Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Making the buddy burner

This is the project that I did yesterday.. making the buddy burner, and I promised to make a quick tutorial.


Items needed:
Scissors, Cardboard, old Candles, a Tuna fish can and finaly and a Heat source (such as a kitchen stove)
 
Then we cut the cardboard into several strips, these strips should be about as wide as the Tuna can, then those strips are rolled up tight and put in the can.
The Candles are cut into sevaral pieces and crushed.. ready to be melted
 
Now it was time to melt the candle wax.. I realised that it was better to put the wax into the tincan instead of the red plastic can so I switched and put the cardboard in the red cup. Now just wait for the water to heat up, which will heat the tuna can, which will melt the wax
 
It's working..
 
After all the wax has melted we carefully pour it into the red cup (which had become the mold) and I soon realised that I didn't have enough wax.. time to get some more candles..
 
I found a Black candle leftover that was more then enough to make two burners out of, cut, crushed and melted it and the Buddy burner was ready, now comes the real trick.. getting it out of it's plastic mold.. But with a knife puncturing a few holes in the bottom it will work.
 
 
Some Notes: I have seen these items being made in many different ways such as melting the wax not on a fire but on the households central heating system, but that takes a long time and I have even seen people simple putting the wax in a pan and put it on a fire but cleaning the pan afterwards becomes a hell of a job and when candlewax gets hot enough it can spontaneously ignite, something alot of people don't know but I have seen it happening (we had a blast!)
 
Now you may wonder how long these will burn, I can't tell.. I will be packing these things and use them when i'm on my longterm trip. But some say they last for about 2 hours and others say they last a whole night. But if you know how long these will burn feel free to let me know. These buddy burners can be used to light and warm a tent or any other shelter, to be used as a stove or for sheer comfort at night.
 
Hope you enjoyed ;)


2 comments:

  1. I like the "trial and error" format. I haven't seen these before, so I don't know how to use them. Can you burn it like a candle or should it be placed in a container? If wax will burn, what is the function of the cardboard?

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    Replies
    1. Hey there
      You can burn it as a candle but there's a big chance it will drip all over the place so I would place it on the ground that is free of debris, a container or plate is a great idea.

      Well the wax should not burn, wax can burn by itself but only at very high temperatures. I ment to say that just putting the wax in the pan might be dangerous just in case it gets too hot.

      The cardboard in this case acts like a wick, when you pour the hot, liquid wax over the cardboard it acts like a sponge. The cardboard rims that barely stick out of the candle are the parts that you light up with a lighter or matches.

      Basicaly this candle is just like any other candle except that it burns with more light and more warmth.

      Hope this helps

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