Hobo stove and burner

Things you will need:

Wax, Paraffin or candles
Saw dust
Dryer Lint
Tuna Can(s)
#10 can
Can opener
Hacksaw, Screw driver and hammer, or tin snips
Chopsticks or Popsicle sticks
Something to measure with
And a church key, (bottle opener with a pointy side)



The Stove

Step one:

First we opened a new # 10 can. We opened a new one so that we would have the metal lid that is cut out. In our case I needed to refill my flour bin anyway so, for us, this wasn't a problem. We also opened two tuna cans, (I did two different homemade burners. I wanted to see what I could come up with at home. In a pinch what materials are available will make a huge difference in effectiveness.)

Step two:

After cutting out the lid, we marked a rectangle on the side of the can starting from the open end. With the open end of the can <up> , using a marker, measure, and then mark 3 inches from the top of the can straight down. You’ll be making two of these marks 4 inches apart.

With a black sharpie marker, we marked the lines we would need to guide our next cuts.  This also gave us a stopping point so that both sides would be as even as possible. In this picture, if you look you can see the notches started with the hack saw.  If you have a pair, I would recommend tin snips for this part.  The hack saw works, but takes an extraordinary amount of patience and good hand strength.

Step three:

With the hacksaw, or the screwdriver and hammer, or the tin snips, you’ll need to cut your three inch lines you've drawn from the open side of the can. The top lip of the can is going to be the most difficult part to cut through.

The hacksaw and snips are self explanatory. The screwdriver trick is potentially difficult but seemed to be a little faster. The one hang-up for the screwdriver is the top edge. I recommend dikes or side cuts, or a hacksaw, at least to get through the rim. With the side cuts you are going to have to work at it, especially if you don’t have much hand strength. You’re going to be using the screwdriver like a chisel. Placing the can between your knees, for support, you’ll place the edge of the screwdriver into the beginning of the cut line. With the hammer hit the back of the screwdriver in a downward motion. This takes redirecting but seems to get through the tough metal quicker. (If you've ever made a piggy bank with a jar and a metal lid, cutting the slot in the lid is the same principle.)

Step four:

Now that you have the 3 inches cut your going to need to cut the “bend” part of the flap you’ve created about an inch in from both sides. This allows the “hinge” to bend and open. This flap is going to be your dampener.

Step five:

Now for the lid you cut out in step one. Place it inside the can so that it rests against the closed end of the can. (This eventually will be the top of your stove.)

Step six:

With your church key, (pointed end of a bottle opener) you’re going to be putting in vent holes while at the same time locking the “cut” lid into place. I did this by firmly holding the can at the edge of the counter, and then placed the “hook” against the bottom of the can, pointy end pointed toward the open end of the can. I opened up the vent holes and at the same time secured the lid into place. 4 or 5 vent holes should be enough.

Flip the stove over so that the open end is now the bottom.

Now your Hobo Stove is finished. Onto the burners.

The Burner(s)

Prepare:

Remove lid, contents, and paper from your tuna can(s).

Break apart the paraffin into chunks.

Put your sawdust or dryer lint into manageable bowls to keep close to your heated wax.

Don’t forget your chopstick, or Popsicle sticks. This is what I used to mix and pack the sawdust and dryer lint into the melted wax.

You can buy paraffin in almost any store, especially stores that carry canning or storage supplies. The one we found and used is four separate bars of wax in a box. We broke apart the wax using a butter knife inside a bowl. Breaking up the wax makes it more manageable and easier to melt.

In the interest of space and no pans, I opted to melt the paraffin directly in the tuna cans. You’ll have to be very careful and stay with the stove while melting the paraffin and adding the other ingredients. Paraffin melts fairly quickly and can reach a boiling point rapidly. I used a combination of low heat and removing the cans from the burner when the wax started to overheat. (Remember you are making a burner, be careful, wax does burn and can catch fire.)

By breaking the wax into little chunks, we made it easier to add to the tuna can, and it melted a little faster.

Process:

Add a few chunks of broken wax to the tuna can. Place the can on the burner and turn the burner on low heat. I maintained my burner at about 2 and a half. It takes a minute to get going but prevents rapid overheating and potential for fire. (Remember to be gentile while mixing. You don’t want to splash the wax to the burner.)

Once the wax has begun to melt you will be able to see more clearly how high the level of your melted wax is. I found that starting the melted wax at about ¾ of the can full made mixing and adding more wax less of a hassle. I also found that by doing wax in two cans at the same time it was easier to add needed wax to my concoction. Once I had the melted wax up to about ¾ of the can I began to add the sawdust. Adding more wax and sawdust and intermittently packing everything down, I eventually filled the tuna can to the top with packed, saturated sawdust.

