Coal Lighting Apparatus

[Hobbs]

Good evening Ladies and Gentleman. Detailed below are instructions to craft an easy-to-make and use constant heat source to light your coals upon. Since open fire is an element here, it is important to remember safety.. but more important to remember that if anything goes wrong, or your hurt yourself.. I am not responsible.

Let us begin with the supplies.

A paper towel and scissors
An empty glass jar with a metal lid, something small like an old condiment jar works great.
70% isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol)
A piece of metal grate, or other suitable material to place the coals on.



Here's what you need to do..
Fold your paper towel into 1/4's and then cut off about a 1"-2" strip.
You will then want to take this and twist it as tight as you can, because you will be feeding it through a small hole.
Now that that's done, you will want to drill a small hole (about 1/8" is fine) into the lid of your glass jar, alternatively you can punch a hole with a nail and hammer.
Feed the paper towel through the hole, so that the bottom of your paper towel (your wick) touches the bottom of your glass jar.
Now, you want to fill up your glass jar with the rubbing alcohol, somewhere near to top .. but not to the very brim, as it will spill over when you insert your wick.
After that's done you will want to turn it upside down (over the sink or outside in case it drips) and let the alcohol absorb into the wick.




Ballin, you just made yourself an old school alcohol lamp.

Now, we need something to suspend the coals above the flame, this is where the metal grate/mesh comes into play. Anything that is sturdy enough to withstand the heat, and won't bend or sag.

All you need to do is cut a rectangle based on how tall your alcohol lamp is, here is an example of the one I created. Just add 2 90degree angles and presto.



Now the rest is obvious, just put your lamp beneath the grate, place your coals on top, and ignite. Alcohol lamps can be blown out relatively easy so if you have a fan running, you'll probably have to stop it for a few minutes.

1 alcohol lamp may not be enough to light all the coals you need at once, luckily they cost less than $2 or $3 to make, so you can always put 2 beneath the grate spaced apart. When you're done just blow it out, be careful as your grate will be hot as hell. The glass jar of the lamp will remain cool to the touch, while the lid can get a little toasty at the top. I've left my alcohol lamp burning for about 6 hours before it ran out of fuel, just to make sure everything is safe, however it's a good idea to keep an eye on it, and if you have pets do NOT let them knock it over... unless the jar breaks you're in the clear since if you use a container that previously held food, it's airtight and you forced a wad of paper towel through the hole you drilled.

Here's a pic of mine in action for reference. Maybe some of you will utilize this method.. most probably won't, but at least it was fun to make. Thanks for reading!

[DarkParade]

gotta admit that looks way cool but would suck balls if it got knocked over and you know it would

[K1024]

i like it except that if you left it running it would become a serious hazard...also the metal seems like it would get really hot and melt things...

just my 2 cents.

[defnu]

gotta admit that looks way cool but would suck balls if it got knocked over and you know it would

that'd be nice to fit flat in a back pack maybe.

[Hobbs]

I think it would get knocked off of something long before it got knocked over, and you're right K1 it gets hot, but I set it on my stove. (My stove is ceramic so I don't have coils.. hence the inability to light coals on it).

[DarkParade]

it would work for camping

[K1024]

I think it would get knocked off of something long before it got knocked over, and you're right K1 it gets hot, but I set it on my stove. (My stove is ceramic so I don't have coils.. hence the inability to light coals on it).

but if your at your stove, then why dont you just use your stove ?!?!?!?1/1/1/1oneslashoneslash

[Hobbs]

It's a relatively new stove, and the ceramic electric type, I don't want to risk fuckin up my cooking surface, twas costly.

Besides, I use my grill to light my coals 90% of the time, it was just storming too hard to get it to stay lit (side burner) a couple days ago so I made this, and thought I should share the knowledge.

[*HOT&SMOKING*]

Really good idea, and I like the little grill that you have!

-H&S

[indian_villager]

That is going to take forever to light a coal. A Bernz-o-matic ts4000 blowtorch gets my cocos ready in under a minute.

[mustang_steve]

Nice! That's a great idea.


If you wish to make a base to remove any chance of burner tipping or grating shift, all you need is a router and a saw of some type. Cut eh board so it's got perfect 90 degree corners, then locate the center point, make a pilot hole there, then use a compass in that hole to draw out the cut needed...then drill a pilot hole big enough to get the router bit into (adjust for depth, and CLAMP THE WOOD)....cut the hole out with the router. Then mark up the grating slots, and then use the router to cut those...boom, done.

Even the Dremel Rotary cutter bits will work, when used in conjunction with the router attatchment (but a real router will cost almost the same).

[jimmyrayas]

this is a really good way to light your coals on the go. i have tried it and it works very well. and its cheap, easy to make and its just stinking awesome.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove

[lowspeedchase]

This is basically a small alcohol stove. Use it camping all the time and used it on the AT.

You can find very cheap very high quality ones online and eliminate the need for the metal grill, although that does look cool.

http://www.brasslite.com/

The one I use is an antique military issue.

[lowspeedchase]

this is a really good way to light your coals on the go. i have tried it and it works very well. and its cheap, easy to make and its just stinking awesome.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove

I've seen these used on the trail many times and they work very well.

[cgore]

I could imagine this working really well if you actually made a little housing/box for the jar that would be lighting the coals. The only thing I wouldnt understand is how to put it out once you are done with your sess?