Electricity Out - Made a "Hobo Stove" - What I learned

[preachtheWORD]

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.

[Canadian-guerilla]

hobo stove is on my " to do " list

find 2 junk cans ( nothing from home ) and boil some water

will try no holes in the bottom can and see what i can find for in between the top and bottom

[your_comforting_company]

Nice work PTW. way to improvise and get the job done.
Mistakes are better called "learning experiences", than failures.

[preachtheWORD]

UPDATE:

Another beautiful spring day, and the power is out again, for totally inexplicable reasons. It gave me an excuse for a second try on the hobo stove. I made the modifications, and it worked very well. I used about half as much fuel and it worked out just right.

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I cut three slots around the top rim of the can - about 3" long and 1" wide. I made similar slots around the bottom. The fire burned efficiently. The only drawback is that I got some flame spurts coming out of the bottom, which might ignite any flammable debris you haven't cleared away.

All in all, I was really satisfied with how well the hobo stove worked, and all it took was a metal can, a knife, and a handful of sticks.

[Rick]

Very nice job. You can do a lot of cooking with that little can. Here are some more ideas you might consider.

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ght=hobo+stove

[Badawg]

I have found a Vee gap cut into the top about 1/4 of the top size works very well and you can turn the stove so the vee is away from you and down wind. that gets the smoke out of your face.

_

[Justin Case]

Great Job !!

[chimpac]

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=9099

[crashdive123]

This is from a smaller coffe can, but draws enough air to stay lit. the larger opening at the bottom allows you to keep adding fuel.

[welderguy]

Thanks wonderful ideas for improvments on my hobo stove.

[Rick]

The old Coleman stoves had a heater that looks a lot like an inverted paint can with holes in it. I've been thinking that a simple paint (or other large) can fashioned the same way over a hobo stove would put out quite a bit of heat.

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[preachtheWORD]

This is from a smaller coffe can, but draws enough air to stay lit. the larger opening at the bottom allows you to keep adding fuel.

Thanks for the pics, Crash. I had wondered if a smaller can would work. Something like that could be handy to carry in a backpack. The only drawback I can think of is the soot that will undoubtedly build up on it. It would take at least a perfunctory cleaning before going back in the pack.

Nice work!

[rwc1969]

Very interesting PTW.

Lotsa good links and stuff too from the others. I think I mght have to put one of these in the pack. I finally found a metal coffee can to work with and am holding onto it like gold.

[crashdive123]

Thanks for the pics, Crash. I had wondered if a smaller can would work. Something like that could be handy to carry in a backpack. The only drawback I can think of is the soot that will undoubtedly build up on it. It would take at least a perfunctory cleaning before going back in the pack.

Nice work!

I keep it in a zip lock bag and don't worry about cleaning it.

[preachtheWORD]

I keep it in a zip lock bag and don't worry about cleaning it.

Excellent idea! And the smaller can shouldn't take up too much precious pack space.

[preachtheWORD]

I made an additional modification to the Hobo Stove that I think is worthy of sharing. I actually did this about a month ago on a camping trip and just forgot to post it.


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(sorry about the bad photo quality and size)
I added to pieces of wire across the top (clothes hanger, actually). This makes it possible to use a pot or cup that is smaller than the circumference of the can.


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(again, poor photo quality)
Here you can see how a much smaller metal cup can be used on the hobo stove now.

This modification took about a minute and made the hobo stove much more versatile. I probably have less than 5 minutes of total work in this thing, and it has proven to be extremely handy. Go make one!

One caution, though. Making the hobo stove dulled my knife pretty badly. I was not happy about that.

[Sarge47]

Great job! Remember this one?

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=7892

[hunter63]

PTW, nice work, funny how a "reason" shows up sometimes to get your self going?

Metal coffee, the BSA main raw material seem to be a failing resource, still have quite a few, but the selection of can sizes is also dwindling........soon you will see them on eBay.

They are actually selling empty paint cans, (replacements ?)

[rwc1969]

With your inspiration PTW, I made one of these a couple weeks ago. I used a can opener to poke all the holes around the bottom and top and ran some bailing wire thru the top 4 ways, like tic-tac-toe, so something smaller could sit on top and for a handle/ hanger.

Mine still needs more holes as it tends to smoke if you put a big pot on top.

But, I used a smaller SS glass that holds about 24 oz. and it boils water quick and don't smoke as much. The glass actually fits right down inside and is held upright by the wire. I made some Chaga tea and ramen noodles with it and the fire burned about 4-6 hours on a few small branches, essentially kindling. It puts out quite a bit of heat. I'm impressed with it and the fact that it uses so little fuel.

[kyratshooter]

I got trapped at an 18th century event once, during a weekend of fun and rain. Three days torental downpour. Not a piece of dry wood within 200 miles and absolutely no way to cook on the campfire. The access road had been a dry creek bed when we came in and after the first night became a major watercourse. We were going nowhere and no one was comming in without a boat.

Me and the son ate all the precooked food in sight and by Sunday morning the boy was reading up on the Donner Party. I decided I needed to do something fast!

I went to the truck and got the 2#coffee can from the gear, and the artificial fire log (one of the sawdust and parifin things) I keep for such emergencies.

I poked genreous holes around the bottom and top of the can, just as shown, broke off about 1/4 of the fire log, lit it and dumped it into the can.

The roast, carrots, potatoes, onions and all the goodies went into the dutch over and cooked over the hobo stove. The fire log burned long enough to cook the whole meal.

It worked well but I consider them disposible units. Too bulky to pack around, and dirty.