DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Alcohol is an inexpensive, clean and renewable fuel source.

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Buccaneer Bob
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DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Buccaneer Bob »

AlcoholBurner1.jpg
I did some searching on the Home Distiller website, and I found a few threads on alcohol stoves, but none on alcohol lamps (laboratory type alcohol burners).

There's not much to them, really.

Tools Needed: Either a nail or a straight screwdriver.

Materials Needed:
* A heat-resistant resealable container: A) a glass baby food, jelly, etc., jar with metal lid; or B) a small metal canister. Shorter and fatter works better than taller and skinnier.
* A wick made from A) a cotton shoe lace; B) a strip torn from an old cotton T-shirt; C) cotton twine; or D) some other 100% cotton material. It has to be 100% cotton, or it won't wick right and it will probably melt with the heat.
* Some alcohol (foreshots, heads, etc.) to burn in your lamp.
* A twist-type bottle cap to cover the wick when not in use to keep the alcohol from evaporating.

How to Do It:
Step 1) Depending on what type of wick you go with, use either a nail or a straight screwdriver to punch a hole through the metal lid of your jar or canister. You want the wick to fit tightly enough in the hole so that it doesn't slip back down into the jar.
Step 3) Push about a 2-3 centimeters (about an inch) of your wick up through the hole in the metal lid.
Step 4) Fill the jar with alcohol.
Step 4) Screw the lid on tight.
Step 5) Take the lamp outside in an open space, somewhere out of the wind, and light it to see how it works. Let it burn for awhile until you're satisfied it will be okay to use someplace else.
Step 6) Blow it out just like you would a candle and pinch the wick to make sure the fire is completely out or use your bottle cap to snuff out the flame.
Step 7) Cover the wick with your bottle cap when not in use.

I have been running my alcohol burners daily for about a month with no troubles whatsoever. And I'm running a 5 mm (3/16 inch) diameter wick sticking up about 2-3 cm (1 inch) that gives me a roughly 8 cm (3 inch) high flame with a full alcohol charge.

Of course, you can play around with the diameter of your wick and how much of it you expose to achieve whatever size flame you're looking for.

I currently have two in our bathroom shower, and they do a great job of chasing off the chill in our bathroom during the winter months. And just as soon as I can get my hands on another jar, I will make another.
AlcoholBurner2.jpg
Depending on the size of your jar, these lamps will burn for six or eight hours on a single refill, but I usually refill ours every three or four hours because the flame gets weaker as the level of the alcohol goes down.

You can use these lamps to warm up a small space like a bathroom or a fishing/hunting shelter, but these burners also come in handy if somebody needs a clean burning heat source for craft projects that require thermoforming plastics, melting hot glue, and that kind of stuff.

One thing to keep in mind with an alcohol lamp is that alcohol flames are pretty much invisible in bright light, so you want to put your hand above the wick and feel for heat to ensure the flame is out.

The other thing to keep in mind if you are using a glass jar for your lamp is that glass breaks, and breaking a lit alcohol lamp will give you your own version of a Molotov cocktail.

So you want to use them under supervision or place them in a bathtub, sink, or a metal pot that would ideally contain a flaming spill, should something whacky happen like somebody accidentally knocks one into something hard and the glass shatters.

Here's a good 4-page article on alcohol lamps.

And this guy here has a neat way to go if somebody needs a wind-resistant version.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Husker »

Thanks BB. New ideas on how to use fores is always a good thing 8)
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Clearwater »

Neato post. I would assume the acetone, methane, etc, poses no harm being burned off? Wondering if there's any dangerous byproduct put in the air due to burning.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by HolyBear »

That's cool. There was a post awhile back about uses for heads. This would be a great addition to that post so as to keep it all together. Don't know how you'd go about adding it to that post...
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Hawk_ »

I Dig It. I can imagine the smell of the wash coming through. Would be cool with heads from UJ or a rum.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Buccaneer Bob »

Thanks guys. :D
Clearwater wrote:Neato post. I would assume the acetone, methane, etc, poses no harm being burned off? Wondering if there's any dangerous byproduct put in the air due to burning.
I haven't researched all of the theoretical byproducts. The article I linked to had a section on "Fuel for the Alcohol Lamp" that was really interesting.
Fuel for the Alcohol Lamp

