A little tip from a metalworker for those of you who don't have a large selection of drill bits for 'stepping up' drill sizes to drill the 8mm holes - They sell 'cone drill' sets in sets of 3 quite cheaply, and they produce very nice round holes in thin metals. They are a good, reasonably priced investment for the DIYer.
@@kelvinsparks4651 i find that a step drill is the only safe way to go with thin sheets. On a normal twist bit if the sheet is not clamped down it can ride up the drill bit and spin like a rotating carving knife.
I like drilling and not holding it tight enough so when the bit grabs the usually sharp peice of metal spins and cuts your finger 🤣🤣 I do love my stepper bits though
@@TheEmbeddedHobbyist : yes work holding (use brain before start button) is important - with small work pieces vicegrips are invaluable - if you can't clamp it in a vice - or clamp to the table. - been there, got the scars to prove it - ( luckily I was under 16 at the time and kept all 10 fingers and got to learn from my experiences). Another trick to getting holes in thin material without deformation is to drill through a sacrificial piece of wood first (and third) - or /and use a straight flute drill (a step drill is that - in my toolbox at least).
I’m amazed how people use their mistakes as a chance to blame someone for not warning them of the obvious. If you need a label like “turn off your chainsaw before fitting a new blade” then the warning label allows stupidity to live longer than they would naturally and then they breed more stupid into the world. Keep up the good work, you help millions of people from freezing to death, as for the rest, stupid is as stupid does.
I agree. In order to empathize, I like to think about my most tired self. I'm not smart when I'm tired. It's possible that this person allowed debris to encroach upon the burner. Were they tired? Were they CO poisoned because they were living in a room little bigger than a closet? Were they sick and not thinking well? There are many times when I look back and think "what the H was I thinking?!"
@@SaintSaint Agreed, even worse when hungry. However Robert has expressed before the amount of people stating he should explain the safety risks and I just don’t believe this is practical. When your buying a car, the car yard is not required to tell you that you could die in an accident. Needing to be told common sense prevents you from being safe, if you weren’t told you don’t expect anything. This is acceptable no later than teenage years, in fact that is the most common response when something goes wrong for a teenager, “no one told me that” and my reply is always the same “it may be true that nobody told you but it’s more true that you didn’t think for yourself either”
I agree too. I seem to remember there was some looney who injured his todger by inserting it into a Greggs hot pasty or something 🤔. Health and Safety had a field day, thus the reason you can't get piping hot produce from Greg's now
@@shanehogarth6373 😅😂🤣 Stupid is as stupid does just about sums that one up. Imagine showing up to the emergency room with that issue. I recently felt embarrassed after rupturing my Achilles heel by pushing a car, I felt more stupid every time I had to explain it to a new nurse or doctor, oh the embarrassment of explaining why you like pasties so much!
I love this wacky professor vibe you put out. You remind me of 2 of my favorite teachers who had the same attitude you do, make education fun! All the students in highschool got the better grades from their classes. Thanks for making learning fun again. Greetings from across the pond.
Agreed and same in my school also 30+ years ago.. science teacher first lesson telling us ALL safety Things what NOT allowed to do by DOING THEM! Like lit the bunson burner tap flame thrower across the desk and such like! We ALL thought he was the coolest teacher ever and was a great bloke lived on a narrow boat apparently and clearly thought outside the box! Great teacher! Had a HISTORY teacher the same was a fantastic artist used to spend ALL his lunchtimes and before school drawing masterpieces from chalk on the chalk boards ready for the lessons of historic scenes and then wipe them off at the end of the lesson but he was a great well respected and loved teacher also die to the effort we ALL knew he put in of his own time! They don't make teachers like that now and Unfortunately I think both passed away which is tragic as teg science teacher would likely only be about 60now! And the history teacher died of cancer.. they say the good die young! Both Great men! 👍🏴🇬🇧
I was taught by my father how to build a fire when I was seven, and from 8yoa I was to set the fire in the home each morning before the paper round so we could have hot water. He also taught me how to build fires outside and my responsibilities when looking after the fire. By the time I was 10yo I was going camping with friends of the same age, when camping we had to cook our own meals. We were all taught to have a good respect for fire, not to mess around with it or set needless or dangerous fires. I have made many types of small cooking stoves made from soda cans and such which I can put in my pack, being able to heat water quickly can be a life saver. I love the burner you made with the safety grill and have made one of these, just wonderful and thank you for your common sense which I find severely lacking in a lot of people these days.
I did this last Christmas season with the tin from some Dutch sugar cookies (biscuits). I used a pipe flange and nipple and JB Weld. I found from experience that you need a small vent hole somewhere well below and far away from the flame. If you put this in an enclosure it's going to heat up enough to create pressure in the fuel tank. I found this out the hard way. A simple, tiny vent hole prevents all that. I put on top of all this a stainless steel heater mantle I got from Amazon for a little less than $20. Then, I se it inside a 5 gallon bucket that I cut a section roughly 12 inches sq. I put a Sterling motor stove fan on top, then another uncut 5 gallon bucket on top. Voilá. It heats my uninsulated garage/shop very comfortably, and because of the constant flow of air via the fan inside, the bucket never heats up to the touch any more than it would outside in the sunshine on a hot Summer day.
God bless you & your family Robert, for sharing this (and all other) information with us, with the current situation and what is on the way this will prove to be worth its weight in gold.
One improvement would be to cut a longitudinal slot in the middle third or so of the wick tubes so that the wick height can be adjusted with a pick. This is how oil light wicks were adjusted before the invention of the thumbwheel mechanism we are familiar with today.
Drilling terracotta and suspending it on a steel threaded rod with too many tea lights was a disaster waiting to happen. The photo of the contraption was an eye opener.
@Antonia4722 There's actually no such thing as "common sense" only those few that have been taught. Everyone's experience is different and what one hasn't been taught won't be what you refer to as "common sense". This phrase now drives me crazy and is very judgemental. Let's instead of judging others, teach, instruct and encourage.
I am currently attempting to make an externally fired hot water heating system, using a Gas Water heater, a car radiator with a 12V fan, and a 12V pump. Solar Panel and battery for power. The gas water heater will be revamped for wood.
Beware that burning open flame inside your house, may cause CO intoxication. Do never use any open flame burner while your sleeping! Even if it is enclosed!
Especially if there are children and animals in the home. Not sure how true this story was, but I once heard of someone whose house burnt down due to a mouse running past a candle and catching itself on fire, then running through the house lighting everything else up with it.
Under-rated comment. A candle is okay, but if you had a burner like this in every room due to poor insulation, you could quickly discover unintended prolonged drowsiness/laziness and, if you're very excessive, even death! CO does rise "up"... but not very well... CO will expand to fill its container.
As I recall the issue with the one that burnt down the house is the pots cracked from the thermal cycling/ differential. This is when the fuel was tossed & ignited as I understand it.
