Stove Part IV: the final aluminum model!

The final stage of the building process was making the stove out of aluminum. Aluminum is a very interesting material. We used a very thin sheet metal, which meant it cut relatively easily, and bent relatively easily. However, its thinness also made it quite unstable. Therefore, the challenge was to make the stove actually hold up a pot. Stay tuned for the testing phase to see if we actually accomplished this!

We began by drawing to-scale drawings of each side of our stove. We then used this as a reference, and drew on the aluminum sheets with sharpie. We experimented with many tools until we each found which would cut the aluminum best in a given situation. I found that my favorite tool was an olfa knife. The olfa allowed me to cut in straight and curved lines very cleanly. When using the olf knife you don't have to worry about material getting caught and messing up your line, like you do when you use a snip. 

Below see some of the cut-out sides of our stove:

As you can see from the second picture above, we used a straight-edge to be accurate with our measurements. This tool proved very very useful throughout the aluminum-cutting process.

After cutting out all the necessary parts, we drilled holes in the aluminum and began to rivet the parts together. Here are some pictures of some of our drill work:

About halfway through the building process we let Amy know that we needed hinges and magnets for our stove. We decided on magnets as fasteners for our two doors, and hinges for those same doors. 

Below see pictures of our hinges and doors:

We decided to use aluminum tape as well as screws to secure the hinges to the door. We found we had to do this combine approach, because the door was clearly not as thick as a door in real life, so the screws really got in the way of the functionality of the stove. 

Before riveting the whole stove together, Kelsey made a wonderful tray for our charcoal. We then cut and bent shelves to hold the tray. Below see pictures of these:

And finally....*drumrolllllll*....here is the finished stove:

At this point, we were ready to test our creation. 

Check out the next post for the results!