Apocalypse Builds: #10 Can Stove

It's after the apocalypse, and you've reached your bug out location and you're sitting around, waiting for the zombies to eat you. Your pork and beans deluxe (now without long pig!) is ready to eat straight out of the can.

You get out your handy dandy P38 can opener and you open the can. Using your tactical spork, you dig in.. and realize that it would really taste better hot. You need a way to heat it up, so you quickly empty a can of freeze dried beef chunks into a gallon ziploc bag, and you make a stove using your handy dandy pocket knife.

Wait, what?
A #10 can stove (sometimes called a hobo stove) is a super easy to make emergency stove. All it requires is a #10 can (think coffee can) and a pocket knife. You can make it with all sorts of fancy features and tools, but at its core, all you need is a pocket knife and a can.

If you want to make it easy on yourself and you have onet on hand, you can use a “church key” style can opener. Tin snips and  a pair of pliers are useful, but not actually needed. 

Note: This is not a number 10 rocket stove. That is a different thing.

Building a #10 Can Stove

1. The can should have one open end (this will be the bottom) and one closed end (the top and cooking area). 
2. Place the open end on the ground.
3. Use the can opener or pocket knife to cut holes below the closed top, evenly spaced along the sides. I prefer eight holes of about a half inch diameter each.
• If in doubt, cut fewer holes, since you can make more fairly easily.
• Don’t cut away the metal! If you need to, you can adjust the air flow by bending the metal back in. 
4. Using the pocket knife, score a spot on the can about one quarter of the way up from the open end (aka the bottom).
5. Cut down from that spot to the open end.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 at a distance of about 1/4 the height of the can between cuts.  
7. Fold the "flap" of metal out of the way.  
8. Place fuel into the stove using that hole. 
9. Light it.

Done.

But why not just build a fire?
In my experience a #10 can stove works just as well as an open fire, and it also keeps the fuel relatively dry and hot. The can forms both a cooktop and a chimney, and allows you to burn a variety of fuels. I especially like it for burning things like fuel tabs with random brush piled on top when it is wet (or the brush is damp). It dries things off quickly, and keeps the fire manageable.

In a pinch, you can even make these out of soup cans; they just have less capacity, and don’t get as hot. 

If you have made a couple of these, you can experiment with the chimney design so that it still flows well, but smokes less.

I made one with nothing but a leatherman multitool, and it worked great. I had cooked eggs in about 10 minutes from a dead start with a cast-iron pan.


As always, don’t forget to practice.

Apocalypse Builds: Concrete Block Stove

Last week I reviewed a rocket stove and gave it a less than stellar review. This week I decided to look into other options, either commercial or home made.

Since I have a bunch of stuff sitting around, much of which I would like to dispose of, I decided to look into concrete block rocket stoves. The siren call of bacon and eggs after the fall of civilization appeals to me; marauding bands of Mad Max style raiders can have fun, but I want my breakfast!

Construction

https://tinyurl.com/y8f683xj

The idea behind concrete block rocket stoves is that you have five hollow concrete (or “cinder”) blocks, called breeze blocks in some places. Four of them will be standard rectangular blocks, with the last one a square block with what looks like serifs on it -- kind of like an “H” with an extra center bar between the two long ones.

If you want to use a frying pan (I recommend cast iron for this), you'll also need some sort of pot standoff. I use a couple of rocks on top of the rocket stove, but most people use something nicer like a gas cooktop pot standoff.

1 & 2) Foundation

Lay two concrete blocks so that they form a long thin bar, with a continuous top and the holes on the sides. This forms the foundation.

It's technically possible to do this without the foundation, but after experimenting, it seems to make a large enough difference to make it worth it.

3) Begin Combustion Chamber

The third block is the differently shaped one. Lay it so that it is dead center on top of the two foundation blocks and aligned with them. The hole in it needs to be aligned so that you can see the seam of the two lower blocks in it. 

This forms a sort of pyramid with the blocks, and creates the back of the combustion chamber.

4) Complete Combustion Chamber
Lay the fourth block on its end, perpendicular to the foundation. The bottom hole of this block will align with the gap in the nonstandard block. 

This completes the combustion chamber, and allows you to feed fuel into it in a protected area. This also allows you to place kindling and small amounts of fuel in the top part of that block, giving you a partially covered area if you have to dry out fuel.

Be aware that the back of the combustion chamber has a small divot that will fill up with ash as you use it, so you'll need to clean that out between uses.

5) Chimney

Lay the fifth and final block so that it's directly on top of the third block, holes aligned to form a chimney. The combustion chamber back will be only partially underneath the hole in the block, but don’t worry, it's supposed to look like that.

Place kindling in the combustion chamber, roughly half way in. Light it, and place small pieces of wood or other fuel in it. Slowly push the fuel into the back of the combustion chamber as it burns.

Use
Grab your kettle, put it on there, and make yourself some hot chocolate. Congratulations! You have a rocket stove. It takes me less than five minutes to heat up a ten inch cast iron frying pan in order to fry eggs.

They aren't terribly portable and aren't the best possible design, but they are a fairly nice option for those of us who expect to bug in and don’t want a larger permanent structure.

My Rating

• 4/5 as long as you are bugging in, or have the materials handy at your bug out site.
• 1/5 if you are bugging out.

Good luck, and don’t forget to practice.