Hobo Stoves -Pics?

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Mar 10, 2006
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Anyone have wood/paper/scrap burning stoves made from scrap cans or canisters? If so, please share them!

I haven't used any sort of stove like this before and am thinking of making one. Any recommendations welcome.
 
I like the hobo stove and it is great if you use a smaller can as a pot and fit it in the stove (larger can). Unfortunately it just takes up too much room for me as the tool box in my truck is full.

I usually only need to boil 12 to 16 oz. of water which I can do in the stainless steel cup I use to nestle in my water bottle. So I have a Pocket Cooker in the tool box as it folds flat. Works great. Fore warning you it is a little messy until the paint burns off should you get one (two or three uses).

http://www.bepreparedtosurvive.com/Stoves available from Survival Resources.htm
 
Here's a pretty cool one: The Compact 2 Piece Trail Stove! I like that it is made frow two cans that nest, making it much more packable than most hobos. The two pieces snap together making it stable. The best part is that it only weighs 6.5 oz! I'd like to try and make one like this out of stainless.

They sell them on their site or you can look at the plans and make one yourself. It looks like a fun project for scouts. I was feeling lazy so I just ordered one. (Haven't received it yet!)
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Here is a video on the stove:

[youtube]pN30_tG7S3A&hl[/youtube]

Dang! He should send me my stove for free the way I'm pimpin' here! :D

-- FLIX
 
We used to make something like this when I was a kid just not sa fancy. What we did was use a church key (can opener) to make the holes around the bottom and top. You know work the churh key around the sides making triangler holes around the base and top. And if you are lucky enough to find a can just a little smaller than the base can, it would sit on the metal prongs that were made when you made the holes.
 
Here's a hobo stove I built last year. This was the maiden voyage.


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Here, I'm fanning it a little bit :( to help the wood get started.

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Here you can see the burn underway. The sleeve around the food can was an experiment to see if I could prevent the food can (and coffee mugs) from sooting up. It worked quite well.


This is a commercially manufactured stove that we purchased in the mid 80's.
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Subsequently, they made stoves with a battery powered fan. This does not have one. It works very well, but is bulky and heavy. Inside around the burning chamber there are holes. This is supposed to create some kind of vortex (?) to make it burn hotter. It also came with a barbeque attachment.

A look down inside:
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You might be interested in the write up about the stove as it appeared in American Survival Guide.


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Doc
 
Simple and effective,I made one from a large bean can,but a friend borrowed and have not seen it since...LOL...reason to construct another I guess
 

Hey Myal! Is that the knife you made out a pice of a saw you found out that you couldn't even scratch with a file or a stone?

I am thinking about making my own knife but I guess I am better off trying out with and old file (anneal it, shape it and then harden it again).

Mikel
 
Awesome, thanks everyone!

Looks like I'll have to quickly develop an appetite for canned coffee and soup. I can easily see how this could become an obsession with trying out different air flow patterns and everything else. I'll try to keep it simple.
 
I have made several. I recently added a fan to my old design, making a turbocharged-rocket-hobo-stove. I don't have any good pics and it is raining outside today. I will try and get some soon.

check out zenstoves links page for all things home made stove: http://zenstoves.net/Links.htm
 
I have made several. I recently added a fan to my old design, making a turbocharged-rocket-hobo-stove. I don't have any good pics and it is raining outside today. I will try and get some soon.

check out zenstoves links page for all things home made stove: http://zenstoves.net/Links.htm

Looking forward to it! I'd like to come up with a way to get a really good airflow going that doesn't rely on batteries yet powers itself - some sort of pattern with the holes would probably get a good vortex going.
 
OK, here are some pics of a couple of stoves I have been playing with.

This is an inverted downdraft wood gasifier made from a coffee can and a 15 oz. been can. It works best batch loaded, meaning you load it and light it and use it untill it is done and start over. I have been able to reload it during operation but it takes some practice.
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And here is my latest creation, a forced air wood burner. It is like a mini-forge! The heat output is incredible, it boils water faster than my MSR PocketRocket!
It is made from a coffee can, a 14 oz sweetened condensed milk can, a small DC motor salvaged from a cheap toy, and some small scraps of sheet aluminum. It runs on two AA batteries. The fan is made from the cut out lid of the coffee can. I reverse one of the batteries in the battery box while carrying and flip it around to run the fan, or bypass it with a small piece of metal for a low speed setting using only one battery. So far my 2650 mA-hour batteries have run the fan for a total of about an hour without needing a recharge.
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The forced air burner is much hotter and boils water 2 or 3 times faster, but I think that the inverted downdraft is more fuel efficient. Wood is free, so this isn't much of an issue. The fan adds a lot of complexity and is therefore more likely to fail. However, the parts could be canibalized to make a simpler stove in an emergency(don't forget your multitool!). For me the best reason to use the ID gasifier is that it is quiet. Firing up my PocketRocket, Dragonfly, or the forced air burner while in a nice quiet wilderness mood is a real buzzkill.
 

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Awesome stoves, blazink!

On the IDG, do you use the can-in-a-can design just to preheat the air being injected, or is there another purpose I'm not familiar with? From my reading, it looks like the most efficient stove without forced air would use four cans. I think my max # of cans is 2, so will be deciding between the styles shown by blazink and FLIX. Any suggestions to this end would be appreciated.
 
CanDo, that is exactly right. Thoeretically, a single can could work about as efficiently, but it would require perfectly still conditions.
Instead of additional cans(beyond 2), I thing the addition of heat radiating fins or the like would heat the air more efficiently.
I also think adding some height to the overall design would increase the convective flow. I am baseing this on some rocket stove designs I have played with.
I am now looking for a taller can than the 15 oz been can as there is about an inch of wasted space at the bottom of the current design. At the very least this will add fuel capacity.

Not many sites have good info on actually working with the sheet metal, I have some pointers if you need them. But I am no expert and would like any tips or tricks you discover.
For things I can't do with snips I sometimes score the metal with a utility knife and use plieres to tear along the line. Cutting with a sharp knife works really well. For the interior can, find one with the bottom rim diameter smaller than the top. Cut the hole in the top of the outside can just slightly smaller than inside can. When you force them together it will make an excellent seal.
 
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