I love the idea of burying it almost to the top in a small roasting pan the same height full of sand for added weight to support it from tipping over. You can also put a stainless steel utensil holder over it so the flames are just in the air. The holder gets hot and heats the sand at the same time.
Still got a double wick paraffin heater which had 1/2 pound weight on the extinguisher plate, only allows the plate to be open if vertical. As soon as tipped to 35' angle the very strong spring is activated by the weight and slams shut the extinguisher plate.
Great safety ideas, you hit the nail on the head with the tea lights. They melt to form a pot of liquid with a wick held up by a little metal disk. The liquid can get up to its flash point and start to burn on its own, which in a way a kind of thermal runaway. The heat output then shots up. There has been cases in the past where somebody put them directly on top of a TV, which when the wax melted and the oil got heated up to past the plastic temperature of the TV case. They just melted their way through and then set the inside of the TV on fire.
I put mine in the oven which acts as the enclosure. But then I could not see if it had run out or was getting low. So I bought an oven with a glass door which worked well but the whole exercise was rather expensive.
In lieu of the copper tubing, get compression fittings from the big box store or auto parts store. Compression fittings have a threaded cap on both ends. Drill your hole and screw the compression fitting into the hole and then screw it's cap onto it on the inside. Add an appropriate size washer and solder it to the outside of the lid if you want the lid to be a bit thicker.
Every time I watch a video you shared I keep watching it but then I realize it's a 'short' video. I would really love to see a video of around 30-45 minutes (a school class hour) Your teaching is so entertaining and I learn so much of it, I just can't wait to see the next video the other day, but by then I sort of forgot the part of yesterday, I need to watch previous parts again to get into it.
I found a 101 uses for DIY waterproof sheeting. Just thin down the cheapest plumbers silicone and drench a bedsheet in a bucket for about an hour, or two. Hang to dry on the clothesline, and ta da!! Better than the store bought tarpaulins!!!
You forget the step in which you have to acquire a bucket full of white spirit or naphta. That stuff can be more expensive than multiple tarps, depending on where you live.
I remember my father making a smaller METHS burner of a similar design to power a model steam engine. Unfortunately the lid was leaky and when the burner was moved blazing meths spilled out onto the lino floor. Fortunately disaster was averted. Don't use this design for a spirit burner folks.
This can happen to home made candles too if you aren't careful with the design. I had a purchased product tea light lantern that went wild and boiled the wax. I had to smother it with a pair of nearby jeans, it would have burned my house down. I think the best rule is no unattended flame. Sleeping isn't attending either.
I made the 2 tin can burner and its great at putting out the heat, that carbon felt is amazing, but it only lasts around 35 minutes. Not very efficient so it would be interesting to see how efficient we can make them.
@@jessicaandtrains7768 alot of people are going off video 1702. Where it's claimed 5 hour burn times. I find 500ml gives me 1 hour. To max the heat last longer I made a brick chamber and a load of sand battery to try and capture up the waste heat so it stays warmer for longer. It is good a heating the air through convection and with the bricks I get about 3 hours of heat with it. It's that fables 5 hour burn time that is alot of people's issue.
A fully mineral wick might last longer if not forever, or no wick at all, but that may require a device to keep the fuel level at all times, and possible pre-heating, depending on the fuel. As for mineral wick, maybe a pipe filled with sand, or a baked clay cylinder, or any other material with a good capillarity property.
A pound of butter, screw up some kitchen paper to make some wicks and drive the wicks into the bar of butter with a chopstick. Makes a surprisingly good and cheap candle or heater
I can see this being also a basis for a camp stove, but for a heater, take a big terra cotta pot, some venting drilled about 3/4 of the way up, and some 1-2 inch stand off supports for the edge, maybe a bit of frame to hold the burner and frame in relative position. Gives chimney effect, radiative heat distribution, and spacing to keep from touching the flame. Will get much hotter than those candle things tho.
Safety is not just about the fire, but also the toxic fumes, that's why an airtight enclosure design is critical. Most enclosures have terrible exhausts that leak many of the combustion calories outside. Even without the energy crisis, we should really aim for smarter and more efficient designs that transfer most of that heat from the exhaust pipe to the room(s) being warmed or a thermal mass like a wall, or to inject outside fresh and cold air that's pre-heated to room temperature before reaching inside the house, like a double flow CMV. The idea is that the exhaust gases are expelled outside at less than room temperature. This is especially important for rocket stoves where temperatures can reach 800°C or more. Now, of course, burning stuff is a bit Neanderthal, not 2022-smart, but it's also a great way to recycle used frying oil directly or indirectly (biodiesel). Next, capture the carbon and nitrous gases from that exhaust! This is where 3D-printing or molding shines, building an aluminium exhaust pipe that includes a radiator or fins or/and a heat exchanger for air, because replicating it manually would not be as efficient. The molded burner and radiator on the Chinese diesel air warmers for cars you can find on Amazon or AliBaba are the most efficient air heat exchangers I've seen so far. But it burns diesel. Even if you can get biodiesel from vegetable oil or cheap agricultural diesel, it's still not great for the planet...
Takes me way back to the boot-polish tin and washing line wick in our den. BTW I built the second iteration of your food-tin/mesh heater, using carbon felt and methanol. It works but the CO monitor in our utility room complained (back door was ajar). It also smells funny (even after all the other new-device burny smells, etc, dissipated.) I presume this is the smell of a methanol heater. So I've now got a useful greenhouse heater, and I'm trying ways to obtain more efficient/effective burn. Thanks for that. PS: this is not a complaint; just some feedback.
Get a stainless steel cutlery holder from IKEA. It's the mesh causing the CO. Small jaggies etc can also cause CO as it effects the burn. You can control the size of the flame as well with the IKEA stainless thing if it's as high as the lip of the tin can then the flame won't leave it but you get a cooler burn. Entirely covering the can then you get a hotter burn and a large flame out if the top.
@@salaciouscreations4323 This is something I was wondering about. I'm a journeyman gasfitter and in school, we learned that CO comes from incomplete combustion. Incomplete combustion can come from flame impingement (the flame touching something and cooling it enough to cause incomplete combustion)👍
@@josoffat7649 yeah the stainless mesh if it has any bits sticking out into the flame. It will start to produce CO. It's only because of trial and error I discovered it.
@@salaciouscreations4323 Couldn't that be overcome by simply burning it outside a few times to burn away any particles? After a few burns that should be remedied, or no?
I love and enjoy your enthusiasm and joy so much. BTW....I posted links to some of your stoves on several Ukrainian streams. God knows they are going to need it. Hope you don't mind.
How weird, I've literally just been thinking of something similar myself then this popped up. I came up with a plan to mount the bean tin carbon felt and mantle heater to a stainless steel lunch box giving you a much bigger resovoir using fire cement. Of cause you'd have to cut off the base of the wick can and use longer carbon felt that reaches the bottom can.
