# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Making Stuff >  Homemade sterno can?

## marylp

Does anyone know how to make a homemade sterno can? What kind of fuel would I use? it would have to be something safe for indoors and get hot enough to boil water. Someone told me about some tablets that burn really hot that can be used also. Any ideas you guys? Thanks in advance :Confused:

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## Rick

Homemade sterno can? Are you looking for a stove? I'm not certain what you are asking.

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## marylp

I have the sterno stove, lets say in an emergency, I ran out of the sterno cans, What could I use instead? I guess I am looking for something to work as back up.

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## crashdive123

Rubbing alcohol.  Did a test a while back with the smaller sterno cans.  I got almost 50 minutes of burn time (If I remember correctly).  I then filled the empty can (after it cooled) with rubbing alcohol.  Similar burn time.  There are several solid fuel tablets on the market that are designed for little folding stoves.  Esbit and trioxane are two that are popular.

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## Rick

Oooooh! I get you. Is this it? 

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You could use esbit fuel (it's smokey when you blow it out but burns clean), Trioxane (but it's nasty inside) or denatured alcohol (can be explosive). I can't think of anything else I'd use inside without a good vent. 

Outside, you could add Coughlan's fire sticks or just wood.....if that's a picture of yours.

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## wareagle69

each can has about 6 hrs of burn time so haveing a dozen or so around would give you 72 hrs of cooking time, thats allot of cooking time in my book

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## crashdive123

Here are a few.  The one on the left is a folding sterno stove.  The two on the right are folding solid fuel stoves.  The picture on the right is all three folded up.

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## wareagle69

hey rick i was just looking at one of those yesterday, but 3 rocks will do the same thing and save ya 12 bucks, although i do like coughlans stuff i always use their seirra saw

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## marylp

Really Crash? just like that pour alcohol into the can and light? Will 70% percent work? Do I need a wick? Sorry for the stupid questions , I am really new at this. Where can I learn about esbit stoves? Thank You so much!!

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## Gray Wolf

I would use the Esbit fuel tablets, safe inside a car too.

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## crashdive123

Mary - for my little test I used a 70% solution.  The can burns real hot, so safety would be a big concern.  Also, I would only do something like that in a very well ventilated area.

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## Rick

Gee, now who would sell Esbit gear? Hmmm. Wonder who that would be????

WE, I don't have one just trying to figure out what kind Mary has. I do have an Esbit stove like the one Crash posted and use the Esbit fuel. You could use just about any fuel on that little stove. 

Mary, alcohol burns with little or no flame so very often you can't see the fire in the day time. Personally, I would be hesitant to pour alcohol in an open can and ignite it. But that's just me. I have an alcohol *stove* but I don't use it very often. Some of these other folks might be very comfortable with burning the alcohol that way.

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## marylp

Hi Hopeak, I live in deep South Texas and I do 911 at our local Sherrifs office. I have known of so many people in dire situations in various senarios and they think we at 911 know about survival things like this, One guy was stranded on our lake for 12 hours with kids and wanted to cook on his bass boat and wanted to know how to start a fire. I am not lying!! He caught some fish and wanted to feed ot to his family. (Our Parks and Wildlife people were out of town).

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## Sourdough

Mary, Are you getting Ike'ed....?

Darn, I thought deleted undetected.

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## Rick

One of your main concerns when frickaseein' a freshly hogged bass on top yer bass boat is being able to chop the fiberglass into a reasonable sized hole. Not a great big hole, mind you, but a reasonable sized hole that will draft well from the bottom. As you can see I've used my Rambo IV survival knife to hack a hole in the top of the deck right cheer and gutted and scaled ma bass. I'm pouring a tad bit of gasoline down in the hole from my spare tank. Just enough to get your fire started. Don't them fumes smell good? A love the smell of gasoline in the morning. Smells like trophy bass. Now then. I actually poured a bit more gas down in there than I intended that's why I'm waving my hat over the hole. We call it "venting". Or somethin' like that. Anyway, let's gives this puppy a whirl. I got me a strike anywhere match and I'll just give her a flick right......HOLLY MOTHER OF GOD!!!!! SOMEONE CALL 911!!!!! GRAB A FIRE EXTINGUISHER!!!!!! ABANDON SHIP!!!!!!!!

