Making Paper Bricks / Logs

phil_3370

been reading the post's and i was wondering if anyone has tried making bricks with dry paper, i was thinking of using some scaffold pipe (or wider diameter tube) and ramming it with shredded paper and then squeesing or compressing with something (wood or metal plunger) and hammering it down. Anyone tried this method? it seems similar to the other type of brick maker i have seen with the tube/plunger.

any advice would be fantastic.

humblebee

phil_3370, as far as I know dry paper bricks create loads of ash and smother the fire putting, it out. Hope this helps

charlysez

i have bags and bags of shredded paper available if anyone is in the abergavenny, south wales area in the next week or so, hate it going to waste

make_life_easier

Am going to have another go at making these again, I thought they were good and reusing my shredded paper makes this more moneysaving. I will then be able to use them on my new stove (when I get it - I just need to do some work on my fireplace first)

beautiful_ravens

I have a brick maker. I find you dont have to soak stuff for the full 24 hours, 1 hour will suffice unless its thick cardboard.
It gets boring making them.
They burn better if fully dried, but last longer on the fire if still a bit damp [eg last all night]
Its a good item, but not for emergencies, its for planning ahead.

make_life_easier

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

I have a brick maker. I find you dont have to soak stuff for the full 24 hours, 1 hour will suffice unless its thick cardboard.
It gets boring making them.
They burn better if fully dried, but last longer on the fire if still a bit damp [eg last all night]
Its a good item, but not for emergencies, its for planning ahead.

Well I am planning ahead like you suggested - I have just bought one off e bay for £18, I should imagine the savings will be good just incase I can't get the wood for free all the time

make_life_easier

Well my log maker arrived a week ago and I have been busy making my logs, I haven't gone over board (have made 7 in total so far)

I am putting them in the airing cupboard during this cold weather and the 1st one I made has completley dried out already.

I haven't tested them out yet as my new stoves is going to fitted in roughly 3 weeks time - will let you know when I test them out

silverdw

Can anyone advise me as to whether I can use paper bricks on an open fire ... all I seem to read is to do with stoves or wood burners ... I have loads of paper and would love to make these for next winter as I suspect I am too late for this one.
Many thanks
Anne

Ed_Jogg

Well, we're going to try using them on an open fire.
After watching this thread for many months I've finally got round to doing something...

A winter clear-out left me with a large bag of receipts for shredding. I couldn't face feeding them through our shredder -- it's hand-powered and hence environmentally-friendly, but struggles with more than one sheet at a time! Burning seemed a better bet.

Prompted by a previous post, I decided to make paper 'logs' by stuffing toilet-roll inners (or kitchen paper rolls), and this seemed an ideal way to spend some time with my 8-year-old son, who jumped at the chance of helping me make them.

The procedure was simply to throw handfuls of receipts into a bowl of water and leave them to soak for a couple of hours. These were then fished-out and squeezed-out (by hand) , stuffed into a cardboard tube and rammed down using an off-cut of old broom handle. The finished 'logs' were put to one side to dry.

Some observations:
- cardboard tubes can only take so much water before they lose their structural integrity -- hence filling a kitchen roll tube was impossible!
- better results were obtained by cutting the toilet rolls in half (kitchen rolls in three) since the rolls could be filled before they became too soggy
- ramming too hard could cause the tubes to rip (especially when soggy)
- receipts absorb water readily, and only need a few minutes soaking (we ran out of soaked receipts before empty tubes, and couldn't be bothered to wait)
- 24 half- toilet rolls take about an hour to fill, which is coincidentally when you'll start getting bored of doing it!

Now they are sitting on a tray in the sunshine, drying.

Will they work? We'll find out in the autumn! If they burn too quickly as logs, we can always use them as fire-lighters...

Strat05

Homebase have paper compressor on sale for £4.99, looks the same as the one in Argos for £19.99, that's the cheapest I've seen anywhere. Site wont let me add link so go to Homebase website and search for paper compressor or product code 538508