Another way you can make a burner safer especially those alcohol burners based on soda cans is to use the rack for "beer can chicken" to hold the can upright
this would work great with used olive oil as the wicks are short. maybe put a small hole in the top to put oil or fuel in using a funnel as to not disturb the wicks
You can use a Mason Jar (8 ounce works well). Buy some compression inserts (size of insert determines wick size) and a ball of butcher twine for the wick. Punch two holes in the lid of the jar, just large enough to fit your inserts in. Cut the butcher twine in 12 inch sections. You will need enough sections of the twine to fill the diameter of your insert. Twist the strands of twine together and feed them through the insert. Fill the jar with Canola or some cheap cooking oil. Normally I make a pin hole away from the wicks for air. But this is as safe as any candle. No flash point for fuel. Can add multiple wicks. Jars can be cleaned and the lids & rings are sold without the jar.
does not matter if the liquid is exposed to a flame, if that liquid is at flash over point, then it'll just explode if enclosed or go up in a huge fire ball.
Yeah, thin tin a terrible insulating material. The fuel tank and the combustion chamber should probably be separated by the house's external wall or be way apart. And there's probably a smart simple and passive way to keep both the tank top and the bottom of the wick at the same level if only Archimedes was still alive to tell us.
Robert. I built the very same design myself last week. I was worried about the back heat causing a vacuum in the tin, so I actually drilled a small hole in the lid, to try and eliminate that. However, first test burn went OK for 45 mins. Second test burn exploded in my face. Burning off half my eyebrows. And obviously got a bit of a fright. Think I'd be wary of this design....
i did that and put a terracotta pot on it and then a 10 inch copper pipe on top of the terracotta pot. Got busy with the internet and after an hour looked up and my room was full of black smoke......soot; white curtains are grey and i'm still blowing soot out of my nose; wonder what my lungs look like.
To avoid spillage, I've used similar approaches where the inside of the tin is lined with carbon felt, perlite, any wick type material. It absorbs a lot of fuel and eliminates sloshing involved with moving a flat tin with very thin flammable liquid. Just top up when dry. Another bonus is that it eliminates any potential vapor cavity air space that could blast flaming liquid about if it ever caught a spark. Everyone says it, I will too..... Carbon monoxide poisoning is a fast moving thing and bear in mind even if your alcohol stove burns a clean blue....it still consumes oxygen from a room. Ventilation is crucial. Thanks for your videos sir, always interesting.👏
Robert just watched video 1765 on Nano Carbon in stead of the flame heating 🔥like 1702 and others why not wrap the carbon around a fire brick or make your own with portland cement and perlite with a plug in power 240v to 10amp with small fan at the back of the reflector good heat cheap and safe 👍
Many may already know this but if you have an electric clothes dryer you can remove the exhaust vent and replace it with lady's nylon stockings so you do waste the heat when you dry your clothes
It's warm air, but if it's too moist to inject directly inside the house, a heat exchanger or a simple copper foil to condensate the vapour into water might solve this issue.
Would be nice if the fuel didn't generate so much gunk, would also be nice to have something to capture that heat and release it more evenly and doesn't go to the ceiling alone. However i don't really trust heating any metal like that, might even connect it to a copper pipe, warm water up and get an actual radiator.
thankfully most people with lathes know how dangerous they are and take care - being too blase at 1500rmp is a challenge to the Darwinian contestants of the world. (yes a flare tool is handy and relatively cheap - at the low end).
@@runelund5600 if she gets cold she crawls under blankets... but I would never put any direct heating element in an area where my animal could get burned or knock it over/damage it.
Pretty awesome idea, but amazed you still have to deal with folks blowing themselves up, no offense to anyone, but damn it... Just seeing you come up with something pretty amazing and is what this channel is all about. @Rob, I appreciate extra instructions always, but maybe just always include a disclaimer might be good moving forward.
Next step - a cleaner and more complete burn? Maybe a type of flue to capture the heat & unburned fire gases and entraining air into the mix to fuel more complete combustion?
You should also add watching "How to heat your home for free" videos. then they would not need the "How to talk to a fireman, and why your house insurance is no longer valid" videos. 🙂
Is it just me - or is the amount of soot coming off these burners just a no-go, no matter how 'safe' they might be in regards to burning down things. Inhaling soot isn't good for ones health, especially the lungs. (Smoking will make it even worse, and there's currently no spare lung-parts) The soot sticks to nearly everything - walls, etc. so all really needs a good cleaning often, or the room will darken over time and look nasty.
Yeah, the soot problem is definitely not good for use as a heater in your home. I'm having pretty much the same issues with using HEET which is methyl alcohol, and the fumes that it gives off burns my eyes and I get a sore throat from it, but wow, does it ever burn CLEAN. Using 99% isopropyl burns extremely sooty with a yellow flame, and the fumes are also bad. I've never burned pure alcohol as it's pretty pricey here in the states, so I really don't know where to go with this, so I parked the project till I can look at other options. I wanted to use it as an emergency heater for use in the home. I'll have to keep my eye out for something that's economical without the bad fumes.
Has anyone tried this using olive oil? Because if its fumes it burns, that is what burns in the olive oil candles really. That would be an even safer fuel to use.
I recently stumbled upon an amazing deal on surplus hand sanitiser. 3.78L jug for $1.99 CAD. They were regularly $38.99 so this is like 95% off. Needless to say I stocked up on it. I've been trying to figure out a decent burner for it bearing in mind it is only 70%. The rest is water, glycerine and methyl-cellulose....no scent or colour though The water isn't really an issue but the rest of the stuff just leaves a sticky gunk once the ethanol has burned off. Makes it really hard to clean out unless i just have it in an open dish. I'm not particularly interesting in distilling it all off and purifying it that way so I'm curious about any ideas on a burner that would work for this AND still be easy to clean out.
@@mrmicro22 Yeah. I've seen those but the methylcellulose seems to bugger things up. It doesn't behave properly. And even then using salt still doesn't remove 100% of the water. I've tried it in the past with calcium chloride and potassium carbonate and while they do take out a lot they aren't 100% effective. That last few % water I remove with molecular sieves and I don't want to risk ruining them with salts. But I do appreciate the advice. I make tuna can stoves and they work great with pure alcohol but I'm beginning to think I might be able to modify the design to work well with the stuff I have unmodified. They just won't last anywhere near as long.
Ever since I heard the serious mention of permanent settlement on the moon, I've been thinking, how would we live if we were all personaly responsible for the oxygen we use? How many square miles of plants does it take to support each individual? If they used solar to smelt aluminum on the moon to collect the oxygen, what would we do with all those tons of extra waste aluminum?
