Making Fuel Cubes for My Esbit Stove | Appalachian Trail Planning #10
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2017
- Making Fuel Cubes for My Esbit Stove: Another gear experiment - I'm making cotton ball fuel cubes. Are they a good fuel alternative for the Esbit pocket stove? Let's find out!
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Add some sawdust to rhe wax pour into silicone mini muffin mold. Coat with a little Vaseline, wrap in three layer foil. Use the foil wrapper to line the bottom of your esbit stove.
I have the same stove. I just use an old small sterno can. I stuffed it full of some fiberglass insulation (Pink Panther) straight out of my attic. I fill it up about half way with isopropyl alchohol. 91% works amazing but even the 70% will burn great). You'll get about an hour of so of burn time per fill up and fuel is super easy to find in town as well. I fill up my stove and carry a full 8 oz squeeze bottle as a spare. Best part is that it is a very clean burn. Well worth the weight
We've been making esbit/ hexamine substitute fuel cubes since elementary school with chopped up dry twigs .... dryer lint in ice trays and filling them up with old candle wax
No mess
Put them in a ziploc bag
They're essentially free and last over 15 minutes ... enough to boil 2 cups of water and then heat cleanup water
Please tell me what should be added with hexamie powder to make cubes.dose it requires any binding material
For great results, the this little pocket stove ranks right up there with my DIY cat can stove burning alcohol.
I use cotton balls and petroleum jelly fire tinder
Try using Bio-ethanol alcohol with your cotton balls. It burns smoke and soot free, there is NO messy wax to deal with and there is NO carbon Monoxide produced with ethanol so the burner could be used indoors or outdoors. This is the ONLY fuel source that I have researched so far that produces NO Carbon Monoxide. This fuel is used for the indoor vent-less fireplaces and so it has been well tested and proven. Good luck and enjoyed your video. Greetings from Ontario, Canada.
PRO TIP:
I learned this in boy scouts 55 years ago. If you take any cheap brand of liquid dish soap and coat the bottom of your pots or frying pans BEFORE you put them on the fire, The soot will rinse off with plain water after your meal.
These "fuel cubes" take me back to my younger days when there was a true army surplus store in the city where I was raised. We used to call it the quartermaster store because it had EVERYTHING that you could find on a military base including boxes of 50 caliber machine gun cartridges. They were the real deal except they had no firing caps or gun powder and had 4 holes drilled through the shells.
One thing that I remember buying there were these olive drab cardboard tubes the size of a roll of quarters with metal caps on the ends. They each held 6 hexamine tablets and cost a nickel a roll. They had stacks and stacks of boxes and boxes of these. This was back during the Vietnam war. You could also buy metal canisters of DDT delousing powder. HMMmm.
I was a firebug as a kid playing with fire crackers that we smuggled back from Canada, magnesium ribbon that I swiped from high school science class and the chemistry set that my brother gave me. Those were the days, boy.
Adding a bit of cooking oil to the wax can help to extend the burn time.
You can use veslin and melt it put it in to silicon cake mold and let it cool remove wrap it with aluminium foil when using time unwrap aluminium keep in stove with aluminium foil to fire it will be clean bottom of stove without get dark due to smoke
Take a silicone ice cube tray. Spray it with cooking release spray.
As you remove each cotton ball, quickly pack it into the cube spaces of the tray so that they make prefect cubes.
Then when cooled off and solid, twist silicone tray and dump out perfectly formed fuel cubes.
Great idea!!
Silicone ice tray and pour the wax in and using a toothpick to drop cotton mixed in oil like olive oil or coconut oil.
Once set wrap in tinfoil which can aid in keeping heat when burning and also prevents a mess
Also can mix in sawdust or burnt matches 😅
Use cardboard egg containers. Then you just break them apart and burn with extra goodies!
They've stopped selling hexamine tablets here in the UK so it's great to know that there's alternatives out there
Cute green nail polish! Thanks for the great video
Have similar stove and I use twigs! Have not had an issue with getting it started or waiting too long for it to boil water. Its awesome!
I really have enjoyed your videos for DIY gear
When I melt wax, I use an empty vegetable can or sometimes a disposable aluminum pan (which I use many times), all in a larger pot of water for safety reasons.
Great tip! Thank you.