The two best, and least expensive fuels for the alcohol lamps are denatured ethanol (ethyl alcohol; grain alcohol), and methanol (methyl alcohol; wood alcohol; methylated spirit); both can be cheaply obtained at hardware stores or home-improvement centers. I have seen people use absolute ethyl alcohol in their alcohol lamps, but, in addition to being wasteful of high-grade ethanol, the disadvantage I see is that the flame produced with absolute alcohol is non-luminous, so that it is easy to forget that it is burning, and difficult to see the flame’s dimensions. Denatured ethanol, without added dye, seems to me to be more commonly used in North America. In the British Isles, “methylated spirit” or “meths” is generally used. Methylated spirit has, as its principal component, ethanol >60% (commonly 90%) which is denatured (made unsuitable for drinking) by the addition of methanol <10% (commonly 5%) or methyl isobutyl ketone (<10%); there is also a small quantity of water, together with a trace of bitrex to add unpleasant taste, or pyridine; and a dye is added as a visual indicator that the product is not for drinking&8212;this may be fluorescein or a blue or purple aniline dye. There are hundreds of recipes for denaturing ethanol.

In addition to personalizing one’s own alcohol lamp with their monogram, it is also possible to further individualize one’s alcohol lamp by adding a touch of dye to achieve some characteristic color, and to add a few drops of one’s favorite perfume or cologne to the fuel!

There are differences in the heat of combustion for different alcohols, and there are websites that treat the energy transformations in such chemical combustion reactions, but in practical use of the alcohol lamp they make little material difference.
So apparently methanol is okay.

This is what you get when you burn methanol:
CH3OH + 1½O2 ---> CO2 + 2H2O
You get one molecule of carbon dioxide and two molecules of water.

For acetaldehyde:
2CH3CHO + 5O2 ---> 4CO2 + 4H2O
You get four molecules of carbon dioxide and four molecules of water.

For ethyl acetate:
CH3COOC2H5 + 5O2 ---> 4CO2 + 4H2O
Cool how you get the same thing as you get with acetaldehyde: four molecules of carbon dioxide and four molecules of water.

Apparently most of these things seem to oxidize (burn) and produce various ratios of carbon dioxide (what we breath out) and water (what we drink).

If you want to research more, I found this pdf document that seems to cover everything I know to be in foreshots/heads.
wacabi1 wrote:That's cool. There was a post awhile back about uses for heads. This would be a great addition to that post so as to keep it all together. Don't know how you'd go about adding it to that post...
Let me see if I can hunt it down and tag onto it.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Bushman »

Good idea, if someone wanted they could probably buy the wicks and stoppers for wine bottles as well, then it might not be so obvious in the home.

Wacabi is right there was a thread a while back, one just on stoves but another as I posted how to make windshield wiper fluid with a recipe.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Bushman »

Found my post:


This is not a recommendation by me but just some facts.
Methanol is the main or only ingredient in barbecue fuel or fondue fuel, sold in supermarkets and chain stores as "stove fuel". It also evaporates quickly if you want to try it just do it on a small piece.

I also found another use for it but again this is a recipe I have not tried.
Windshield wiper fluid:
Combine 1 part methanol with 9 parts water and one tablespoon of dish detergent, mix thoroughly and add to your car.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Buccaneer Bob »

Bushman wrote:Good idea, if someone wanted they could probably buy the wicks and stoppers for wine bottles as well, then it might not be so obvious in the home.
Yes, I think people are only limited by their imagination, as far as making their jars/bottles fancy.

Image

Image
Bushman wrote:Wacabi is right there was a thread a while back, one just on stoves but another as I posted how to make windshield wiper fluid with a recipe.
I found this thread here and tagged onto it. I'll see if I can see any place else to tag onto.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by SiyaD »

Great research, implementing new things are always good and using lamp and other thing through alcohol is great as we save electricity as well.
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Buccaneer Bob »

Thanks SiyaD. :D
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by BoisBlancBoy »

Has anyone ever added a scent of some sort to give it a good smell?
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by Truckinbutch »

BoisBlancBoy wrote:Has anyone ever added a scent of some sort to give it a good smell?
Idano , don't see why you couldn't .
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by cob »

Bushman wrote:Good idea, if someone wanted they could probably buy the wicks and stoppers for wine bottles as well, then it might not be so obvious in the home.

Wacabi is right there was a thread a while back, one just on stoves but another as I posted how to make windshield wiper fluid with a recipe.

tutorials and links. http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... =7&t=19823
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by headshaker »

Yes citronella for sketters!
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Re: DIY Alcohol Lamp (Burner, Candle, etc.)

Post by hpby98 »

Been using one of these for a few years now. Lotsa options

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077D1QV9S/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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