We've finally built our first one, the tin cans, cake tins for bottom and lid. It works a charm. The carbon fibre mesh took a bit too come! I did try and message you on your website but doesn't seem to let me do it. Used methanol in the end. 17 quid for 5L. Going to calculated price per hour with my certain room size. Going to try this one too, just get the enclosure spot on next :)>
I know theres all these vids all over the place about making stuff with cooking oils and wicks and all kinds of flammables and combustibles and I can just imagine all the "half a shillings" that might be mekkin 'em and merrily getting on their way to houses burning down or dying from carbon monoxide...
How is this a safer burner ? This is still a naked open flame (in fact four open flames) and I can see ill-informed people (some with poor understanding of English) and who don't know better putting this type of burner near curtains or other flammable materials. As part of the total design you should be showing how these MUST be put inside a safe enclosure to lessen the risk of potential accidents and show how to make the enclosure to achieve that. I really was waiting for you to show the enclosure you had designed to put it in. Both you and your Subscribers are well aware of the dangers of fire and how quickly a flame can cause a tragedy. You showed this being built in a nice, safe workshop setup with no doubt a fire extinguisher, fire blanket and other safety precautions at hand. What about in a real battler's living room where there are adjacent flammable materials, little kids running around and playing nearby, boisterous pets or a senile grandparent who can't be properly trusted to boil an electric kettle ? Now that power prices are skyrocketing people are going to be looking at these types of designs on RUclips and implementing them in homes to save money so I really feel you should be considering the lowest common denominator when it comes to practical heating and safety design. I love the show but with segments like this I think it is all too easy to overlook that whilst you are mostly preaching to the educated there will be a lot of newcomers who don't appreciate the potential risks and danger (just like the flowerpot man you described at the beginning !).
Robert or anyone please advise...I hope to make a sand battery to sit on top of multi burner stove in my little caravan studio....I thought maybe tall old fashioned white enamelled bread bin with a layer of kiln dried sand In the bottom also bury a few jam jars filled with same sand and lids on and top up with more sand and replace bread box lid. Would it be a safe experiment as I don't like leaving stove on when I have to stay overnight?? Passive heating or would it blow up my little caravan to smithereens?? And female oap artist to the big studio in the sky?? 🤔🤗
What about fumes in the home? Burning these flammables/fuels give off fumes that are higher volume than a candle...just curious as I want to make one but not gas the household! It seems opening a window would negate the heater being lit in the first place though?
This using bioethanol and doing what the outsider did with a pipe and small computer fan I think is worth a go and if one burner and pipe/ fan is not enough then 2 or 3.
seems that having the tools to make these things one could burn a house down with, would end in the tools them selves causing a bigger issue far before, so the news must be searching far and wide hard to find an instance that someone hurt themselves with one specific type of item (heater in this case) to get that one instance that someone did so, OR the person using it did not make it themselves as they would have probably hurt themselves making the thing long before hurting themselves with it once made.
You said the lid was gas tight. So while this thing burns, it sucks fuel from the tin and oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere. But if the lid is gas tight, where's air replacing the burnt fuel in the tin going to come from? Wouldn't that eventually stop the burner once the pressure inside the tin became low enough?
A little tip from a metalworker for those of you who don't have a large selection of drill bits for 'stepping up' drill sizes to drill the 8mm holes - They sell 'cone drill' sets in sets of 3 quite cheaply, and they produce very nice round holes in thin metals. They are a good, reasonably priced investment for the DIYer.
I have a step drill which steps ( obviously lol ) 4 to 20 mm and i find it invaluable for thin work pieces.
@@kelvinsparks4651 i find that a step drill is the only safe way to go with thin sheets. On a normal twist bit if the sheet is not clamped down it can ride up the drill bit and spin like a rotating carving knife.
@@kelvinsparks4651 They are great aren't they. Super useful for drilling electrical enclosures for glands as well.
I like drilling and not holding it tight enough so when the bit grabs the usually sharp peice of metal spins and cuts your finger 🤣🤣 I do love my stepper bits though
@@TheEmbeddedHobbyist : yes work holding (use brain before start button) is important - with small work pieces vicegrips are invaluable - if you can't clamp it in a vice - or clamp to the table. - been there, got the scars to prove it - ( luckily I was under 16 at the time and kept all 10 fingers and got to learn from my experiences).
Another trick to getting holes in thin material without deformation is to drill through a sacrificial piece of wood first (and third) - or /and use a straight flute drill (a step drill is that - in my toolbox at least).
Your enthusiasm with these videos is just amazing, Thank you Robert!
I’m amazed how people use their mistakes as a chance to blame someone for not warning them of the obvious. If you need a label like “turn off your chainsaw before fitting a new blade” then the warning label allows stupidity to live longer than they would naturally and then they breed more stupid into the world. Keep up the good work, you help millions of people from freezing to death, as for the rest, stupid is as stupid does.
I agree. In order to empathize, I like to think about my most tired self. I'm not smart when I'm tired. It's possible that this person allowed debris to encroach upon the burner. Were they tired? Were they CO poisoned because they were living in a room little bigger than a closet? Were they sick and not thinking well? There are many times when I look back and think "what the H was I thinking?!"
@@SaintSaint Agreed, even worse when hungry. However Robert has expressed before the amount of people stating he should explain the safety risks and I just don’t believe this is practical. When your buying a car, the car yard is not required to tell you that you could die in an accident. Needing to be told common sense prevents you from being safe, if you weren’t told you don’t expect anything. This is acceptable no later than teenage years, in fact that is the most common response when something goes wrong for a teenager, “no one told me that” and my reply is always the same “it may be true that nobody told you but it’s more true that you didn’t think for yourself either”
I agree too. I seem to remember there was some looney who injured his todger by inserting it into a Greggs hot pasty or something 🤔. Health and Safety had a field day, thus the reason you can't get piping hot produce from Greg's now
@@shanehogarth6373 Not going to lie: I chuckled.
@@shanehogarth6373 😅😂🤣 Stupid is as stupid does just about sums that one up. Imagine showing up to the emergency room with that issue. I recently felt embarrassed after rupturing my Achilles heel by pushing a car, I felt more stupid every time I had to explain it to a new nurse or doctor, oh the embarrassment of explaining why you like pasties so much!
I love this wacky professor vibe you put out. You remind me of 2 of my favorite teachers who had the same attitude you do, make education fun! All the students in highschool got the better grades from their classes. Thanks for making learning fun again. Greetings from across the pond.
