Paper Bricks - free fuel from recycled paper

Even those who try to go paper-free still have lots of paper around the house.  This is especially true if you are a student.  Recycling is a great way to dispose of it, but why not turn it into something that you can use and enjoy.  This makes a great project for a rainy day.  While the components are simple, this project will go much faster if you have multiple people helping.  There are different jobs that can be done at the same time.  Do not attempt this if you only have a little bit of paper.  We used several big boxes full of paper.


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Update: Due to the numerous suggestions, I am currently working on an improved version.  Stay tuned!

Step 1 What you will need

I organized the things that you will need into categories. 

Bricks
     Paper
     Water
Other Supplies
     Paper Shredder (crosscut preferred)
     Plastic Project buckets (at least 2)
     blender
     plastic tub
     water scoop
     strainer
     pot
     pan (whatever shape you want your bricks to be)
     piece of plywood to dry bricks

Comments

[Trysh37]

place the wet wad into panty hose leg. tie it off. toss it into a washing machine on spin. that should get most of the water out!

[fozzy13]

Nice Instructable, and an interesting idea. : )

However, it seems like a lot of work just for the thrill of burning paper. And waiting 2-3 weeks does not sound appealing.. Not trying to critisize, just my opinion : )

This seems like it would be really cool if you added some metal salts to the water, so that they would get soaked into the bricks, and have colored flames.

[DIY-Guy]

Dissolved metal salts would equal diluted metal salts. The color may not be as rich as desired.

Perhaps adding the salts in layers would keep the chemicals and metals all in localized areas.

Do you think that adding salts of metals would make these more polluting and less "green"? (I'm not a specialist in the science of pollution, at least not at this time.)

[fozzy13]

That's a good point. It would be a better idea to just mix in teh metal salts with the paper pulp while you're molding your bricks.

I don't think that adding metal salts would necessarily make them more polluting. It seems like the only additional by-products would potentially be metal oxides. Besides, unless you're making hundreds of thousands, it's hard to believe that the paper bricks you're burning would make a detrimental enviornmental impact.

[Xthinker]

Is there any way to speed up the drying process, like a food dehydrator or oven on low heat?

[DIY-Guy]

Hmm, if one uses a food dehydrator and adds electricity based heat to the process, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of recycling the paper?

Here's a couple ideas to capture waste heat you may already have in your home.
A. Sunny window, place "bricks" on a bent foil reflector and put it right up against a bright window.
B. Behind or underneath the refrigerator where the warmth of the coils can add some heat for drying.
C. On top of the stove (beware of drips at the beginning of the process) where any extra heat from baking will rise up under the burners.
D. In line with the exhaust from a clothes dryer.
E. On top of the water heater if it is not well insulated.
F. Are you already using a fan-heater or other source of heat inside? Maybe over the vents of a central heat system, in front of a small heater-fan, or in a metal colander sitting atop a radiator style heater.
G. Sounds a little crazy, but how about sitting atop the engine of your car while you drive to an from work? Some people used to bake potatoes in foil on the manifold.
H. Depending on the fumes, one may want to place a few "bricks" on a cookie sheet in the oven at the lowest shelf, but only while cooking some sort of meal in the oven. The added moisture would need to be taken into account if bread is being baked.
I. And let us not forget the humble cardboard box and foil solar oven for those of us who live in sunny climates.

[mcpguru]

what about some small holes in the pan, then some sort of heavy compression in the pan to squeeze more water out? It strikes me that investment of time/pressure might be worth it.

[SoDDiggerCpl]

if you have access to a mop strainer (industrial / commercial) it makes it easier. Just line the strainer with a window screen, insert goop, press, and unwrap the brick from the screen

[siafulinux]

I would think a dehydrator would work. An oven could do the same on low heat, but I'd keep my eye on that. There are also "sun dehydrators" (I believe there are instructables for them too).

[Llama Nerds]

"Theoretically", an oven on anything lower than 451 F (flash point of "paper") should be fine. However, given how most standard ovens vary temperature and various types of paper probably have varying flash points, you would probably want to go rather lower than that. I'd feel fine setting it around 200-225 F; that would dry the water considerably faster, but shouldn't get the paper close to its flash point.