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## Sourdough

Looks like a Viking funeral.

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## marylp

Rick, Rick,Rick very funny!! This guy was serious! he has kids to feed. hehehe I feel bad for laughing. Oh and Hopeak naw Iked totally ignored us! Great or I would still be on shift.

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## crashdive123

Mary - If you are concerned about being able to cook at home during some sort of power outage or other condition that does not allow you to keep with your regular routine - Hopeak's advice is very good.  Those small green Coleman propane canisters (about $2.50) and a small stove that mounts to the top of it (probably under $25) are good choices to have on hand if you need them.  Here's what they look like http://www.coleman.com/coleman/colem...ategoryid=2010  Wally World may have them cheaper.

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## Gray Wolf

Rick that was funny!

(No offense to those in trouble with Ike.)

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## sh4d0wm4573ri7

stuff empty sterno can with cotton and use dentured or rubbing alcohol it acts as a wick and burns longer the dentured works better in my tests is easier to light and just seems to perform better(water will put it out if it gets away also) My Etowah stove uses the same principle the cotton wick provides a long simmer

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## Rick

You can add 10% water to your alcohol to cut down on soot. Alcohol does like to soot things up.

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## Sourdough

> You can add 10% water to your alcohol to cut down on soot. Alcohol does like to soot things up.


Alcohol with water back, please, bartender

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## srtmedic

i to have been experimenting with various fuels to use in a survival pack type stove.  my latest has been using the french cook stove and germ-x hand sanitizer which is 63% gelled alcohol.  

http://www.omahas.com/product_info.p...3rvp3ehejtgf74  this is what the stove looks like.  i found with this stove, i can pour in 1.5 ounces of germ-x and get a very bluish flame going which only lasts about 6 minutes.  no quite long enough to boil water and i was trying to boil 2 cups during these test.  did get the water very hot however.

alcohol is my main fuel source and it is of the rubbing alcohol that can be found anywhere (70%-90%).  the next thing i would like to do is to turn this alcohol into a gel kinda like sterno.  i do have sterno and have found that the sterno name brand folding stove places the flame further away from the pot or pan that your using.  

i know the gelled alcohol that the military was using in those murphy saying pouches burn very well with these french stoves lasting about 12 minutes, but not getting the water hot enough to boil water.

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## paracordist

how about a buddy burner? rolled cardboard in the can, then wax filled?

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## kyratshooter

> Really Crash? just like that pour alcohol into the can and light? Will 70% percent work? Do I need a wick? Sorry for the stupid questions , I am really new at this. Where can I learn about esbit stoves? Thank You so much!!


Rubbing alcahol, Denatured alcahol(paint thinner), Gas additive or Fuel treatment will all work.

The one that everyone misses is HAND SANITIZER.  It is closer to sterno than anything else.

Only the rubbing alcahol makes soot, the other forms burn clean.

A tuna can with holes punched around the edge, a couple of squirts of hand sanitizer and the bennie-weinees are warm.

1/4" in the bottom of the can will boil a liter of water in about 3 minutes.

A squirt of sanitizer on a cotton ball or piece of tissue will fire up with even a weak spark from a battery or flit striker.

Remember that alcahol burns with no flame. In the dark you will see a glow but in daylight there will be no indication of burning except for the heat.

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## Rick

Sterno is not designed to boil water. It is designed to maintain a constant safe temperature to keep food warm. Depending on the product you buy that's between 175°F and 195°F. Foods have to be kept above 140°F or bacteria will begin to develop. 

If I'm going to carry a stove and fuel then I want it to be something I can actually boil water with. That gives me another option to sterilize water if I need it. Since your design is for a survival pack that might be something to take into consideration.

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## JPGreco

You can use a sterno can to pasterize water though.  It will bring the water to a temp that will kill most common bacteria (above 150 degrees).  Though I agree.  If I was worried about temporary cooking I would keep something like a coleman cooker around and some propane.  A large propane bottle for a grill would suffice or a few of the small ones for the camper grills.  That or a regular grill and some charcoal (though I know thats more outdoors).  I wouldn't be averse to using a small propane grill inside by an open window.  I'm not sure about the tablets that you can buy, but I would want to be able to control it as much as possible, which I can with propane.

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