Agreed and same in my school also 30+ years ago.. science teacher first lesson telling us ALL safety Things what NOT allowed to do by DOING THEM! Like lit the bunson burner tap flame thrower across the desk and such like! We ALL thought he was the coolest teacher ever and was a great bloke lived on a narrow boat apparently and clearly thought outside the box! Great teacher! Had a HISTORY teacher the same was a fantastic artist used to spend ALL his lunchtimes and before school drawing masterpieces from chalk on the chalk boards ready for the lessons of historic scenes and then wipe them off at the end of the lesson but he was a great well respected and loved teacher also die to the effort we ALL knew he put in of his own time! They don't make teachers like that now and Unfortunately I think both passed away which is tragic as teg science teacher would likely only be about 60now! And the history teacher died of cancer.. they say the good die young! Both Great men! 👍🏴🇬🇧
I was taught by my father how to build a fire when I was seven, and from 8yoa I was to set the fire in the home each morning before the paper round so we could have hot water. He also taught me how to build fires outside and my responsibilities when looking after the fire. By the time I was 10yo I was going camping with friends of the same age, when camping we had to cook our own meals. We were all taught to have a good respect for fire, not to mess around with it or set needless or dangerous fires. I have made many types of small cooking stoves made from soda cans and such which I can put in my pack, being able to heat water quickly can be a life saver. I love the burner you made with the safety grill and have made one of these, just wonderful and thank you for your common sense which I find severely lacking in a lot of people these days.
I did this last Christmas season with the tin from some Dutch sugar cookies (biscuits). I used a pipe flange and nipple and JB Weld. I found from experience that you need a small vent hole somewhere well below and far away from the flame. If you put this in an enclosure it's going to heat up enough to create pressure in the fuel tank. I found this out the hard way. A simple, tiny vent hole prevents all that.
I put on top of all this a stainless steel heater mantle I got from Amazon for a little less than $20. Then, I se it inside a 5 gallon bucket that I cut a section roughly 12 inches sq. I put a Sterling motor stove fan on top, then another uncut 5 gallon bucket on top. Voilá. It heats my uninsulated garage/shop very comfortably, and because of the constant flow of air via the fan inside, the bucket never heats up to the touch any more than it would outside in the sunshine on a hot Summer day.
Great tip.👍🏴🇬🇧
I would really like to see a video of this or some images if there are any thank you
Excellent tutorial thank you so much Professor
Thank you Jerrod! Awesome safety tip here!!!
God bless you & your family Robert, for sharing this (and all other) information with us, with the current situation and what is on the way this will prove to be worth its weight in gold.
Wish someone would smile at me the way this man smiles at fire
I think our Rob might becoming a bit of a Pyro 😉😄
He’s in good company!
He's the fire starter, as the prodigy once said! Haha!😂✌
Like the King of Random
That little chuckle every time he sees flames
Love it! 💕
I could watch this a million times and still smile. I love you. I love your fabulous sense of humor and wit. Fabulous videos. Thanks mate!
One improvement would be to cut a longitudinal slot in the middle third or so of the wick tubes so that the wick height can be adjusted with a pick. This is how oil light wicks were adjusted before the invention of the thumbwheel mechanism we are familiar with today.
Drilling terracotta and suspending it on a steel threaded rod with too many tea lights was a disaster waiting to happen. The photo of the contraption was an eye opener.
I saw a thing with this where the wax can reach flashover point when used in this configuration.
Not supposed to use more than 4 headlights I those things! No wonder it burned the house down. Looks like they filled that base up from the photo
31 seconds before end Slipping the careless the 🐦 was priceless. Big Love from Alabama.
There is no accounting for the idiocracy. Common sense is becoming a very rare commodity! Great video as always Robert :o) x
I've taken to calling it "Good Sense" for that very reason.
@Antonia4722 There's actually no such thing as "common sense" only those few that have been taught. Everyone's experience is different and what one hasn't been taught won't be what you refer to as "common sense". This phrase now drives me crazy and is very judgemental. Let's instead of judging others, teach, instruct and encourage.
I am currently attempting to make an externally fired hot water heating system, using a Gas Water heater, a car radiator with a 12V fan, and a 12V pump.
Solar Panel and battery for power.
The gas water heater will be revamped for wood.
That sounds wicked. I wanted to do something similar but in reverse for an air conditioner.
Please video it and post the outcome, sounds like a great idea
Beware that burning open flame inside your house, may cause CO intoxication.
Do never use any open flame burner while your sleeping! Even if it is enclosed!
Especially if there are children and animals in the home.
Not sure how true this story was, but I once heard of someone whose house burnt down due to a mouse running past a candle and catching itself on fire, then running through the house lighting everything else up with it.
Under-rated comment. A candle is okay, but if you had a burner like this in every room due to poor insulation, you could quickly discover unintended prolonged drowsiness/laziness and, if you're very excessive, even death! CO does rise "up"... but not very well... CO will expand to fill its container.
I was thinking this wouldn’t be good for air quality in any way.
When watching this multi wick burner lit, I feel the urge to sing Happy Birthday to Robert. ; )
Allot of soot coming from it especially for indoor use (as demonstrated). Fumes and soot would quickly reach eye-watering levels.
As I recall the issue with the one that burnt down the house is the pots cracked from the thermal cycling/ differential. This is when the fuel was tossed & ignited as I understand it.
I love the idea of burying it almost to the top in a small roasting pan the same height full of sand for added weight to support it from tipping over. You can also put a stainless steel utensil holder over it so the flames are just in the air. The holder gets hot and heats the sand at the same time.
Still got a double wick paraffin heater which had 1/2 pound weight on the extinguisher plate, only allows the plate to be open if vertical. As soon as tipped to 35' angle the very strong spring is activated by the weight and slams shut the extinguisher plate.
The smoke from that will give the local atmosphere absolutely huge amounts of particulates - I wouldn't recommend that for anyone's home.
This is a great creation. Thankyou.😊
I saw somewhere that the dangers of these plant pot heaters is the flashpoint of the fuel used. The flashpoint of vegetable oil is 400F
Great safety ideas, you hit the nail on the head with the tea lights. They melt to form a pot of liquid with a wick held up by a little metal disk. The liquid can get up to its flash point and start to burn on its own, which in a way a kind of thermal runaway. The heat output then shots up.
There has been cases in the past where somebody put them directly on top of a TV, which when the wax melted and the oil got heated up to past the plastic temperature of the TV case. They just melted their way through and then set the inside of the TV on fire.
Someone did something similar on a boat, luckily they only suffered from some cosmetic damage to the paintwork.
I put mine in the oven which acts as the enclosure. But then I could not see if it had run out or was getting low. So I bought an oven with a glass door which worked well but the whole exercise was rather expensive.
In lieu of the copper tubing, get compression fittings from the big box store or auto parts store. Compression fittings have a threaded cap on both ends.
Drill your hole and screw the compression fitting into the hole and then screw it's cap onto it on the inside.
Add an appropriate size washer and solder it to the outside of the lid if you want the lid to be a bit thicker.
I see what you mean, I checked the British-made 8mm to 8mm brass compression fittings, they look ideal for that job. Thanks for the tip.
@@wolfenstein6676
You're welcome!
