An experiment.

I'm a little wary of any project that starts out with the question, "Does plastic melt if you get it too hot?"
Will had apparently got a hold of some duct tape and his imagination went wild. He built me this little cooking arm to start. He wanted something that could hold, say, chocolate for melting. I told him this little get-up would melt before the chocolate did.

So then he made this one. But the glue on the duct tape melted before it could boil.

So finally, he made this. But the plastic still got hot, and the sticks started to smoke and all that hot plastic and smoky sticks made the house reek, and I had to open all the windows and doors in the 20 degree weather to air the place out.

But the point is, despite the stench, the little cookstove worked and my little bud is a budding inventor, and I'm willing to handle a bit of a draft for an afternoon to get to the nugget of whatever he might be working on. Plus, it kept him intensely occupied for nearly two days. And isn't that the goal of a successful Christmas vacation??? :)