Doc's Smity Camp Stove

SMITY CAMP STOVE

My stove is an adaptation (for car camping) of the Sierra Stove:

http://www.zzstove.com/sierra.html

"This stove, utilizes small combustibles (e.g., pine cones, bark, small sticks) and operates along the lines of a blacksmith's forge. A small fan forces combustion air over internal baffles surrounding the fire box, thus pre-heating the combustion air and preventing excessive heat build-up within the stove (preventing it from self-destructing!). This pre-heating dramatically increases combustion efficiency---a small bundle of sticks can vigorously boil 3-gallons of water.

I can boil 3-gallons of water so hard that it nearly sloshes itself out of a 4-gallon kettle--this using only finger and thumb sized little sticks. No need for a hatchet or saw. Just a gardener's pruning shear does the trick. Everything is burned down to white ash. The batteries only power the fan (or you can run it off of a car's cigarette lighter).

While ideal for car campers wishing to sterilize drinking water, heat wash water, steam crabs, etc., this stove offers little in terms of subtle heat control. It is best utilized solely as a "boiler" (source of very high heat, only).

 
It is fabricated primarily from:

  • woodstove flue parts, with the addition of
  • gallon paint can,
  • food can,
  • short length of high temp aluminum duct tape,
  • JB weld,
  • silicone caulking,
  • strip of scrap sheet metal, and
  • cheap plastic 12V computer fan (Radioshack).

     
    Tools used to build it included:

  • Pop-riveter,
  • Tin snips,
  • Electric drill,
  • Unibit (Irwin tools),
  • Dremel tool, and
  • Emory cloth.

     
    "Happy boiling!"

    Fan Specs

     

    Fan Schematic Unibit
    (Unibit)
     
    The End Product - The Stove
     

     

     
     

    Click HERE for a short Movie of "the Smity Stove in Action!

     
     
    Submited by Doc, Granville, OH, on 7/15/2005

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