Poor Man Survival
Self Reliance
tools for independent minded people…
ISSN 2161-5543
A
Digest of Urban Survival Resources
Make
Your Own Improvised Camp Stove-Cheap ‘n Easy
The humble hobo stove traces its origins back to the Great
Depression. No. 10 tin cans had become a standard package of food stuffs like
coffee and fruit before the Depression and so were plentiful. Short on
resources, hobos improvised the cans into
suitcases, water containers, and stoves. Today, the hobo stove is used by,
well, hobos, but also campers on a budget. The can’s light weight makes it a
perfect backpacking stove.
The design of the hobo stove is simple but ingeniously effective.
The power of convection draws air into the stove through the open door and air
vents positioned at the bottom of the can and up towards the open top. The
metal reflects the heat back into the fire allowing the stove to generate a
tremendous amount of heat in a small space. Once you’ve got the fire going,
just place a pan or pot on top of the can and you’ll have dinner in no time.
If you’re looking for a cheap, lightweight alternative to
standard backpacking stoves, find yourself in an urban survival situation, or
just decide to
take up the hobo lifestyle, here’s how to build a hobo stove for all your cooking and
warming needs.
Gather Your Supplies
You don’t need much to make a hobo stove — just a can, a knife,
and a can opener. Any can will do. I used a big ol’ coffee can here, but other
kinds of cans, even a soda can with the top cut off will work. A bigger can is
easier to make cuts in and makes a bigger fire/more heat, but you’ll obviously
want to go for a compact can if you’re taking it backpacking.
Cut Door
We need to cut a “door” into the can for feeding wood to the
stove. Make it fairly large — wider rather than taller. Shoot for about 6
inches wide and 4 inches tall if you’re using a can the same size as mine.
Cut your door so that the metal bottom of the can rests on the
ground, rather than orienting it so the open mouth of the can sits on the
ground. The former orientation has a couple advantages over the latter: First,
it allows you to be discrete. When you leave your location, you won’t leave any
burn marks on the ground because your fire burned on the metal bottom, rather
than on the ground. Second, the metal bottom reflects more heat which gives you
a hotter fire. You don’t get that if the open top is facing the ground.
Use a knife to cut
out the stove door. You can cut the entire square out if you want. However, I
only cut along the sides and the bottom and didn’t cut the top. This creates a
jerry-rigged damper that allows you to control the fire. Fold the door up and
open when you’re putting wood in the stove and getting the fire going; fold it
down and closed when you want the fire to die down and to retain the heat in
the stove to keep you warm.
If you do decide to
leave the flap attached to the can, use caution when folding it up. You’re
working with some jagged metal edges here. I used my knife to help pry it up.
You might consider wearing some work gloves while you do this.
Make Air Vents With Can Opener
Fire needs air to
burn. While we’ve got a big door in our can, we could use even more pathways to
allow air inside the stove. Using a can opener, create air vents all along the
bottom rim of the stove.
What about you? Got anything interesting to share?
Bruce, the Poor Man, free thinker,
social critic & cynic
A Final Note…
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Additional
Resources
How much
emergency food do you need? »
The amount of food we need changes based on what our goals are. In modern prepping the line between what we need and what we store is blurry. Just because a can of dried fruit has the words, "Emergency Food" on the label does not mean it is the type of food you need in an emergency. More »
The amount of food we need changes based on what our goals are. In modern prepping the line between what we need and what we store is blurry. Just because a can of dried fruit has the words, "Emergency Food" on the label does not mean it is the type of food you need in an emergency. More »
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1 comment:
Pretty neat-reminds me of my Boy Scout days!
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