[Stoves] Hand-makng small roundish briquettes

[rongretlarson at comcast.net]

List: 

This below is the follow-up from a few minutes ago, when I wrote on this list 
" I am going to write something next about my thoughts after trying to produce a third shaped - briquette".. 

This below is from from the perspective of using briquettes in TLUDs, where (except for in the last note), I haven't seen any way to as easily make char as in a TLUD. The holey briquette approach championed by Richard Stanley gives some very nice flames in modified rockets, but those briquettes are being broken up to use in TLUDs. I think the same will be true for the long rectangular "sticks" being produced by InStove folk in Cottage Grove 

The question I have had in mind for a long time is whether there is a "best" shape for briquettes intended for TLUDs. So I took the opportunty to get my hands wet (literally) when I found several large vats of material prepared for our (and InStove) experiments. I (and a few others, but others just for a few minutes) tried making small spheres (small - thinking I might need a sphere diameter in the range of 1/5-1/10 of a chamber diameter) - so never more than 3-4 cm. The first attempts all seemed to keep coming out more like small snowballs. I cut many of the larger in half and, repacking, still got a sphere that seemed too big. 

Even when getting down to a relatively small size, the hand-packing ddn't seem natural. I couldn't see a way to make a sphere with one hand - and it was only after quite a while that I got down to four "water-squeezes", using both hands, that the quasi-sphere looked worth testing in a stove. I still don't know if that has been done - as drying was not complete enough as of yesterday afternoon. The final "dry" density seemed pretty loose - but no worse than other briquettes sitting around and a lot better than some.. 

Yesterday, I tried a few more experiments. I found that I could move much faster making long "ellipsoids" - creating a fist with the paper pulp inside the fist shape. I used my left hand with just one squeeze and passing to the right hand,for a second squeeze (imagine milking a cow). Eventually, I was moving pretty fast - when I could be squeezing two units with two hands at the same time. The final product was sort of like a "furry" finger or a furry link-breakfast-sausage (other makers will surely think of another biological shape whose name is not to be used in polite internet traffic). No test results, but again the same feeling that the density was pretty good (that the human hand can produce a quite strong squeeze, when directed of a surface area that is not too large.). 

One advantage of this approach could be more kg per hour. It may fit well with a social gathering - no needed movement from a sitting position. Another is zero capital equipment expense. But mainly, the advantage is in having a final briquette fuel shape that fits with TLUD designs - at least the larger 

I look forward to hearing that others have tried "t*rdquettes" in a stove. 

Ron 
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