A better alternative to use to those fuel tablets are firestarter cubes (made of pressed sawdust that was treated with parafinum or with wax, not sure)
There was a woman that used dryer lint and place them in a ice cube tray and downed them or shall I say soaked them in lighter fluid and let them dry out whole compacting them down. Once dried out then let them light. They were originally used as fire starters but might work. I made some my self to show facebook family that it is possible to do. This was done by a house wife back in the 1970’s to make fire starters for her son a Boy Scout. Now haven’t tried it for esbit fuel and don’t have a drier anymore to make it. But take drier lint press what you can down in the cub then add a little fluid then press some more and just let it sun dry. If using larger cubes then take and make a swirl of the lint so it does not come apart once it comes out of the ice cube and tray continually press as it starts to dry out. Dryer lint is a good fire starter anyway. Just soak just enough to compress down and let dry. The light fluid will leave properties to help it burn hot. Don’t know how hot though!!!
SEMPER FI
Personally I would have used a silicone ice cube tray smeared with a little vaseline then I would soak the cotton balls in alcohol, pour some wax in the tray, place the cotton balls in the tray and then poured the rest of the wax over them.
Great idea!
I dip cotton oval pads you ladies use to remove makeup into tiki oil and then into melted paraffin wax and then let them dry. The pads are handy because I can stack a bunch of them in my fire kit. I use them for fire starter and just a half a pad sparks up real fast with my ferro rod. I imagine a cotton ball would burn long enough to boil water. Might be worth a try.
I actually saw a video not too long ago where someone put paraffin lamp oil direct into their paraffin wax. Than they dipped and soaked their cotton pads into the wax.
I like your nails 💅. Good color choice.
I dip cotton balls in olive oil and store in a zip lock bag. They are also very sooty so I mainly use them as a fire starters. Perfect for catching sparks from a ferro rod
I think I would recommend Gulf wax instead of candles. Melt it down and stir in a lot of cotton. Make some cubes. I’ll stick to wood myself. Less mess, it’s natural and always available on trail.😊 loving the videos!
Thank you!!
Love your DIY attitude. Thanks for sharing. Enjoying your videos. Excited to follow your journey.
You creating this video has taught me something today . I've actually been meaning to do this myself . However your demonstration has saved me time from performing the exact same experiment . Thank you so much .
Thanks very much for that honest review of the was/cotton ball method.
This was helpful!
Useful info, thanks!
Use a silicon ice cube tray as a mold. There are small half dome and mini cube shapes available.
Great idea!
Great video 👍😊 thanks for taking the time to give us a informed take on the process
Thank you
your honesty is refreshing...thanks
Thanks for sharing your insight and experience!
That's a British army camp stove. When you buy them from trespass stores they come with those white blocks, but they only burn for about 8 minutes. The army use twigs.
Use bee's wax. it doesn't smoke as bad and leaves less sooty mess behind. a little olive oil in the wax makes the burn time last a little longer and burn more efficient.
And colourless candles?
Hi Mark...A year ago. I am with you and DD above. We use bees wax and dryer lint...but lint from a clean tub and cotton washings. The oil we use is canola, as it has the highest smoke point for the money. Corn oil is good, and ghee, though that's expensive. Takes some experimenting, as higher altitudes make more smoke. We use narrower furnace chimneys to get a better burn if we go to altitude. One we did was threaded to make the height (and air holes adjustable (think after burn) ...all fun!
It doesnt attract bees ?
Thank you ❤
Great video , the wax soaked cotton is a pretty neat idea and I can't wait to try it out 😊
Try mixing alcohol in with your wax next time and see if that helps you? I also use a food seal machine to make air tight packages for storage of individual packets. I use simple everyday plastic bags to make the packet. Works out pretty good.
hi,just found your vid, not a bad idea. one thing I use is something I found in a Nat Geo. mag dated dec.1917. basically what you do is take several sheets of newspaper, one at a time you brush melted wax on them adding one sheet at a time. (I usually make the stack about 3 sheets thick) then before the wax fully hardens, roll the sheets up like a sausage, then after the wax is fully solid cut the roll into sections about an inch thick, they work great for me, (the article called them "smokeless ration heaters". hope this gives you an idea.
Omg, you just gave me a flashback to my Girl Scout days! We used something like that for campfires. Cool that you found it in such an old magazine (my scouting days are slightly more recent 😉)
Woohoo love great ideas!! Thanks much and blessings to you and your family 😇 🇺🇸
I tried to find the article, couldn't find it. But I found this, very similar: en.wikisource.org/wiki/National_Geographic_Magazine/Volume_31/Number_6/The_Conversion_of_Old_Newspapers_and_Candle_Ends_Into_Fuel Thanks for the idea!
