The Hobo stove is a really great way to carry your fireplace with you. Unlike other camping stoves, this one requires no more fuel than you can pick up on the way to the camp site! (I keep nice dry stuff in the stove for starting the fire) If done right, it burns very hot and will boil a quart of water within 3 or 4 minutes! The best part is that this item can be made from things you most likely throw away regularly: large size metal coffee cans, Large soup cans and even unused paint cans!
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Tools and Supplies:
Pliers
Aviation Snips (sheet metal shears)
a small hammer
a largish nail
Large Coffee Can, old Soup can or Unused* Paint Can
Hardware Cloth
*Don't use a paint can that has been used, the chemicals inside can be toxic!
I started with this odd can I found in the road while on my security rounds. I picked it up knowing it would be useful..
I first started with cutting a NASTY looking hole.. I started this hole with Mr. Nail (any old nail will do!) and then worked the Aviation snips into the nail hole cut a very rough aperture for the loading gate
then I finished it off and rolled the edges for the loading gate: Use your pliers for this. then bang the edges down flush with the body of the stove for safety and a clean, neat appearance
Then Mr. Nail, who figures prominently in other projects in this series went to work on the perforations near the bottom of the can for ventilation.
The finished perforations:
Using a marker, I draw on the hardware cloth as a guideline for my cutting of the grate:
The finished cut (It does not need to be perfect!)
Bending the edges down is best done with a pair of pliers, as I was trying to demonstrate in the pic..but I found that my hands were more effective to pinch the edges down.. (here's where a pair of leather work gloves comes in VERY handy!
The finished product
the stove boiling water in a brand new coffee can pot!
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