete block. Put a lighted match in the middle of the can or light the wick. The flame will spread across the top of the can; that's OK, that's what it's supposed do.

To use for cooking: Cut out one end of the #10 can. Use the tin snips to cut a 3" high and 4" wide "door" on one side of the can at the open end. Leave the top of the door uncut. Bend this flap of metal up so the door is "open". Take the punch-type can opener, and make 3 or 4 holes on the other side of the can at the top (this is your chimney). Light the tuna can as described above, and place the #10 can over the Buddy Burner and place a pan with whatever you want to cook on top of the #10 can. This "#10 can stove" can be adapted to fuels like twigs, charcoal or charcoal briquets, but these shouldn't be used indoors. Charcoal briquets should never be used indoors under any circumstances. The fumes will kill you before the cold does.

To regulate the flame for heating or cooking, use the can lid as a damper. Place it over all of the flame to extinguish the fire, or cover it partially to regulate the amount of flame. You can also use a piece of aluminum foil (several thicknesses folded), that is larger than the tuna can. Handle the damper with a pot holder, or a pair of plyers, or punch a couple of holes in the edges of the lid and use some wire to make a handle.

To refill the buddy burner, place small amounts of wax on the cardboard while the burner is operating. As long as it has wax, it will function.

Baking: Using tuna cans as little pans, anything you would bake in a regular oven can be baked on top of the #10 can stove. Simply place another #10 can over your baking pan and its an oven!

Emergency heat: Don't put the #10 can over the buddy burner, as it makes more smoke with the #10 can than without. Light the buddy burner, let it warm up a room and remember that it is easier to heat a room than a house, and it is easier to heat a room if you are bundled up warmly. Which is to say, a winter no-heat emergency is not a time to expect that you can walk around the house barefoot and in shorts. As soon as the room is warm, extinguish the buddy burner.

There were precautions with it, which I've had to go back and take down, since they are evidently a PDF and I can't copy/paste them:

1. Be sure you have adequate ventilation
2. Don't place directly on the floor, as someone might kick it over; put it up on a brick or something
3. Don't let the kids play with it (toasting marshmallows is OK)
4. The other reason you put it up on a brick or a concrete block is that it makes a high flame and generates a lot of heat

 

[Liar]

Lisa,

Here is something you should have, or at least know how to make. I have two of them even though I have a propane camping stove and my house stove is gas. It makes for a good emergency backup. (It also works good for a little camp stove.) Oh and you can use De-Natured Alchohol in it, no need to buy H.E.E.T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ILdn1WjWI&feature=related

I am sooo dissapointed they didn't tell me what to do with the beer. or soda. but I'd like to think it was beer. Mmm beer.

 

[SlickTony]

I am sooo dissapointed they didn't tell me what to do with the beer. or soda. but I'd like to think it was beer. Mmm beer.

I would have assumed that drinking the beer or soda was self-evident.

 

[SeaCat]

That is so cool!

When I was a Girl Scout, we made something called a Buddy Burner. When I Googled the procedure, I realized that I'd remembered it more or less correctly, and it had been over 45 years! I'm proud of myself.

The emergency heat source preferred by Scouts, WW II GI's, and homeless people everywhere

THE BUDDY BURNER

Have fun with it while camping or save the lives of your family in a winter no-heat emergency. Make them and distribute them to homeless people, or give them to charities involved with providing assistance to homeless people who don't live in shelters.

Materials: Plain corrugated cardboard (not printed with bright inks or coated with wax or plastic) flat tuna cans, flat pet food cans, and/or flat pineapple cans, and their lids #10 can (the large institutional size) candle wax or paraffin.

Tools: punch-type can opener tin snips

Procedure:

One:

Cut the cardboard in strips whose width is the height of the can -- across the corrugations, so that the holes show. Roll the strips until the cardboard roll fits snugly into the can.

Two:

Melt the wax. It is best to use a double boiler, as if the wax gets too hot, it can burst into flame. You can improvise a double boiler by putting water in a large pan, and then setting a smaller pan into the water. Each tuna can will take about 4 ounces of wax.

Three:

When the wax is melted, slowly pour it into the buddy burner so that it runs down into the holes and saturates the corrugated cardboard and fill the can to the rim. You can put a small piece of cardboard sticking up or a candle wick in the middle to help start it, but this isn't required. Let it cool and harden. To light it, set it on a brick or concrete block. Put a lighted match in the middle of the can or light the wick. The flame will spread across the top of the can; that's OK, that's what it's supposed do.

