Firelog compressor going cheap

[FGYT]

i just use pre pulped paper its already packed tight and isnt expensive or even free

paper shreddings go on the compost mixed with grass cuttings

heard these paper logs take a while in the press and a long time (months to dry ) but have never used em so cant say for sure

ATB

Duncan

 

[sasquatch]

The fire log compressors aren't great in my opinion but worth it for a fiver. Big batches are the way forward and would work far better with added sawdust and wax as Toddy mentioned. They take ages to dry once compressed but I stack them on my radiator in the cellar in heavy rotation. That way they're ready in a couple days all year round. The only reason I use mine is to keep my lad happy as he enjoys making them far more than I do.

 

[Toadflax]

I've tried without a huge amount of success. The machine works well enough and bricks dried out pretty quickly in the greenhouse in a hot summer, but I'd included a lot of coloured junk mail paper and coloured printed cardboard that just didn't burn well. As has been said, it may be better to stick to newspaper (or plain black and white scrap paper) maybe with some other additives such as sawdust.


Geoff

 

[sxmolloy]

i tried that it doesnt work well with office printer paper only newspaper seems to pack tight when wetted but once you tell a few people you want papers you get a house full of them lol

I think you just saved me a fiver

 

[QDanT]

My Da' used one of these in the 80's when we had the coal fire, think it worked OK for him. He got one of these drill attatchments thats used for stirring plaster & artex & modified it to mashup all the paper in a big plastic bin creating a thick paper slurry, you then open a drain plug on the bottom of the bin & let the bulk of the water drain out - the slurry is then ready for compressing. He also burned peat...which gets me thinkin....cause I love taking an idea to the next level.....what if you were to compress peat with this? like those very pricey 'peat blocks' that garages sell...they do have a 2 hour + burn time cause I've used them.
......imagine.... get a big old wheelbarrow full of dampish peat, compress it into blocks, let it dry out & bob might be your uncle.....we went on a canoeing trip to Donegal a few seasons back & every man and their dog was digging peat & stacking it to dry.
We always carry in our own fuel on our regular kayaking trips to form the backbone of our little fires... which usually consists of overly expensive bloody petrol station logs ....I'll look into getting {or making} one of these - could save us money & space......I'll then maybee try out the peat thingey.
How are you drying the finished blocks & how long does it take?
Let us know how it goes with the burn time.
If I make one, I'll do a detailed post on it's construction - the tube one looks pretty simple.

From http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33398

You know those log maker thingies ? the ones used to turn sodden newspaper into firelogs ?
They work on the mix of old wax paper and sawdust.
You can improvise though with a bit of plastic drainpipe and something to ram the gunky stuff down hard. Let it set and then shove it out the end.
cheers,
Toddy

-------------------------------------------------

thanks Toddy for surfacing a memory from the 1970's, when I lived at Ickornshaw North Yorkshire and the house deeds included 774 acres of shooting and peat cutting on the moor where I had my own 10'x8' hut.
Ickornshaw moor
I came up with the idea of welding x2 pieces of RSJ girder together to form a box mold then having this in a frame of 2"x1/4" angle iron and a 4 ton hydraulic car jack with a plate with holes to try and squeeze the fresh peat into brickets, but no matter how small the holes it just squeezed out worms of peat so back to the traditional of cutting and drying then fetching down off the moor to burn on the Reyburn (like an Aga)
sorry for the
cheers Danny

 

[Toddy]

We did the whole drain pipe thing, and it works, but it's a pain to get enough pressure without the stuff scooting out the end.
I tried using a wad of crumpled paper down the tube first and it sort of worked, but.......
This one I intend to have a shot with 'wrapping' the stuff and then squishing it hard

cheers,
Toddy

 

[ged]

To remove one litre of water from anything by evaporation it takes the equivalent of a 1kW heater about 40 minutes. So it's fine if these things are dried outdoors by the sun, but if they're drying in the house on a radiator, the energy cost scares me to death.

 

[spiritwalker]

hmm you just dry them as and when you have the radiators on dont put the heating on just to dry them that would be silly :-D mine dry out quick in the greenhouse

 

[ged]

hmm you just dry them as and when you have the radiators on dont put the heating on just to dry them that would be silly :-D

Yeeeaaarrrrggghhhh!

That's exactly the kind of woolly thinking that scares me about my race.

What's the point of turning on the heating if you're then going to COOL the place by evaporating gallons of water?!

You can't beat physics. If you turn water into vapour it absorbs heat. The water vapour then leaves the premises by the nearest exit, taking the heat with it. You're paying for that heat. And so, as we finally seem to be realizing, is the planet.

The only way to avoid this (partially) is to exhaust all the air from the building through a heat exchanger which is COOLED by a heat pump. The heat can then be recovered. You can get about five times as much energy from a heat pump as it uses, so this way you can cut your heating bills by about 80%. Unfortunately, compared with the old-fashioned ways, heat pumps are expensive, complex and unreliable -- but as energy costs continue to increase, they become more and more attractive. You seem them everywhere in the USA and Europe, but I'm afraid in the UK we're some way behind.

Condensing boilers work on the same lines, which is why they're much better than those from the last century. They've started to appear in the UK, that's a small consolation.

mine dry out quick in the greenhouse

As long as it's only heated by the sun, that's the way to do it!