[Stoves] Preparing for the winter's fuel supply in Oregon

[Kobus Venter]

Hey Richard,

Here's a pic of some of my winter supply briquettes:
http://vuthisa-techblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/BP3ZhfJCEAA10jX.jpg

And this is how I made them:
http://vuthisa-techblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Steps.png

One cold and rainy night I used 30 briquettes in one go.  I have taught 
my gardener to make around 20 briquettes per week with the "test 
briquette maker" you encouraged me to make back in 2003 or there abouts 
- and the metal press stand is still going strong - just needed another 
lick of paint and I changed out the wooden block.  The Rhodesian Teak 
piston is still around but I've switched to a PVC piston now.  Working 
on a new design to produce some square shaped briquettes for easier 
storage pressed down inside a square section of gutter downpipe.

Regards

Kobus
>> Dear fello briquetters with ready access to, of all things, a used garbage disposal and household sink.
>>
>>> Planning for the winter supply of hollow core ag and household residue based  briquettes, means a lot of material processing.  Thats the not so
>>> much fun part of the process. I have long thought about the possibility of
>>> using a garbage disposal for pulping materials so I got ahold of a scrapped
>>> double basin sink and bolted a scrap disposal on a few days ago, just to see if it was worth pursuing.
>>> Turns out a that its pretty efficient but you really have to clean out any
>>> rocks.  I got rid of those, by filling the non disposal side of the sink The larger basin, half full of
>>> water and soaking and sloshing the leaves /grasses ferns and wigs around a
>>> bit, to settle out the rocks, stones, metal stuff.  Next, I  skimmed off  the
>>> floating material into the second smaller basin-- the one onto which I had attached  the disposal.
>>> I then plowed screed the material over the entrance hole with right hand then stuff it in with
>>> a running garden hose spray nozzle in my left hand left hand .  It does  a good job  of chopping  and
>>> pulping the fibrous  mass into a really well mixed slurry-without destroying the fibers entirely- good enough in fact, that that with just a day of soaking to soften everything a bit,  I can compact it directly in the press,  no paper or other binder,--and more critically, no decomposition needed.
>>> (it's amazing too, just how much gritty sediment accrues, in
>>> the larger soaking basin as well). Clearly wet processing of the feedstock seems to be a good way to go..Will have to test it out over the coming month before I am assured of its real viability but it' be far better if several of us do the same thing -and share back the findings to speed up and deepen the learning curve for the rest of us, eh !
>>>
>> Richard Stanley
>> Legacyfound.org
>>


-- 
Please vote for VermiChar: http://bit.ly/FNBVermiChar