[pct-l] Tin Can Stove / Stylus

[brick@fastpack.com (Brick Robbins)]

At 08:10 PM 3/1/01 , David Mauldin wrote:
>Anyway, one question, Brick.  Exactly what is a "stylus", and how do you 
>force it through the can without damaging it (the can)?  Could you be a 
>bit more descriptive?  For me, the drilling/boring/grinding out the top 
>section is the roughest part of the whole operation.

I scribe a line where I want the big hole to be with a throwaway knife. I 
just scrape around and around making the line deeper and deeper.

In one spot I cut all the way through to start the tear.

I poke a sharp metal rod "Stylus" (a long screwdriver will work, but I use 
a scribing stylus, essentially a pointy metal rod with a handle) through 
the middle of the plug I want to remove, then torque the plug, tearing the 
metal along the scribed line.

Drilling/boring/grinding is suitable for heavier gage metal, but the soda 
cans tear along a scribe line quite easily.