How to Make a Tent Stove

A tent stove is a portable stove used inside a tent when camping. Specifically, tent stoves are used during cold-weather camping, such as in the early spring, late fall or winter. A tent stove can be made to burn a variety of fuel, such as oil or wood. Wood-burning tent stoves tend to be somewhat cleaner and have the added benefit of burning fuel that can be found readily in wooded areas.

Things You'll Need

  • Steel barrel with lockable, removable top
  • Drill
  • Jigsaw
  • 27 machine screws
  • 27 nuts
  • 72 flat washers
  • 1 pair 1.5-inch hinges
  • 4-inch-diameter stovepipe, roughly 70 inches tall
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Instructions

    • 1

      Thoroughly clean the barrel you will use as the body of your stove. Many metal barrels may have once held flammable material that you would not want to have inside your tent unexpectedly.

    • 2

      Remove the top third of the barrel using a saw. First draw a line using a straightedge to carefully etch a cutting path on the outer surface of the stove to serve as a guide. Then drill a pilot hole into the barrel along this line to insert your jigsaw blade. Carefully cut the top off the barrel following this line.

    • 3

      Replace the lid of the top of the barrel to the top of the lower two-thirds section. Set aside the remaining third section for use as additional material.

    • 4

      Cut out a door and draft hole. Using the same pilot hole and jigsaw method described in step 2, cut out a rectangular stove door on front of the top half of the two-thirds section of the stove. This area would be the middle third before you cut the top off. Make the door hole 9 inches tall and 12 inches wide. Below this hole, on the bottom half of the two-thirds section, cut out the draft hole. Make this hole 2 inches high by 4 inches wide.

    • 5

      Using the top third of the barrel, cut out a door, draft door and draft door bracket using the following dimensions:

      Door: 10 inches wide by 13 inches high

      Draft Door Bracket: 4 inches wide by 10 inches high with a 2-inch-wide-by-5-inch-wide hole cut out 1 inch from the top, bottom and left sides and 4 inches from the right side.

      Draft Door: 5 inches wide by 2 3/4 inches high with a 1.75-inch-high-by-2-inch-wide tab extending from the right side

    • 6

      File down the edges of the stove door, draft door and draft door bracket to eliminate any sharp edges, and bend the tab of the draft door outward and then back onto itself to create a handle.

    • 7

      Drill 3/16-inch holes evenly spaced along the top and bottom edges of the draft door bracket while it's secured against the opening made for this bracket on the bottom third of the barrel so that the drill goes through both bracket and barrel. Use approximately seven holes on both top and bottom. Secure the bracket in place using screws, nuts and washers inserted one at a time through each hole with the draft door bracket over the draft door, which will be allowed to move beneath the bracket.

    • 8

      Line up the hinges with the stove door and the body of the stove barrel so that you can mark drill holes in the appropriate screw holes located on the hinges. Drill holes through these marked areas and attach the stove door using screws, nuts and washers.

    • 9

      Mark two concentric circles on the flat part of the lid of the locking barrel. One circle should be roughly 5 inches in diameter and the other 4 inches in diameter. Cut around the center hole only and then cut lines spaced 1/4 inch apart leading from the outer edge of the 4-inch circle to the outer edge of the 5-inch circle. Use a pliers to bend these tabs downward.

    • 10

      Gently insert the stovepipe into the hole in the top of the barrel and use a hammer to lightly tap the tabs against the pipe to make it fit snugly in place. Apply stovepipe cement around the area where you inserted the pipe and allow it to dry overnight. Do the same with a length of stovepipe gasket inserted into the location of the original gasket.