How to Build a Parabolic Solar Cooker
- 1). Get an old metal satellite dish, preferably at least a yard wide. The receiver at the end of the central arm is at the parabola's focal point, where you'll eventually position your cooking pot.
- 2). Measure from the edge of the dish, along the contour of the dish, up to the pole at the axis supporting the receiver. Use a tape measure so you can conform to the shape of the curve. Denote this distance with the letter R.
- 3). Get enough salvage aluminum sheet metal to cover the area of the dish.
- 4). Cut the sheet into tapered strips of length R using a steel blade, for example a hacksaw or bolt cutters. Make them triangular, so that they'll fit radially in the dish around the central pole. Cut the pieces a few inches wide at one end and pointed at the other.
- 5). Drill a hole in each of the three corners of each triangle and two more in the middle of each long side.
- 6). Wire the strips to the dish's metal mesh, shiny side up, conforming to the parabolic shape.
- 7). Unscrew the receiver from its support pole. Use a hacksaw if it's soldered on.
- 8). Solder a salvaged bike rim to the end of the pole after removing the spokes. Position it to be horizontal when the dish faces the sun. The cooking pot will sit on top of the rim.
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