Archive for the ‘DIY’ Category

Homemade alcohol stove

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

After building 14 different alcohol stoves over the course of a couple weeks, I have settled on what I believe to be the perfect mixture of efficiency, size, weight and simplicity.

Whole rig weighs in at 3.5 oz. Main components include a 24 oz. Heineken® beer can (pot), an 8 oz. apple juice can (burner), 5.5 oz. cat food can (lid) and 10″ aluminum flashing (windscreen).

Using 1 oz. of denatured alcohol it’s able to boil 16 oz. of 62 degree water in 8:35, eventually burning out at 15:40. It’s worth noting that with just 1/2 oz. of fuel it manages to heat the same 16 oz. of water to 200 degrees by 11:00 (plenty hot for freeze dried meals)

Flashing roll (10″ x 10′) cost about $10 at Home Depot, the rest came from the recycling bin.

Video here

How to take close-ups with the iPhone camera

Saturday, August 16th, 2008

Simple, really. Just cover the iPhone’s camera with a magnifying glass, loupe or reading glasses prior to taking photo. 10x was great for small stuff, but 2x was the overall winner due to its ability to capture typical documents. Until they put an auto-focus lens in the iphone, it’ll have to do.

 

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10x loupe

10x loupe

 

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2x magnifying glass

2x magnifying glass