While doing research on ultra small backpacking stoves. I ran across a do it yourself article on making your own. Unlike some DIY projects this one was relatively easy and the best part, cheap! Most of the ultra small stoves I found on the internet were in the $40 price range. The DIY stove costs about a $1 to make.

Now you might think this is a joke, it's not. This stove in it's completed state weighs only 1/2 ounce. Now that's light weight! At a minimum you'll need 2 Pepsi cans.  1 roll of HIGH temp metal repair tape. A roll of this tape costs about $9. But there's enough tape on 1 roll to make a lot of stoves. The stove is comprised of 3 seperate pieces. Top, bottom and the inner wall. Both the top and the bottom pieces are made from the bottom of the can. The inner wall is made from the cans main body. Once the pieces are cut to the correct sizes you should test fit before taping it all together. Even though I followed the size directions exactly the inner wall was slightly long.  Once the inner wall is formed into a circle it should fit snuggly around the raised bottom of the can. The directions for building the stove are very good. The pictures used are worth 1000 words. I did stray from the directions slightly. 1. Instead of using CRAZY glue to hold the wall ends in place I used metal repair      tape (it's holding just fine). 2. How to cut the bottom out cleanly and easily? Of the 2 methods suggested I opted for scoring around the bottom. I thought it would look nicer actually. The only thing I did different was to drill a hole in the center of the can bottom. This allowed me to score the bottom like one would cut a pizza. The pieces (4 total) popped out quite easy.

Now that I had the stove finished I was dying to try it out. It actually worked! Now what? Since I don't want to hold a cup or pan of water for 5 minutes waiting for it boil, I decided to make a stand / wind screen. I used aluminum sheets for this. They started out 5" x 7" . They ended up 3" x 7". I put 2 air vents on 2 sides. I used scraps of aluminum arrow shafts as pot supports. With a large pot sitting directly on top of the stand there isn't enough air flow. With the shafting in place it took only 5 minutes to bring 20oz of water to a rolling boil. It was fun project. I'm truely amazed at how well it works and how light it is.. :) If you like to tinker or want a fun project to do with your kids check it out. I've placed a link at the bottom of this page. Have fun!

DIY PEPSI STOVE