You still can't come close to pure hexamine temperature this way. Other than cost, substitutes make no sense at all. And if cost is really a problem, there are off brands of hexamine that cost much less. If you shop around for pure hexamine, it's remarkably cheap. I prefer Esbit, or another known but much cheaper brand, but if I were really broke, I'd shop around and buy non-brand hexamine.
Or I'd just use these "substitutes" without pretending they are substitutes. They aren't. A substitute should do the same job just as well. These are simply a different fuel source that is far less efficient than hexamine.
Boiled water. Most drinks only require hot water .However to economise on fuel and time.Boil
half the quantity and just heat the other half to drink/cooking temperature.Saves fuel and time. Nice vid though. Cheers.
Good video. I thought it would work, too
I make my own fire starters.i know that is not what this video is about but what you have made works amazing for starting fires. I also used to cut up the candles until I bought a cheese grater from a thrift store. Way faster to melt the wax.
Esbit stoves are SUPER SENSITIVE to wind. Be sure to make side shields for that stove and/or a separate, tight fitting, windscreen. I played with many, many stoves (diy & bought) but mostly stopped experimenting after discovering the Zelph Fancee Feest alcohol wick stove (not the Super Cat). The stove has a built in pot support, so all you need is a good, circular, windscreen. Again, Zelph’s corrugated screen is highly recommended. Hoping you can benefit from what I’ve learned burning gallons of denatured alcohol so you don’t have to. -Knotty
The medium size Esbit shoe comes with a windscreen.
If you wrap the cubes in aluminium foil to store the same foil can be used as a shield when burning and prevent a mess like a little burning dish
Hey Joyful Rambler
,swamp gal here ,,,,,,thanks a lot for the info , I'm using cubes for my extreme weather cooking source
,keep em coming ,,
Good experiment. Good for a go bag. Good video.
Thank you for sharing. That was good.
I went through a try to burn everything in my Esbit stove stage as a kid as I didn't have the money to purchase very many fuel cubes at that time. I seem to remember wood shavings (made with thinner dry branches and a pencil sharpener) mixed with wax and using egg boxes as a mould worked best and cost almost nothing. They were pretty smokey too as were all the Esbit alternatives tried at that time.
Thank you for sharing!
Great job, brava! Ciao!
As an additional note, candle wick has wire in center. so using a less than favorite knife a good point.
Thanks for the good video & your honest opinion. I believe you are right. The wax cotton ball fire starters would only be good for emergency or if you ran out of the other kind.
I've seen people dip them into some type of fuel then dip it in wax to coat them and they burnt for a good while longer and hotter.
Vaseline.
Great video. Thank you!
Cutting boards are handy too!
water puts out the fuel cubes and when dry can be relit
I have the same stove and I made some fuel tablets 3 days ago and they work great. There a little bit Smokey but that’s fine. Thanks for the video👍
if you use beeswax it eliminates the smoke.
Nice👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻💪🏻
Well done - I too was impressed that you at least did the double boiler. I've seen these done before, but I get the impression that most people don't understand that the majority of candles are cheap and so only contain paraffin wax. That will smoke and create alot of soot, not to mention being stinky. Anything petroleum will be. I think if you'd used a better wax you'd have appreciated the results more. I wouldn't give up on these, just experiment with better waxes - bear in mind you're cooking with these and stick with something less toxic. Good luck with future batches! Thanks for sharing! Cheers.
I recommend using fine wooden chips compressed (not too much) with wax. They might be better. Woods like eucaliptus or oak burn very hot
Well done!
This is how I make firelighters, only I use cotton eye pads for makeup removal. Before lighting I tear the pad in half about half way down, exposing fresh cotton which is very easy to light. They should work fine for your purposes as well and because you tear them open, they're much easier to light than cotton ball based versions.
Good vide and honest reeview.
If you cant find one of the egg cartons that are made from cardboard, or what ever it is, the kind you can burn. Get a few ice cube trays you don't mind messing up. Line each cube with parchment paper, then add your cotton ball then pour the wax in. When it cools the now waxed covered cotton ball should lift right out, using the parchment paper. Its a good idea, but I'm not sure how long that little Esbit stove will last. They are listed as Emergency Pocket Stoves.
Very helpful and nicely done. Thanks!:-)
Excellent video !!! won one more written greetings from Brazil ....
Thanks for the useful info, I've thought about esbit stoves but I'll probably stick with alcohol fuel and the Trangia.
great video i didn't think about the soot factor.I guess line the outside of pot with tin foil maybe?
