I've got wood!

gamston

if you get pre-shred paper, that makes briquettes a lot easier, have you made a rack to stack them on to dry out ? when I used to make them I put up a rack with clear roof so they could dry in sun and wind

Andy_WSM

gamston wrote: »

if you get pre-shred paper, that makes briquettes a lot easier, have you made a rack to stack them on to dry out ? when I used to make them I put up a rack with clear roof so they could dry in sun and wind

Yes, I put up a long shelf on the front of the wood shed which I made from a few shelf brackets (59p each) and some chicken wire that I had already. It's exposed to the elements, but sheltered from the rain.

I've also ordered a 10 tier shelf to go in the wood shed to stack them on - which cost me just £10 inc delivery from eBay. I should be able to store a few hundred on the shelves - then, if I run out of space, I have some empty storage bays in the garage so will get hold of some plastic crates and store surplus in there.

I'm rather enjoying the challenge of heating for little or no cost and very much enjoying have a real fire. It's not as messy as people warned me it would be either - makes me think they were doing it wrong, or really have no idea what they were warning me against.

Yes, it needs discipline and yes it needs space to store your fuel if you want to do it cheap. If you're going to buy sacks of logs from the local petrol station, it's not for you!

FreeBear

Andy_WSM wrote: »

the other was complaining the chimney looked ugly (bit my tongue because I wanted to say "so do you". Someone passed comment that a neighbour's daughter looked very much like her mother.... "So do most other Friesians."

I have a freely available supply of shredded paper, so another free fuel source, other than my time to make the briquettes, which I find rather therapautic.

A garden shredder will make light work of paper if you need to create a pile. A thought.... Would mixing in wood chips (from the shredder) with the paper when making briquettes produce a worthwhile 'log' ?

Plenty of garden maintenance outfits looking for places to offload wood chips - I turned down one load recently as I don't have anywhere to store & dry the stuff.

Andy_WSM

FreeBear wrote: »

A garden shredder will make light work of paper if you need to create a pile. A thought.... Would mixing in wood chips (from the shredder) with the paper when making briquettes produce a worthwhile 'log' ?

Plenty of garden maintenance outfits looking for places to offload wood chips - I turned down one load recently as I don't have anywhere to store & dry the stuff.

An ordinary home briquette press wouldn't likely have the required strength to press wood chips with the paper pulp and it all keep it's form. They do use wood chips to make briquettes on an industrial scale though - it's big business now in fact.

silverwhistle

I mentioned above that I've burnt offcuts of mahogany. The same source from across the road also gives me sawdust which I store in a plastic dustbin. It gets stuffed into empty paper flour bags and they're used as a base for my kindling when lighting the fire. Gets up to temperature quickly this way

Greenfires

I don't know if you've used paper briquettes before.

The presses to make them have been around on various sites for years now - though you can usually save some money by buying "used once" versions from ebay, as that's where most of them end up. Apart from being messy and time consuming to make, and then spending months drying out or just going mouldy - if they do eventually make it as far as the stove, they do little more than smoulder whilst producing a huge volume of ash.

I wouldn't honestly recommend them to anyone.

ColinFishwick

yes there waste of time give off very little heat and as you said give off lots of ash. I had one ended up in bin after a years use, use to store the newspaper briquettes in one of them portable greenhouses

Greenfires wrote: »

I don't know if you've used paper briquettes before.

The presses to make them have been around on various sites for years now - though you can usually save some money by buying "used once" versions from ebay, as that's where most of them end up. Apart from being messy and time consuming to make, and then spending months drying out or just going mouldy - if they do eventually make it as far as the stove, they do little more than smoulder whilst producing a huge volume of ash.

I wouldn't honestly recommend them to anyone.

FreeBear

silverwhistle wrote: »

The same source from across the road also gives me sawdust which I store in a plastic dustbin. It gets stuffed into empty paper flour bags and they're used as a base for my kindling when lighting the fire. Gets up to temperature quickly this way

I also have a regular supply of sawdust & shavings from a wood turner - A shovel or two to get the fire going is all I usually need.

Over the summer months, I need to look in to ways of binding the stuff together to make briquettes without resorting to high pressure hydraulic presses - A light spray of PVA or mixing with a smidgen of cement are the two main ideas at present.

Greenfires wrote: »

I don't know if you've used paper briquettes before.

if they do eventually make it as far as the stove, they do little more than smoulder whilst producing a huge volume of ash.

I've tried burning rolled up newspapers briefly, and agree - They smolder and produce a disproportionate amount of ash. Not worth the effort unless desperate.

Andy_WSM

Greenfires wrote: »

I don't know if you've used paper briquettes before.

The presses to make them have been around on various sites for years now - though you can usually save some money by buying "used once" versions from ebay, as that's where most of them end up. Apart from being messy and time consuming to make, and then spending months drying out or just going mouldy - if they do eventually make it as far as the stove, they do little more than smoulder whilst producing a huge volume of ash.

I wouldn't honestly recommend them to anyone.

I have yes, I've used about 20 so far and whilst they don't burnt hot they act more like goal, glowing on the bed of the stove while wood burns above them. I'd agree that as a lone source of fuel they're no good, but as part of the mix in the firebox then they're about as green as you can get. From cold, I tend to put briquettes in the bottom of the stove, build my fire on top and then add another couple when the fire is going and each time I add wood.

As for huge volume of Ash - I have only emptied the ash from my Burley Debdale 3 times since it was fitted 6 weeks ago! About 2L of ash every fortnight (I know this as I empty into a glass pyrex bowl and leave to stand for 24 hours to ensure there are no hot embers to set my compost bin alight!) and the stove is on morning and night. If anyone is getting lots of ash then that's effectively incomplete combustion, so something is working incorrectly or the stove isn't very efficient.

Murphybear

Davesnave wrote: »

£65 for a big trailer load, but as I said, variable in size/quality of cutting, although dry enough to use straight away. It's a sideline of a local business with other more proftable aspects, so the people they get to do the cutting are less 'trained' than some.

Hi

Do you have contacts, and what area is it in? We are moving to a farmhouse a few miles from Okehampton in August. There is no gas in the house but a wood burning stove and this is new to us. The outgoing people are leaving us some logs but it might be useful to have a cheap source of supply.

Thanks