Electricity Out - Made a "Hobo Stove" - What I learned
Friday was absolutely beautiful where I live. But for some inexplicable reason the electricity was out for half the day. We needed to cook supper. Instead of building a traditional campfire, I decided to try my hand at making a "hobo stove" from a big coffee can. I made some mistakes in design, but it still worked better than I could have dreamed.
I made a row of holes around the top and bottom edges with a knife. Turns out that I made the holes WAY TOO SMALL, especially along the top. When I placed the pan on top of the stove there was not enough room for the smoke to escape and the fire went out.
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Instead of putting the fire out and then cutting bigger holes, I decided to correct the problem by propping up the pan with larger sticks to allow for air flow. It worked very well.
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When I make a coffee can stove again I will cut much larger holes along both the bottom and top. Rather than round holes I will try to cut out long, wide slots, especially along the top. Live and learn.
My dad said when he was a kid they made a similar stove by turning the can bottom side up, cutting holes and a window to add fuel, and building the fire inside. This way you have kind of a "stove top" to put things on to heat. He said they mostly used this like a heater rather than for cooking, though. They even used it inside tents, where a campfire would be impossible. Of course, they had to stay very low to keep under the smoke.
The thing that impressed me most about using the hobo stove was how little fuel it required. I put enough small sticks in to fill the can up once, and it was far more than enough. I could have cooked with half that much. This type of stove/heater is extremely efficient when compared to an open campfire and probably presents much less risk of your fire getting away from you.
hobo stove with a chimney
