Hobo Stove from Tin Can - Traditional High Tech Camp Stove

Step 7 First Use

The first time you use it, wait for a while for the paint to burn off it. Stay back and don't breathe the fumes. Leave that for the youngsters who still enjoy the smell of burning plastic.

It's really easy to start a fire in one of these stoves. Start with whispy stuff or paper if you're still that close to civilization. Then work up to pencil sized stuff. Thumb thickness is probably the most you'll want for cooking. Thicker than that tends to smoke cuz you'll put in wet ones by accident.
You can toss it in the top before you put the pot on, and then poke them in under the pot.
You can feed longer sticks in gradually through the doors in Seminole star fire fashion.

It's so quick to start one of these, sometimes I'll pull over and do my cooking at a rest stop or by the side of the road. I'll put an aluminum license plate under the stove so I won't put a mark on the pavement. A folded piece of aluminum foil or a flat rock would be just as good.

I don't worry about hassles from authorities, because it's so easy to move the fire or put it out. But I've never been hassled. The rules about fires are usually about "open fires" and this isn't that.