Every time I watch a video you shared I keep watching it but then I realize it's a 'short' video.
I would really love to see a video of around 30-45 minutes (a school class hour)
Your teaching is so entertaining and I learn so much of it, I just can't wait to see the next video the other day, but by then I sort of forgot the part of yesterday, I need to watch previous parts again to get into it.
This is a prefect place to upcycle an old metal toaster as an enclosure. Do it right and still be able to make toast. Cheers.
I found a 101 uses for DIY waterproof sheeting.
Just thin down the cheapest plumbers silicone and drench a bedsheet in a bucket for about an hour, or two. Hang to dry on the clothesline, and ta da!!
Better than the store bought tarpaulins!!!
Is it fireproof??🤔
Only one way to find out. 🔥
@@hadleybee9710 Well, it's more fire retarded than the original material?!?!
But it's for water proofing, not FIRE proofing. use rockwool for that!
You forget the step in which you have to acquire a bucket full of white spirit or naphta. That stuff can be more expensive than multiple tarps, depending on where you live.
@@mfbfreak I live in South Africa and got white spirit from my local dairy farmer. They use it to clean all sorts...
I remember my father making a smaller METHS burner of a similar design to power a model steam engine. Unfortunately the lid was leaky and when the burner was moved blazing meths spilled out onto the lino floor. Fortunately disaster was averted.
Don't use this design for a spirit burner folks.
Love it! Think i'm going to make one and mount it to the ceiling... Cheers 👍
This can happen to home made candles too if you aren't careful with the design. I had a purchased product tea light lantern that went wild and boiled the wax. I had to smother it with a pair of nearby jeans, it would have burned my house down. I think the best rule is no unattended flame. Sleeping isn't attending either.
Love your videos! Very fun to watch! :-)
Respect love and gratitude
I made the 2 tin can burner and its great at putting out the heat, that carbon felt is amazing, but it only lasts around 35 minutes. Not very efficient so it would be interesting to see how efficient we can make them.
It's very efficient. It burns nearly all the fuel, turning it into heat.
Do you mean more effective? 😉
What about fumes???
@@grahamlister214 if it's a clean burn no fumes.
@@jessicaandtrains7768 alot of people are going off video 1702. Where it's claimed 5 hour burn times. I find 500ml gives me 1 hour. To max the heat last longer I made a brick chamber and a load of sand battery to try and capture up the waste heat so it stays warmer for longer. It is good a heating the air through convection and with the bricks I get about 3 hours of heat with it. It's that fables 5 hour burn time that is alot of people's issue.
A fully mineral wick might last longer if not forever, or no wick at all, but that may require a device to keep the fuel level at all times, and possible pre-heating, depending on the fuel. As for mineral wick, maybe a pipe filled with sand, or a baked clay cylinder, or any other material with a good capillarity property.
A pound of butter, screw up some kitchen paper to make some wicks and drive the wicks into the bar of butter with a chopstick. Makes a surprisingly good and cheap candle or heater
I can see this being also a basis for a camp stove, but for a heater, take a big terra cotta pot, some venting drilled about 3/4 of the way up, and some 1-2 inch stand off supports for the edge, maybe a bit of frame to hold the burner and frame in relative position. Gives chimney effect, radiative heat distribution, and spacing to keep from touching the flame. Will get much hotter than those candle things tho.
I do like your olive crimping idea that’s superb I’ve logged that in my tiny brain thanks !
The Roman lamp gets an upgrade
Safety is not just about the fire, but also the toxic fumes, that's why an airtight enclosure design is critical. Most enclosures have terrible exhausts that leak many of the combustion calories outside. Even without the energy crisis, we should really aim for smarter and more efficient designs that transfer most of that heat from the exhaust pipe to the room(s) being warmed or a thermal mass like a wall, or to inject outside fresh and cold air that's pre-heated to room temperature before reaching inside the house, like a double flow CMV.
The idea is that the exhaust gases are expelled outside at less than room temperature. This is especially important for rocket stoves where temperatures can reach 800°C or more.
Now, of course, burning stuff is a bit Neanderthal, not 2022-smart, but it's also a great way to recycle used frying oil directly or indirectly (biodiesel). Next, capture the carbon and nitrous gases from that exhaust!
This is where 3D-printing or molding shines, building an aluminium exhaust pipe that includes a radiator or fins or/and a heat exchanger for air, because replicating it manually would not be as efficient. The molded burner and radiator on the Chinese diesel air warmers for cars you can find on Amazon or AliBaba are the most efficient air heat exchangers I've seen so far. But it burns diesel. Even if you can get biodiesel from vegetable oil or cheap agricultural diesel, it's still not great for the planet...
Great stuff Mr Murray-Smith, it's like watching Blue Peter, if it was filmed in a workshop, and aimed at adults
I made the "safety burner" you showed. its really good
Takes me way back to the boot-polish tin and washing line wick in our den.
BTW I built the second iteration of your food-tin/mesh heater, using carbon felt and methanol. It works but the CO monitor in our utility room complained (back door was ajar). It also smells funny (even after all the other new-device burny smells, etc, dissipated.) I presume this is the smell of a methanol heater. So I've now got a useful greenhouse heater, and I'm trying ways to obtain more efficient/effective burn. Thanks for that. PS: this is not a complaint; just some feedback.
Get a stainless steel cutlery holder from IKEA. It's the mesh causing the CO. Small jaggies etc can also cause CO as it effects the burn. You can control the size of the flame as well with the IKEA stainless thing if it's as high as the lip of the tin can then the flame won't leave it but you get a cooler burn. Entirely covering the can then you get a hotter burn and a large flame out if the top.
@@salaciouscreations4323 This is something I was wondering about. I'm a journeyman gasfitter and in school, we learned that CO comes from incomplete combustion. Incomplete combustion can come from flame impingement (the flame touching something and cooling it enough to cause incomplete combustion)👍
@@josoffat7649 yeah the stainless mesh if it has any bits sticking out into the flame. It will start to produce CO. It's only because of trial and error I discovered it.
@@salaciouscreations4323 Couldn't that be overcome by simply burning it outside a few times to burn away any particles? After a few burns that should be remedied, or no?
The flaring trick was awesome ty
I love and enjoy your enthusiasm and joy so much. BTW....I posted links to some of your stoves on several Ukrainian streams. God knows they are going to need it. Hope you don't mind.
How weird, I've literally just been thinking of something similar myself then this popped up.
I came up with a plan to mount the bean tin carbon felt and mantle heater to a stainless steel lunch box giving you a much bigger resovoir using fire cement. Of cause you'd have to cut off the base of the wick can and use longer carbon felt that reaches the bottom can.
I like how in these videos, how you are doing the most practicable thing and wearing lots of layers
Very nice thinking
Great idea ! Thank you.
Sad for that guy, be careful people!