To use for cooking: Cut out one end of the #10 can. Use the tin snips to cut a 3" high and 4" wide "door" on one side of the can at the open end. Leave the top of the door uncut. Bend this flap of metal up so the door is "open". Take the punch-type can opener, and make 3 or 4 holes on the other side of the can at the top (this is your chimney). Light the tuna can as described above, and place the #10 can over the Buddy Burner and place a pan with whatever you want to cook on top of the #10 can. This "#10 can stove" can be adapted to fuels like twigs, charcoal or charcoal briquets, but these shouldn't be used indoors. Charcoal briquets should never be used indoors under any circumstances. The fumes will kill you before the cold does.

To regulate the flame for heating or cooking, use the can lid as a damper. Place it over all of the flame to extinguish the fire, or cover it partially to regulate the amount of flame. You can also use a piece of aluminum foil (several thicknesses folded), that is larger than the tuna can. Handle the damper with a pot holder, or a pair of plyers, or punch a couple of holes in the edges of the lid and use some wire to make a handle.

To refill the buddy burner, place small amounts of wax on the cardboard while the burner is operating. As long as it has wax, it will function.

Baking: Using tuna cans as little pans, anything you would bake in a regular oven can be baked on top of the #10 can stove. Simply place another #10 can over your baking pan and its an oven!

Emergency heat: Don't put the #10 can over the buddy burner, as it makes more smoke with the #10 can than without. Light the buddy burner, let it warm up a room and remember that it is easier to heat a room than a house, and it is easier to heat a room if you are bundled up warmly. Which is to say, a winter no-heat emergency is not a time to expect that you can walk around the house barefoot and in shorts. As soon as the room is warm, extinguish the buddy burner.

There were precautions with it, which I've had to go back and take down, since they are evidently a PDF and I can't copy/paste them:

1. Be sure you have adequate ventilation
2. Don't place directly on the floor, as someone might kick it over; put it up on a brick or something
3. Don't let the kids play with it (toasting marshmallows is OK)
4. The other reason you put it up on a brick or a concrete block is that it makes a high flame and generates a lot of heat

Slick,

We used to make a field stove/heater using a bucket.

Fill bucket or number ten can with the loosest soil you can find. (Sand is great) Dump in a couple cups of gasoline, wait a minute then toss on a match. Diesel Fuel and the lighter oils work as well but they are harder to light and smoke a lot.

Do I need to pst tricks about lighting a fire?

Cat

 

[SeaCat]

I second that!

Umm, what's HEET?

HEET is a Anti Water or Dry Gas type of fuel additive.

You can use just about anything in this type of stove. Lighter Fluid, Kerosene, White Gas, Denatured Alchohol, Lamp Oil. Hell you can even use Gasoline if you're careful.

Cat

 

[DesertPirate]

HEET is a Anti Water or Dry Gas type of fuel additive.

You can use just about anything in this type of stove. Lighter Fluid, Kerosene, White Gas, Denatured Alchohol, Lamp Oil. Hell you can even use Gasoline if you're careful.

Cat

Cat, it's basicly methanol with a few othe additives.

 

[R. Richard]

They shouldn't have disasters right when you wake up with no coffee, I couldn't hardly think.

Lisa, take a little trip to Mexico and stock up on Kahlua. Then, when the power is off, drink Kahlua instead of coffee. The coffee part of Kahlua will wake you up and the booze will calm you down. If you need more calming, make a Black Russian.

 

[Lisa Denton]

Lisa, take a little trip to Mexico and stock up on Kahlua. Then, when the power is off, drink Kahlua instead of coffee. The coffee part of Kahlua will wake you up and the booze will calm you down. If you need more calming, make a Black Russian.

Thanks, but I used to not drink much, saw how stupid some people get after one drink, and no longer drink at all.

Also I like strong regular coffee, no decafienated or chocolate crapachino shit, just hot, regular coffee.

Even when I used to drink I didn't like that sweet, syrupy stuff, I think thats what Kahlua is, but thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Lisa Denton]

Lisa,

Here is something you should have, or at least know how to make. I have two of them even though I have a propane camping stove and my house stove is gas. It makes for a good emergency backup. (It also works good for a little camp stove.) Oh and you can use De-Natured Alchohol in it, no need to buy H.E.E.T.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ILdn1WjWI&feature=related

Cat

Hi Cat.

I can't reply to your video cause I won't let my computer download the stuff it needs to play it.

I know what it is, why my computer needs it, and that there is a 99.9 percent chance that it is safe and all.

But the stuff which recently infected my computer and the work I had to do to clean it makes me unwilling.

I am sure it was useful though, thanks.