The Dino-Stove

When we were assigned the task of creating a charcoal stove out of sheet metal and other materials, it felt like an overwhelming task initially. But, as my group spent some time brainstorming and getting inspired from existing models online, we were able to develop a game plan. Our sketch ended up looking like this.

We choose this design for a few reasons. It would do a good job of redirecting the smoke away from the user, and would provide safety from smoke inhalation. Also, the box within a box approach would contain the flames and the heat, minimizing danger from burning. We wanted to include the sunken cooking surface in order to provide a more direct heated surface, and to be able to use the rim to hold a pot or pan in place. Finally, we wanted our design to incorporate insulation in order to maximize heat with minimal fuel.

We built a prototype out of cardboard- and got remarks that it looked like a dinosaur!

After creating the cardboard model, we noticed a few design things that could be improved for our actual model. There wasn't a particular reason for the rectangular shape, and we found that by making the cooking surface into a square we could provide a larger area for a pot or a pan to fit in. Also, we realized that to successfully redirect the smoke, our chimney needed to be larger and located higher up. Finally, we needed to ensure a better air flow to keep the flame going, so we decided to include a grate at the bottom to allow the air to reach the flame.

Going to actually build the stove, we first needed a lot of planning to ensure things would fit together and to make sure we were constructing things in an order that made the most sense.

My group probably spent a total of 9.5 hours making the stove out of metal, aluminum, and wood. We very quickly realized sheet metal was neither easy to work with, nor the most sturdy material. We also ran into some trouble with riveting, but ended up with a model pretty similar to our design.

             


















After testing the stove, we realized that while we succeeded in redirecting smoke and protecting users from the flames, the heat source was too far away from the pot, meaning that our stove never really got hot enough to boil water. This could be solved by making the outer and inner boxes a lot shorter, or by using a lot more fuel to create a hotter chamber. The latter solution probably isn't the best, however, as it requires more resources.

All in all, making the stove was frustrating and rewarding at the same time, frustrating because we weren't used to working with a lot of the materials/tools, but rewarding because we ended up with a semi-functional project. Also, testing the stove meant we got to have hot chocolate and s'mores, which was rewarding in itself.