Catch it before it’s completely out , leaf blower gets it going again right away , but smoke detectors keep going off , and the house seems foggy !
Another way you can make a burner safer especially those alcohol burners based on soda cans is to use the rack for "beer can chicken" to hold the can upright
this would work great with used olive oil as the wicks are short. maybe put a small hole in the top to put oil or fuel in using a funnel as to not disturb the wicks
You can use a Mason Jar (8 ounce works well). Buy some compression inserts (size of insert determines wick size) and a ball of butcher twine for the wick.
Punch two holes in the lid of the jar, just large enough to fit your inserts in. Cut the butcher twine in 12 inch sections. You will need enough sections of the twine to fill the diameter of your insert. Twist the strands of twine together and feed them through the insert. Fill the jar with Canola or some cheap cooking oil.
Normally I make a pin hole away from the wicks for air. But this is as safe as any candle. No flash point for fuel. Can add multiple wicks. Jars can be cleaned and the lids & rings are sold without the jar.
Excellent job rob..
Cheers from London 👍😎🏴🇬🇧
I predict a large number of similar incidents this winter.
That's a pretty cool idea, I'll make a few and try them with my fireplace heat exchanger..
does not matter if the liquid is exposed to a flame, if that liquid is at flash over point, then it'll just explode if enclosed or go up in a huge fire ball.
Yeah, thin tin a terrible insulating material. The fuel tank and the combustion chamber should probably be separated by the house's external wall or be way apart. And there's probably a smart simple and passive way to keep both the tank top and the bottom of the wick at the same level if only Archimedes was still alive to tell us.
I think the point is to keep the liquid away from the flame so that it doesn’t reach its flashover temperature.
@@Chimel31 a ceramic material could be used instead of the tin.
@@Chimel31 also, by altering the wick type and size used, the temperature can be affected and the shooting considerably reduced or even eliminated.
@@MrJMont21 Well, even a plastic water jug, a big calabash or a pig bladder would do if the tank is on the other side of the wall! 😀
Robert. I built the very same design myself last week. I was worried about the back heat causing a vacuum in the tin, so I actually drilled a small hole in the lid, to try and eliminate that. However, first test burn went OK for 45 mins. Second test burn exploded in my face. Burning off half my eyebrows. And obviously got a bit of a fright. Think I'd be wary of this design....
Maybe you missed the point of keeping the fuel from the flame Just saying.
@@simont1108 The explosion was probably more to do with heating up of the fuel, causing a pressure build up.
@@nelftm Yes, if the fuel vapour was allowed for any reason to reach the flame via the hole then ignition had been found.
i did that and put a terracotta pot on it and then a 10 inch copper pipe on top of the terracotta pot. Got busy with the internet and after an hour looked up and my room was full of black smoke......soot; white curtains are grey and i'm still blowing soot out of my nose; wonder what my lungs look like.
To avoid spillage, I've used similar approaches where the inside of the tin is lined with carbon felt, perlite, any wick type material. It absorbs a lot of fuel and eliminates sloshing involved with moving a flat tin with very thin flammable liquid. Just top up when dry. Another bonus is that it eliminates any potential vapor cavity air space that could blast flaming liquid about if it ever caught a spark. Everyone says it, I will too..... Carbon monoxide poisoning is a fast moving thing and bear in mind even if your alcohol stove burns a clean blue....it still consumes oxygen from a room. Ventilation is crucial.
Thanks for your videos sir, always interesting.👏
Robert just watched video 1765 on Nano Carbon in stead of the flame heating 🔥like 1702 and others why not wrap the carbon around a fire brick or make your own with portland cement and perlite with a plug in power 240v to 10amp with small fan at the back of the reflector good heat cheap and safe 👍
Many may already know this but if you have an electric clothes dryer you can remove the exhaust vent and replace it with lady's nylon stockings so you do waste the heat when you dry your clothes
It's warm air, but if it's too moist to inject directly inside the house, a heat exchanger or a simple copper foil to condensate the vapour into water might solve this issue.
Paraffin lamps ate so much more elegant and controllable
Would be nice if the fuel didn't generate so much gunk, would also be nice to have something to capture that heat and release it more evenly and doesn't go to the ceiling alone. However i don't really trust heating any metal like that, might even connect it to a copper pipe, warm water up and get an actual radiator.
Oh, I like that flaring trick! In HVAC, we use a flaring tool because it is very concise but, that trick with the lathe is really awesome.
for short straight pieces.
thankfully most people with lathes know how dangerous they are and take care - being too blase at 1500rmp is a challenge to the Darwinian contestants of the world. (yes a flare tool is handy and relatively cheap - at the low end).
@@kadmow Good point.
Always entertaining Robert😊
I think it can be use in your dog house in the cold winter, so Fido doesn`t freeze. 💕
If it's too cold for *me* to sleep outside then it's too cold for *my dogs* to sleep outside
@@RichardCranium321 Hi Richard, I agree , but with A Safer Burner maybe your dog do not agree. 😃
Pleas Rune Lund! After a few month in this winter a few of this gone make your day!
😂😂😂😂😂NO
@@runelund5600 if she gets cold she crawls under blankets... but I would never put any direct heating element in an area where my animal could get burned or knock it over/damage it.
Break out the marsh-mellows!! lol Nicely done .. there are lots of round metal containers like that!
Pretty awesome idea, but amazed you still have to deal with folks blowing themselves up, no offense to anyone, but damn it... Just seeing you come up with something pretty amazing and is what this channel is all about. @Rob, I appreciate extra instructions always, but maybe just always include a disclaimer might be good moving forward.
Beautiful! :)
Next step - a cleaner and more complete burn? Maybe a type of flue to capture the heat & unburned fire gases and entraining air into the mix to fuel more complete combustion?
I reckon the person who burnt their house down may come into the category of ' ... a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing ...'
You should also add watching "How to heat your home for free" videos.
then they would not need the "How to talk to a fireman, and why your house insurance is no longer valid" videos. 🙂
@@TheEmbeddedHobbyist I guess it could be in a strange way, that we need people like this to make some of us ' lesser mortals' feel educated eh !! lol
And remember kids, dont use a plastic plant pot for your plant pot heater.
Is it just me - or is the amount of soot coming off these burners just a no-go, no matter how 'safe' they might be in regards to burning down things.
Inhaling soot isn't good for ones health, especially the lungs. (Smoking will make it even worse, and there's currently no spare lung-parts)
The soot sticks to nearly everything - walls, etc. so all really needs a good cleaning often, or the room will darken over time and look nasty.
He touched on that a bit - this is just the burner assembly. Used with a proper chimney the soot should be dramatically reduced.
