Fuel efficient Tiki lights

It was a shining light
Wonder if you can say more on the solutions for the wind blow problem.
Think i use small copper tubing as shell cases do not lay around here.

 

I found a way to make the whole thing very simply tonight. Got the materials list down to 12" cotton rope, two screw top aluminum cans, a few small stones and Tiki fuel. The only tool I used was a a pocket knife, and construction time was under 10 minutes.

From the inside of one screw on cap I cut an X. I pushed the four petals open just slightly from the inside and used the knife point to ease the rope through the small hole. The rope can now €be pulled up the desired amount, but will not slip down into the can because of the pointed petals.

Next I used the point of the knife from inside the cap to just open a tiny hole through the aluminum out near the edge. This is a vent, and is necessary because of the tight wick fit. The fuel will expand with temperature changes.

More than half way done now.
Lay the rope wick in the bottom of the can and tilt the cap to the side as you drop some small stones or sand into the bottom of the can for ballast. Wick should be at the bottom to draw all the fuel from under the ballast.

Second can is easy. I used a height of exactly two 2x4's on their side (3" or 76.2mm) to rest my knife blade on. The tip should just extend a little beyond the rest so the can may be rotated against it. You are scoring a line in the can at this height. Not necessary to press hard, just rotate, and rotate, and rotate. When you think you have done enough revolutions, do about as many more as you did already....then just a few more. No, more than that.

Once you have a nice score line on the can, sit back and gently bend the can in just a tiny bit around the line. Just keep going around and around gently pressing and releasing until it begins to crack. The edges WILL be sharp. Keep working around the score line until the can separates into two halves.

Almost done.
All that is left is to cut another star shaped hole in the side of the funnel shaped half of the can you just cut. Open this hole about an inch up from the bottom and fold the petals inward to open a hole about 1/4" or 6mm in diameter. This should be enough for good combustion, but you can open it more if necessary. (I'm near sea level, so combustion may be affected by elevation.)
I smoothed out the sharp edges at the score line with a rock and ran my knife handle around the inside to straighten out the bottom of the cone and flare it just slightly.

The cut off cone goes over the fuel container and will fit snugly, just unscrew the cap and light the wick. It should burn well when pulled out about 1/4" from the cap, and be very wind resistant.

To snuff the torch just set the cap on top. I was able to screw the cap on while only touching the cap. (The top of the wind deflector cone will be hot) The flame was out before I tightened the cap, so it never got more than mildly warm.

That's it. I will download a picture as soon as I figure out how to do it without a cable.

No long term testing on this one yet, but it burned happily for over an hour this evening.

 

Here's the promised picture. Sent from phone to e-mail to laptop and uploaded here. I'm cable free, and only took twelve hours to figure out something that an eight year old could do with one thumb while watching TV.

 

Nice,i go make one /tease mode on " I asume that it MUST be beercans " /teasemode off .

 

If you can find an aluminum screw top soda or juice can that would work fine. I have had to remove the labels from a few I gave as gifts so the users wouldn't shock their neighbors.

"Did you see Mildred sitting on her stoop with a beer before Sunday services? Bless her heart."

 

I made some with the young'ens this past week...they loved it.

I used strands from a cotton mop head and installed a brass grommet into the cap. It works very well!


Cool thread.

 

Good looking bottle too! I've done the tall skinny ones before, but haven't got a wind deflector made for them yet. Next day off maybe. With the wind deflector on the tall bottles I would just delete the cover and use the screw cap as a snuffer/rain guard. I wouldn't worry too much about losing a cap, since there seem to always be plenty around.

 

@BTPost, The big difference is that these are screw top aluminum "bottles." The tall skinny ones are quite thick, although the shorter models have taken some pretty rough use with my outside cats around and never had a durability issue. Picking one up and handling it in a manacing manner would be a bad idea, especially since it's a threat with no teeth. Rather like pointing an unloaded gun at someone. Likely to get the same response.

 

Yet....
Holy crap, that was funny!