Great video, and I've seen this process several times, but yours is the best video covering this diy process. So, I'm also a new sub. Thank you. Edit to add, greetings from Pittsburgh (native of Houston, Tx) my name is Laura, nickname means yellow beetle (1974 yellow VW beetle)
Hi Laura, thanks for subscribing! Happy to hear you like the DIY. Not all my projects work out, but it’s fun to try.
Can't say enough about the Soto OD-1R Micro Regulator Stove, not cheap only weighs 2.6oz. Works great in the cold and high altitude. Its easy to get propane canisters along the AT. Worked great for me, made coffee ever morning in my tent and give a little heat too then dinner at night.
Nicely done
If you put the candles in a net bag, you can melt it and the wicks will be contained in the mesh bag. I also don’t cut mine so small. I melt a lot of candles to stamp on fabric as a reisit, I also like Gulf Wax over candles since you never know what is in commercial candles
Good tips, thanks for sharing!
Subscribed - looking forward to following your AT journey. I use a mix of esbit and alcohol. Yes, they stink. I use the 4g tabs, they stink less. Zelph makes a nice little alcohol burner, the starlyte, which works really well in esbit setups.
Thanks for Inspiring me! Subbed.
Hey, you live and learn! I made a whole bunch of these, these are PERFECT for firestarters. Absolutely. Nothing is worse than using up a handful of matches to try and get a fire to start. Use these. Don't even bother for cooking in an emergency with these. The soot on your hands a lot is a painintheasstogetoff. That's enough for me to ask a raccoon to start my fire!
Thank you very much. Very informative.
I have my old Army setup of a canteen cup and its matching stove. I have used trioxane tablets in it but I'm running out of them. In warm weather 3 tealight candles will fit in it and heat a pint in about 12 agonizing minutes. I'm thinking of making the fire starters that we made in Boy Scouts. An egg carton with the holds filled with sawdust and then soaked with melted paraffin. Beeswax might work better.
I liked that you gave an honest report on the cotton ball fuel. It will help others.
What did you end up using on the trail? I followed your hike but I don't remember you cooking. Good Luck, Rick
Hi Rick, I ended up leaving Esbit stove home and using a canister stove with iso butane fuel
You can turn the T light's into mini buddy burners. Loads of videos about it. Then the T light will burn much hotter for a much shorter while. And it's really cheap.
I'm going to try a chicken can turned upside down. I'm gonna to cut a little square out of the top as big as the cube of fuel then turn it over. Then essentially your putting your cup on the bottom of the can. The bottom of the can would have all the soot on it. So everything is possible so maybe its just a matter of using a different stove. The military stoves that go with their canteen cup are designed that way. I'm going to try it this weekend. Using the I think its a 12 oz chicken can. If not I think a tomato sauce can of some sort, I can cut it if need be down smaller to make sure its wide enough and then I'm only sooting up a throw away can. Where there is a will there is a way to defeat soot.
I don’t like the smell of those cubes so I’ve been using twigs or alcohol in it. I initially light a homemade waxed cotton round and then add my tinder, (fat wood shavings with birch bark) to get a good flame going then I add the twigs and small thicker pieces of wood I collected for a more sustainable little fire. You have to keep feeding it, but if you’ve done due diligence and collected your dried wood while hiking, it works pretty efficiently. And the alcohol I carry a small burner and extra alcohol in a well sealed bottle (leak proof ) I cook full canteen meals (not Ramon or canned soup, etc…) on mine to test it and so far, it may take a little longer, but in a pinch, to just heat water if you need to, it’s going to work. And if it’s just a fire you need for warmth, done!
Those fuel tablets stink and will permeate a backpack. 🎒
Thanks for sharing the down sides of your experience as well!
Of course!! I feel like it’s really important to show all aspects of the experience. So many people show only the good parts, and I’m afraid that draws people in to do hikes that they’re not prepared for.
Thanks so much for the video. I've had a Jetboil for the past few years and love it but I was looking for something a bit lighter and compact as I've been getting into backpacking. Plus I like the idea of not having a canister. So I just bought an Esbit stove this past weekend and took it camping. So far so good (I do need to utilize a windscreen). I've been doing the same soaked cottonball technique for firestarting, although I use vaseline instead. I'll have to give them a try with the stove to see how it works. One other potential benefit: It looks like matches/lighter are needed to light the fuel cubes whereas the soaked cottonballs can be lit by a flint. (This is not extensive research regarding the cubes, so folks can feel free to tell me otherwise). Again, great vid. Thanks and Happy Trails!