The process for the dryer lint is the same. Understand that dryer lint is more flammable than sawdust. Don’t do much all at once into the can, but also don’t let the lint touch the burner. Make sure you pack it down too.

Now let your burners stand to solidify the wax. (To speed up the process, you can put your burners in a fridge.)

Both of these burners are in tuna cans and use paraffin wax.  The only difference is one being done with saw dust and one being done with dryer lint. 

Now the experience:

Picture this. Utah, Salt lake City area. Approximately 1:30 in the afternoon, around 38 degrees F, a Sunday. Arms Loaded with all of our homemade items. The hobo stove, the burners, and a pot with some water. We sat out on the front stoop to try out our new found toy. With a cold breeze about 7 mph, and a sunny day we set out to see what we could do with our home made burner and Hobo stove.

Anyway, now that I’m done channeling Sophia from Golden Girls…

Starting the burner was easy. All we did was place it under the Hobo stove with the dampener lifted and put a lit match on the top of the sawdust cake. Leaving the match on top of the burner made starting the burner quick and pain free. It only took a matter of minutes before the top of the stove reached 180 degrees. (Note: the pan we used had a double bottom and we should have started with a lid.) We managed with our little burner and no lid to maintain a temperature of about 120 degrees F. We did not get enough heat for a long enough time to actually boil the water, (that would have required 212 degrees F.)

We tried a couple different tactics to run the fire hotter. The first thing we tried was to set the burner on top of an inverted tuna can. This was to put the flame closer, perhaps making the stove top hotter. No dice on this one.

Next we put the burner back on solid ground, (it looked as if it were losing the draft being up higher). With a stick we stoked the burning embers and found that after 50 minutes the burner had only burned down about a quarter of the way.
So that being the case the next thing we did was to dump out the contents of the burner can and see what we could do with that. We never got to a boil but have faith that we, with some tweaking, will get the bugs out and have a useful tool for the future.

Over all I think our experiment was a success. We had an immediate burn, no fiddling around with trying to light our home made burners. We were able to heat the water to a consistent temperature, even though we didn’t get a boil, I am sure that is just a matter of a few changes to our fuel source and air flow. Also everything we put together, we did with items that can be found around the house and easily purchased. For example, if you don’t have access to a #10 can you can use other large soup or coffee cans. You don’t have to have a pre-made fuel source. You could use wood. There are other ways of cutting the can and putting in the vent holes. The way we chose just made the job faster and easier. This type of Hobo stove can be made in a variety of successful ways. The\ only thing getting in your way is YOUR imagination.

Side note:

Both the sawdust burner and lint burner stayed lit for more than an hour and a half. They did not burn with the same intensity the whole burn, but never had to be re-lit. The best way to get a strong enough flame out of these burners, as they are now, is going to be stoking them during the cooking process.

To put out the burner if there is still a flame, simply flip the burner upside down.  This will snuff out any remaining flame.  Just let it cool before you handle it again with out gloves or oven mitt. 

This burner will burn on a very low flame if left un-attended for more than an hour.  If you need a hotter flame or all of the contents to burn.  I recommend dumping the contents out o the can first before lighting.  This will allow a better stoking of the fire. 

UPDATE:

After this experience making the tuna can burners and hobo stoves we decided to try one other thing.  This will completely burn, and has the advantage of being light weight and easy to carry.  It is fairly quick to start.  Maybe this is what you were thinking of when you saw the word "burner"

The top arrow is showing the contents, the wax and saw dust.  The bottom arrow is showing the "pinched" end.  Pinching the end allowed us to enclose and hold the liquid wax and saw dust.  Once solidified, the roll holds it's shape and the wax stays in place.

As a container for the wax, we can use ordinary toilet paper tubes.  (You can also use paper towel tubes, then cut them with a chop saw, or hack saw.) 

As above, we mixed sawdust and wax until the sawdust is saturated with the wax.  After pinching together one end of the tube, we begin to fill it with the wax/ sawdust mixture. 

Excess wax will drip from the bottom end of the tube, so hold it over the pan you used to melt your paraffin.  Using a plastic spoon, we packed the tube tightly with the wax mixture until just below the top end of the tube.  Then we pinched off the top end of the tube.  In order to avoid getting wax anywhere we didn't want it, we placed the new "burners" onto aluminum foil.  We left them to cool and solidify, and now have another type of burner.

These tubes will burn for more than 45 minutes, without needing to be stoked.  The dark spot on the lower tube is wax that has saturated the wall of the toilet paper roll.  This is a good thing.  It will make lighting these tube even easier. 

These burners, can be easily added to the bottom of a Hobo Stove, or even used to start a fire, when kindling in the are is low or hard to find.  When traditional fireplace starters are hard to find these could be a good second choice.