There are a few companies around our location making these briquets some sell them by the plastic bag full of 20kgs for $5 a lot of others try for 10kg bags for $10 ! luckily we bought 14 bulk bags around 600kg’s each for $22 each , fingers crossed we can get more if not we do have a large hydraulic pack and might be able to find someone to make a sort of home made press , these are so dense and heavy they must have been made by a real good press as you can tell by the markings on the side where they have heated up under pressure , no binding material at all involved in these .
Dave
5 Likes
You’re killing me.
Your working with reconstituted, pre chunked hardwood trees that output 1.21 gigawatts …
And I’m scrounging noxious weeds and cow patties. 
3 Likes
Nice price! They go for around €60 overhere before the rising prices!
600 kg bigbag? 2 m3?
Not sure of exact size of bags but around 4 and a half foot tall and sit on a 40x48 pallet without hanging over the sides
Dave
3 Likes
Keep them dry and make sure they burn this year. Looking good, dont bother sawing wood with those price 
2 Likes
I don’t have any use for fuel like that but I still think it would be an easy thing to set up my log splitter as a extrusion press. Picture, for example, a three inch pipe mounted to the splitter bed. At the one end cut the pipe with a slot to feed raw material. at the other a welded cap with perhaps a two inch opening and a split in half two inch pipe extended from the cap. The raw material is put into the the slot and the pipe is filled and then every stroke of the ram feeds briquettes out the two inch hole supported by the half two inch pipe with some kind of spring mounted knife to cut them to length.
1 Like
My thoughts exactly Tom that’s how i picture it , I once had a briquet machine for rubbish cardboard &paper waste it had a built in ram to push into the chamber then a guillotine came down and cut and trapped it where it was pushed at a lotta lotta pressure then a trap door opened and it pushed it out before starting all over again , if had my hands on that machine now days i would be over half way there .
I think a log splitter may work but the size of the briquet would have to be less than half the size of these ones i have , just remembering the size of the power pack on my machine it was huge .
Dave
4 Likes
If you want to press it in a three inch pipe, keep it that way. It will never ever go through a two inch. The pressing pipe is split in two. There is a clamping cylinder on it that holds the briquettes. Around 100 bar it releases and if I look at Daves pictures, those maybe a little more. How you fill the chamber is with another cylinder. The Germans do that besides the silo, the Italiens under. Guess wich one is better for maintanance. The germans need an auger for feeding the filling cilinder. The Italiens not and therefor a little cheaper.
Comafer is ok. Stay away from the other one.
1 Like
I don’t understand Joep. How would you build pressure to bind the raw material if you didn’t extrude it through a smaller opening. I see the advantage of filling the extrusion chamber from another pipe welded perpendicular with some sort of hopper on it. Perhaps with an auger to feed it down. I’m not envisioning this being used on a production basis.
https://www.gross-zerkleinerer.de/de/maschine_gp_1_40.html
Take a look around.
Or this one
And here you can see clearly what I mean.
2 Likes
The extruding tube is tapered, one reason why it’s split like that is so one end can be tighter.
3 Likes
Hi Cody, not actual tapered, the upper and lower part are functioning as a clamp to hold the last briquettes. They form a wall for the upcoming briquett to press agains and once the desired pressure is aquired, then the hydraulik piston releases the clamp to make the briquett slide one step forward
3 Likes
Thanks Koen, you just won the TV
You see the strenght of the briquette building when you start with an empty press.
2 Likes
Joep ,
Spoiler alert , i used to design and build these machines, have even quite a few running in the states…
3 Likes
Yes, I thought so Koen. I remember this subject coming up now and then and the response you give.
What brand was it? Some Belgium?
2 Likes
swiss brand Holzmag, that company went bancrupt after 2008 …
1 Like
Hi TomH,
Going from JoepK’s excellent put up video to others after a while it will occur to you, Why the extreme pressures needed? Some of these videos shows the Why in Drop-Testing. Why, drop-testing? To prove mechanized handling storability. Shipping durability. To prove mechanized feeding/use capability.
So what about the single fellow/single household; home based for their his own usages, eh?
Anyone home use growing tomatoes or strawberries know the pretty commercial ones are bred reified for mechanical harvesting, handling shippable, and shelf-life storability at the expanse of mouth popping taste, and nutrient density.
The best tomatoes and strawberries are hand raised. Hand selected harvested. And then lovingly by hand in small batches processed and frozen or heat canned.
Wood fuel bricks can be made the same way.
This was E.F. Shumacher’s way. Create the job-value of meaningful work for all in a community.
This adds human value to your community. Automation takes away value.
I hope not a distraction to your topic MarkC.
Regards
Steve unruh
8 Likes
I disagree on this one Mr Steve. We all want economic grought and plus every year (not me, the same is more then good enough). Without automation , impossible. Bettter products by automation. Craftmanship changes from handson to computer. Cant say that is bad, just different. Last weekend we had a cnc meeting in our place. Ha, I got everyone to work and at the end of the day the cnc lathe, laser and vuccuumformer was sort of operational. Try to make a ball on a coventional lathe and still capable of serving your family. New times, new machines. And for everyone available, not the happy few.
On the other hand, if SHTF how about new computers etc. I dont want to think about that.
Sorry Mark, excellent job. You live in a different world. Respect for your work.
3 Likes
Hi Tom H,
The briquettes can be presses wit a “dead end” system.
The last brikett in the tongues functions as the dead end stop.
Pressure for woodchips around or above 1 Ton per sq centimeter, The shorter the brikket, the denser it can be.
The “fluids” in the wood act as a binder.
The shorter the brikket also = less hourly throughput.
The strongest press i ever build for brikkets was 480 Ton, to press steelwire from car tyres into a dense brikk.
@ steve U, the density also works positive for a better burning rate in a boiler or stove, as the brikk tends to hold longer its shape.
I have build presses for Kimberly Clarck , Georgia Pacific and few more, to press their paperdust into fuel brikks…
Will check my old video’s
6 Likes
Of course I do understand the better controled burning rate of densification K.V.L.
But again for the individual; for the large family is this even needed? No.
I clean up my woodshed floor area from the previous winters splitting chips and splinters, even made wood dusts by doubled brown craft paper bags making up hand filled and pressed, then paper bagged rolled down tight woodstove fuel loadings. ~2-3 kilograms each. Put onto an established glowing bed of wood charcoal. Heat for 2-3 cool-wet Spring day hours.
DO NOT touch, poke, or stir the burning down fuel lump. Later just hand toll even it out. Hand lay on another fuel lump bag. I run out of floor scrapings before heating needs.
You know the differences between low-tech farmers and BIG manufacturing plants “needs” and capabilities.
This is actually a social difference. Involving money, investments, return-on-investment. Versus human investments.
When I earned the most in working manufactures and service industries, I had not the time energy to do much for myself. So bought out needs with the made wadges. Buying made cheap consumer products.
This was the least free time of my life. The least happy time of my Life. With the least extended family involvements.
S.U.
6 Likes