I happened to be in the bookstore and thumbed thru a book on workshops... I love to borrow ideas... I only found one.
In a large workshop they were compressing the DC's shavings and dust into compressed fire logs...
Anyone in a small shop have one on a small scale, or know where to get one?
Too bad Onieda doesn't link on that kind of tool from their website. I am empyting about 35 gal drum per week and would like to inexpensively compress them.
Haven't run across that, but one idea I saw in a magazine a number of years ago was to mix sawdust (chips in a DC should work just as well) with melted paraffin. Poured into coffee cans with a starting wick, this was purported to work well as smudge pots. Poured into bricks, it should work at a minimum as firestarters for fireplaces.
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I wonder if a paper slurry can be mixed with chips and cast into logs. Compression would have to be very high to do with no binders. Something with a hydraulic cylinder could be made to work if you had the right mold.
One of our local wood suppliers ships his chips to Maine where a company makes pellets. The Woodcraft store gives/sells theirs to a horse farm where it is used for bedding.
How about a 8" PVC pipe w/ a cap on the end.
Pour the dust in - make a "smasher" (think butter churn) and pour and mash. May need to add something to help make it stick together - the parrifin idea seems pretty good. then just unscrew the cap and push it out.
If you have a Hydraulic press (about 80bux at HF for the small 1)- Im sure you could come up w/ something.
Keep us posted.
Three options here. First would be to get a ram/press and feed wood chips and saw dust into a mold along with black (or log) wax available from refineries that use high wax content crude oil (San Jaquine Valley crude, aka SJV). The wax would be a byproduct and sold off.
Second, trade your wood chips and saw dust to a company that makes these logs (presto).
Third, feed sawdust and wood chips to an elephant. :o)
My father recently helped set up a plant up here in Canada that turns sawdust, wood chips, wax, and a little potato starch into molds, which are then turned into trapasoidal fire logs. I can get some of the details from him perhaps (like the ratios used), and find out what pressure is required to form the logs. It's pretty basic stuff, excluding the transport mechanisms required to churn them out at reasonably high volume. FWIW, they get about 3 to 4 hours burn time from a 3 pound log.
Clint
How would you fit beachball sized logs in the fireplace? :)
I use my dust and shavings for the night time or in 'sleep' mode. Just cover your wood fire with the stuff and the fire stays 'in' all night, keeps the room warm. In the morning put on some kindling and a blow will light the fire again. The trick is to give up matches altogether.
I'm not sure I understand. Won't the dust and shavings just burn very quickly... and be gone? It this in a fireplace or stove?
dz> I use my dust and shavings for the night time or in 'sleep' mode. Just
Finally we are getting somewhere. Is this a homemade system for the plant, or commercial? If commercial what is the name of the maker? Wax ... I would think wax would make a mess in the fireplace?
I am > My father recently helped set up a plant up here in Canada that turns
Most, if not all, commercial log makers use wax as a binder. I don't know at what proportion it is injected or if the chips/dust soak in it making a slurry and the excess wax is squeezed out during the pressing.
FMB
Depend on the quantity and the hearth design. Shavings burn very quickly, but a reasonable quantity of dust packs down into a dense pile with little airflow, so burns very slowly. It's the dust pile that will stay in overnight.
OTOH, dust piles burn cold. You may see extra trouble with tar deposits in the flue.
A fireplace. Shavings burn quickly and dust glows slowly. So keep the shavings for the morning or whenever you need a quick burn. The dust restricts air so less combustion, works in stove too.
It's a commercial plant (i..e. it's making logs for retail sale), but built from scratch. They've gone through numerous revisions trying to get their processes to where they need them to be. Things like getting the logs at exactly the right weight, trying to get the wax/wood ratio right to get the burntime/cost effective, etc.
They don't use much wax in the mixture, I don't believe. It's by far the most expensive component of the logs, so they want to keep that to a minimum. Just enough to hold it together after it's been pressed. I don't think the wax causes any issues in the fireplaces, but I haven't tried one myself, as we have a gas fireplace.
I'll have to see what details I can give out based on their patents. I'll try to post back with some details. It's about time for my filial phone call, anyway.
Clint
They should be real pleased that you wnt to give out details of their industrial project.
workshops...
inexpensively
That's why I said I would check before posting any details.
Clint
Many wood pellets, fireplace log, briquet are made with wood only and some use shavings only,no wax or other binders. These shavings have to be dry, broken in finer particles and pressed under very high pressure. Logs and briquets are usually made with hydraulic rams, pellets with rotary dies.
Hi guys it is me again. For a homemade rig, it could be done with a little searching and the briquet would probably be the best approach. We used to have a mill making wood only logs and 8 inch of fine hardwood particles were compressed into 1/2 inch. One of those 1/2 inch section in your bathroom sink with water would fill up the whole sink in a matter of minutes. Sure would not want to ship them via ship or at least I would hope that they did not have a leak.
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