coffee cans

[koyote]

Dude! give me a hand drill, an awl, some tin snips and a file, a BIG pile of coffee cans and I can probably eventually build nearly anything people use for backpacking! Stoves (wood, alcohol, deisel/kero atomized drip), pots, kettles, percolators, pressure espresso pots (need some bike tube scraps for that)- Oh man. Coffee cans!!!!!


Okay, I'm totally lacking photos, but:

Things I've made:

twig stoves, fan powered and naturally aspirated.

Alcohol stoves (small coffee cans, soda cans, soup cans)

pots (soup cans all the way up to #10 cans)

frying pan.

dutch oven. This uses TWO cans, with a good clay mud in between. You have to experiment on thicknesses and stuff.

- Stuff I can see making:

colander
trap bits
steam distiller
percolator
pressure percolator (this one is actually easy, I am going to have to try it)
tea strainer
utensils


My sophmore English teacher was a bombadier in WWII, and a POW in Germany- he made a 35mm camera out of coffee cans. No lie. He showed up it and photos (photos included some stuff not in the history books)

 

[matthewdanger]

Amen and amen. Coffee cans may just be the most handy "throw away" item there is. It makes me wish I drank coffee.

When I was in 7th grade shop class, we made coffee can cameras. I spent the next several weeks making double exposure ghost pictures.

 

[mcjhrobinson]

no wonder you make soo many knives koyote! all that coffee!

ive made a few things from a coffee can...wood stove and a wind ornament for my mom painted all nice.

i bet i could make a visor out of one...maybe polish up a piece of it and use it as a signaling device.

that camera sounds SWEET!!! im gonna go look for more info!

 

[koyote]

no wonder you make soo many knives koyote! all that coffee!

I've cut back, with the health contest- I'm gonna git that gunny!

I'm down to a pot a day!

 

[kgd]

I just wish they'd pack them cans with whole beans instead of nasty, dry ground up coffee....Then I'd have access to coffee cans.

 

[Anrkst6973]

Amen! Years back half the stuff I carried was in a can...Daddy called them "syrup buckets"..Maple syrup came in them, they were like a paint can with a press on lid just a little smaller. Food was safe in them because no critter could get that lid off, a small coleman stove could be carried without getting "fuel stink" in your pack. Those with a bail were cooking pots. To this day I still cant throw them away..I save them to keep tools and stuff in, foods like rice,oatmeal,cereal or beans can be stored in them just about pest or contaminent free. (plus I'm a real bear if I dont have coffee!! )

 

[Joben]

My older brother is quite literally a genius.

When he was a young boy he made a small underground furnace that he used to melt aluminum...

I can't remember if it involved coffee cans specifically, I wasn't born at the time, but this subject brought it to mind. You can do a lot with sheet metal and ingenuity.