Jeff
I use dryer lint stuffed into the sections of cardboard egg cartons, then cut them apart. works great.
Just wanted to say that I make these for fire starters. I don't normally have a fire when I go by myself but when I have friends with me this works great because of the long burn.
You don’t learn anything if you don’t experiment! Good video.
Nice job. I'll do that too.
Pro tip: (not me as the pro but another you tuber) if you take a lil dish liquid and rub on the bottom and side exterior of the pot it helps the spot an easier cleanup
Just one more: take old magazines/phonebooks/newspaper/craft paper tear off in small pieces, ball it up and toss it in a pan of boiling water, once paper has soaked all water, pull out and use a tea light tin with a few holes in the bottom, squeeze out excess water, let dry, then take the disk and dip it in a lil wax, let dry.
I wonder if paper from a shredder would work as well as your small torn strips.
I don't like those white cube things because the packaging doesn't last in your bugout bag and they lose their seal. The trioxane are much better sealed and last for many years but they are currently about $4 each. Thats a rip.
I'm glad I saw this as I did see another young guy try this but he used cardboard egg cartons for the shape but DIDN'T review it and how it burned, I would never use them now I've seen what a mess they make but I was interested in making these IN that egg carton and pull that cotton ball so there is a kind of wick for starting fires, and one more idea, instead of using a good bowel I would use a Tomato can as they are wide and short but can be used over again without needing washing
Great video. Liked and subscribed.
Try putting your cotton balls into the compartments of the cardboard egg cartons. Very handy. Glad to see you used a double boiler.
What a great idea!
no need for double boiler if you're careful. Still good backup protection in case of wax/parafin catching fire.
They smell like old fish. But they burn really hot. I have used them in an emergency. When I was younger I tried to make my own wax covered cotton balls on the trail but found that the fire would jump across the ground looking for fuel and that happened just once which was enough to scare the heck out of me. I learned a quick lesson while trying to blow out what was left of my daypack. Now that I am an "elderly" person, I am less adventurous with fire. Enjoyed your vid. ATB, Jb.
In his book Backpacking One Step At A Time, Harvey Manning mentions Mautz Fire Ribbon as a fuel for the Esbit, saying it burns hotter than hexamine. I have it along with my stove and aluminum cup in the survival kit I've fortunately not had to fall back on yet, and if I end up homeless, as I just might for a little while, I intend to have the same so I can at least have a cup of instant coffee or cocoa when I want one.
Okay you can you do that but I have a few small suggestions. I use Coghlans fuel tablets and they work great smell a bit when opened but when you hike you will smell too. I use them when I hike as I only get the water to a rolling boil and then you hydrate your food no real cooking involved. I use the two piece esbit stove pot and I love it have made a wind screen out of aluminum foil and it does the job. I cut a small can and raised the tablets to be closer to the pot so they would work better, the black comes right off. For lighting system I would suggest a few butane lighters with quality lighter fluid for them, they are wonderful in windy weather.
Or you could get an alcohol stove, make one or buy a Trangia with a windscreen & pot stand. Not that heavy and much cleaner burn.
Depends where you're going, if you know you'll find dry wood then you might as well just take these, don't even need a stove, just a small pot or frying pan and a plastic fork
@@sonicknuckleswomble8927 I can't be around smoke due to my lungs. That's why I use alcohol stoves.
You can put them out with water and relight them later.
awesome
had the same problem when i made those tuna can cardboard waxy buddy stoves. they put out tons of soot. only use them in an emergency for sure unless you like black hands and pots and pans
If you using Isopropyl alcohol, try using denatured alcohol instead. Then you should have less soot.
Ya they leave a bad residue on they pots off the wax builds up on the stove its fun to put out too lol
Good video. Yes the Esbit fuel cubes are very, very expensive, soot and stink as they burn. If your method of cooking requires this type of fuel, might I suggest you look at Weber Lighter Cubes. These can be had at Lowes and other stores as such. #7417, a box of 24 cubes, $4.00. They appear to be constructed of similar materials and look, feel and burn in a similar fashion. And yes they stink and soot as they burn. Hope this helps.
keep trying your video was well done and informative. and if their is a way for you to find out how many BTU's your homemade fuel cube produced and your burn time. just a thought
Ordinary individually wrapped barbeque firelighter cubes work equally as as esbit cubes.
Go get yourself a cheap ice cube tray. Put the cotton balls in the compartments in the tray. Pour your was over them and leave to set.