Yeah, the soot problem is definitely not good for use as a heater in your home. I'm having pretty much the same issues with using HEET which is methyl alcohol, and the fumes that it gives off burns my eyes and I get a sore throat from it, but wow, does it ever burn CLEAN. Using 99% isopropyl burns extremely sooty with a yellow flame, and the fumes are also bad. I've never burned pure alcohol as it's pretty pricey here in the states, so I really don't know where to go with this, so I parked the project till I can look at other options. I wanted to use it as an emergency heater for use in the home. I'll have to keep my eye out for something that's economical without the bad fumes.
@@jacksonjr1320 a modern kerosene heater would be the way to go in my opinion. I say this after much experimentation and pricing of various fuels.
Has anyone tried this using olive oil? Because if its fumes it burns, that is what burns in the olive oil candles really. That would be an even safer fuel to use.
I recently stumbled upon an amazing deal on surplus hand sanitiser. 3.78L jug for $1.99 CAD. They were regularly $38.99 so this is like 95% off. Needless to say I stocked up on it. I've been trying to figure out a decent burner for it bearing in mind it is only 70%. The rest is water, glycerine and methyl-cellulose....no scent or colour though The water isn't really an issue but the rest of the stuff just leaves a sticky gunk once the ethanol has burned off. Makes it really hard to clean out unless i just have it in an open dish. I'm not particularly interesting in distilling it all off and purifying it that way so I'm curious about any ideas on a burner that would work for this AND still be easy to clean out.
There are videos on using salt to separate out the alcohol.
@@mrmicro22 Yeah. I've seen those but the methylcellulose seems to bugger things up. It doesn't behave properly. And even then using salt still doesn't remove 100% of the water. I've tried it in the past with calcium chloride and potassium carbonate and while they do take out a lot they aren't 100% effective. That last few % water I remove with molecular sieves and I don't want to risk ruining them with salts. But I do appreciate the advice.
I make tuna can stoves and they work great with pure alcohol but I'm beginning to think I might be able to modify the design to work well with the stuff I have unmodified. They just won't last anywhere near as long.
Ever since I heard the serious mention of permanent settlement on the moon, I've been thinking, how would we live if we were all personaly responsible for the oxygen we use? How many square miles of plants does it take to support each individual? If they used solar to smelt aluminum on the moon to collect the oxygen, what would we do with all those tons of extra waste aluminum?
We've finally built our first one, the tin cans, cake tins for bottom and lid. It works a charm. The carbon fibre mesh took a bit too come! I did try and message you on your website but doesn't seem to let me do it. Used methanol in the end. 17 quid for 5L. Going to calculated price per hour with my certain room size. Going to try this one too, just get the enclosure spot on next :)>
I know theres all these vids all over the place about making stuff with cooking oils and wicks and all kinds of flammables and combustibles and I can just imagine all the "half a shillings" that might be mekkin 'em and merrily getting on their way to houses burning down or dying from carbon monoxide...
Good one.
How is this a safer burner ? This is still a naked open flame (in fact four open flames) and I can see ill-informed people (some with poor understanding of English) and who don't know better putting this type of burner near curtains or other flammable materials. As part of the total design you should be showing how these MUST be put inside a safe enclosure to lessen the risk of potential accidents and show how to make the enclosure to achieve that. I really was waiting for you to show the enclosure you had designed to put it in. Both you and your Subscribers are well aware of the dangers of fire and how quickly a flame can cause a tragedy. You showed this being built in a nice, safe workshop setup with no doubt a fire extinguisher, fire blanket and other safety precautions at hand. What about in a real battler's living room where there are adjacent flammable materials, little kids running around and playing nearby, boisterous pets or a senile grandparent who can't be properly trusted to boil an electric kettle ?
Now that power prices are skyrocketing people are going to be looking at these types of designs on RUclips and implementing them in homes to save money so I really feel you should be considering the lowest common denominator when it comes to practical heating and safety design. I love the show but with segments like this I think it is all too easy to overlook that whilst you are mostly preaching to the educated there will be a lot of newcomers who don't appreciate the potential risks and danger (just like the flowerpot man you described at the beginning !).
Robert or anyone please advise...I hope to make a sand battery to sit on top of multi burner stove in my little caravan studio....I thought maybe tall old fashioned white enamelled bread bin with a layer of kiln dried sand In the bottom also bury a few jam jars filled with same sand and lids on and top up with more sand and replace bread box lid. Would it be a safe experiment as I don't like leaving stove on when I have to stay overnight?? Passive heating or would it blow up my little caravan to smithereens?? And female oap artist to the big studio in the sky?? 🤔🤗
i love the idea of using 'olives' as a rivet..
awesome
Do we need to de-pip the olives first..?
@@DorrienNorth what a silly question!
only amateurs de-pip first 🙃
@@DursunX OK Smart ass, how do you get the olive over the tube with the pip? 😂🇬🇧
@@DorrienNorth just buy the pre-de-pipped ones, if you must. 🙃🇦🇺
@@DursunX You lucky bugger living '' down under '' with all that space and sunshine.. 😎
Nice thing is that you don't have to burn all the wicks when you might only need 1 or two.
Imagine tuning in at 3.30 and seeing rob making what looks like home made bullets 😆
But, Mr. Darwin has awards to hand out!
Every video involving a burner, you should link that video to it. Neat idea again
Look at all the soot coming off that thing! You'll need a new house after heating it with that.
I think the soot can be removed with a decent chimney.
That's true, but careful adjustment of the size of the wicks can be made to eliminate the smoking. I also think 8mm is too large.
@@Must_not_say_that agree, it was just a demonstration.
What about fumes in the home? Burning these flammables/fuels give off fumes that are higher volume than a candle...just curious as I want to make one but not gas the household! It seems opening a window would negate the heater being lit in the first place though?
I have seen other videos that also use ceramic wool which works out cheaper that carbon felt, have you try ceramic wool?
Now I know what to do with the heart-shaped tin of chocolates I got for St. Valentines day!
Cheers mate
the picture they showed of the heater they made had like 14 candles on think that may have been part of the issue
This using bioethanol and doing what the outsider did with a pipe and small computer fan I think is worth a go and if one burner and pipe/ fan is not enough then 2 or 3.
hi, thanks... what fuel are you using please?...
seems that having the tools to make these things one could burn a house down with, would end in the tools them selves causing a bigger issue far before, so the news must be searching far and wide hard to find an instance that someone hurt themselves with one specific type of item (heater in this case) to get that one instance that someone did so, OR the person using it did not make it themselves as they would have probably hurt themselves making the thing long before hurting themselves with it once made.
Not burning my house down sounds interesting. I’m listening.
You said the lid was gas tight. So while this thing burns, it sucks fuel from the tin and oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere. But if the lid is gas tight, where's air replacing the burnt fuel in the tin going to come from? Wouldn't that eventually stop the burner once the pressure inside the tin became low enough?
methanol fumes replace it
Well, I have never seen anyone flatten out their flange, so eloquently ! wtg I'd have thought you'd need a tiny hole for air to get in