Cheap Lauren wins again. Sorta…

If you haven’t read yesterday’s vitamin story, go do that first.

The problem with having a wood stove is the installation. The place I’d like to put it is in the shed, but that involves cutting holes and committing to a layout inside. My current daydreams involve making a bay-window-type bump out and running the stove pipe up through that.

But…….that’s so much work…….

I looked into free-standing alcohol stoves and found this:

It burns a special kind of alcohol, and it sure ticks off a lot of boxes! Free-standing, so I could move it around if needed, it actually gets warm from fire (you have to have good ventilation so you don’t die), no need to cut holes in the shed, and…. cheap! The fuel is expensive though, and – remember – I hadn’t taken all my vitamins.

I didn’t buy it. Some reviews said the paint was poorly done and chips off. But, the idea was in my head. I have some cans of gelled alcohol fuel that I’ve messed with in the shed, but surely I had something…..

I do.

I’ve had a Perfection kerosene heater for forever. You’ve seen it before. It looks like this:

Well, there are NO photos of the several-day process to cut a hole in the side. Let’s just say that Lauren did lots and lots of unsafe things that should never be done by untrained humans, especially Lauren. No major wounds were suffered, and there were a few bouts of regret, but the uneven cuts are just part of its charm:

I think it has a real ‘Beauty and the Beast’ look to it – like it might come to life and sing about metalworking safety or something.

Anyway, it works great. I rigged up some metal rods to hold the bottom of the fuel can that fits in the hole inside. Here’s a short video of its test run. (There are skewers holding the can – it was in deep prototype phase.)

So, the moral is: Lauren saved a bunch of money AND didn’t have to get stitches for anything.

Remind me to finish those vitamins.