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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Make It Yourself - Fire Starters

Spend a few minutes with some trash items to make a handy fire starter for the next time you are camping.

You will need:
a cardboard egg carton (not Styrofoam)
several handfuls of dryer lint
old candle stubs (or a block of paraffin)
a large tin can (coffee cans are perfect but anything works) You can bend a pouring spout in the can, if you wish.

To make:
Tear the top of the egg carton.
Fill the individual egg cells with dryer lint. Just fill lightly. You don't need to pack the lint.
Set a shallow pan of water on the stove.
Fill your can with wax, either old candles or paraffin.
Heat the wax until it is liquid.
Sit your egg carton on some newspapers or cardboard.
Carefully pour the hot wax over the dryer lint, filling the egg cells.
Allow to cool and harden. Cut the egg cells apart with a saw.
Place one of your new fire starters under your kindling the next time you start a fire.
Enjoy a hot fire in a much shorter time!

I love to take something normally discarded and find new uses for it! Do you have any personal examples of creative uses for trash?

1 comment:

  1. These things work great! I use them all the time and just happened to make another batch this morning before stumbling across your blog. Sometimes I'll add sawdust to the drier lint too. Makes for a little bit of a longer burn time but straight drier lint works just as well.

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