[mgalyean]

As long as it is not a natural gas or propane oven which produces water vapor in its exhaust as it burns. Electric is better for drying, or a gas flame/exhaust isolated from the oven chamber. Something to consider is that if the goal is environmental conservation by recycling or saving money by making it oneself, the more complicated and costly (dollars and impact) the process (i.e. electricity for drying) then the less likely it is really saving any money or helping conserve resources at all.

[AlphaRomeo]

You don't really have shred paper and make bricks. Though it's a fun part for sure

I simply make fairly tight roles of paper and then put these roles in the water for a day or two. Paper breaks and fine fibers stick together.

I then the roles into - these look like sticks. I do this after my purging of unwanted paper. Now these sticks are ready for our new year barbecue party.

As suggested by kirkb150 one can add but we add some tree gum or rosin that gives nice fragrance too.

Also try adding some dry spices, if you are using these sticks for barbecue, it gives some different flavor to the food.

[im3733]

Now you're cooking with paper...

[gijoebob]

I would advise against grilling with this. I don't think you want to consume the byproducts from burning the various inks, dyes and binders that can be found in commercial paper.

[AlphaRomeo]

May be you are right - however as you said it would depend on the paper. I suppose food wrapped in paper (in particular newspaper) would get traces of lead from it.
Also when the paper is wet for long enough some binders might get washed way.

But the point is well taken : For my next of the paper logs I will cut the paper - dip in the water - change the water two or three times - and then make the logs.

[glorybe]

Ink for printing does not contain lead. That is from another era. Basically modern news papers and black and white pages contain little to concern you. Color in glossy magazines can contain many rare earths but I wouldn't be overly concerned about that.
People who build with paper crete have interesting ways of shredding large quantities. The hard part can be getting wet paper to dry. It can hold a lot of water for a long time even inside, in air conditioning. Using very little water is the first way of controlling drying time. I suspect that a hot environment would dry paper the fastest. Interestingly with a bit of cement and sand added it will not burn at all.

[AlphaRomeo]

How very interesting - glorybe-
At times one should need to specify where one comes from - I leave close to equator - 18.5 latitude - in Pune, India. I get lot of free paper in the form of newspapers form small printing press from small towns. And I told to be careful with print type.

For us it does not take too much of a time for drying paper pulp - but it is entirely different story in Monsoon - that is soon to arrive.

Does anyone has any idea if the dried paper pulp absorbs moisture - would it act like a sponge - well I will check this out.

The cement and sand bit is very interesting. Paper is light weight - will not burn if a bit of a cement is added - can it then be used as construction material - my be one could paint it with water resistant paint?

Does anyone has any answer for this - if not it would be great thing to try out.

[juanangel]

i did something similar. I use molds for the brick and placed two pegs in it so as to leave holes to place a thin bamboo to hold the bricks during construction. They also helped speed the drying time. I never finish the project but still standing even without any adhesive between bricks.

[bwindy123]

In California there is a company that uses paper pulp,cement and water to make a fake or simulated wood shingle that can be painted, sawed, nailed or bonded with adhesive. It is formed in a mold and a press is used to press most of the water out then placed in stacks with spacer sticks and allowed to air dry or placed in big drying ovens and force dried. This process can be adapted to other products.

[Ardnoc]

http://www.livinginpaper.com/mixes.htm

gives a lot of information on papercreate

[AlphaRomeo]

Thanks Ardnoc -
very useful information - I will read it later, again, carefully -

ap

[Huntman00]

or maby if you are not cooking with it you can add a substance that makes it flame a different color

copper shavings (fine) for green ... but thats all i know of colored flames but i do know there is an ible' about it

[Petergoldcoast]

I have been making paper bricks with a rectangular press for 4 years. I place the newspapers still folded into a 40 litre plastic tub up to about one third and fill the tub with water. about 2-4 days later I attack it with a600mm paint stirrer in an electric drill and stir until the whole mess is a grey sludge. I then ladle this into a strainer made of quarter inch mesh.I used to press bricks but arthritis has got hold of me so now I make cow pat lumps about 9 inches across.(like those in the illustration) I then lay them out on a rack to dry. Where I live ( southeast Queensland Aust.) drying takes about 1 week.I also make tennis ball size and smaller balls, put them in a lever lid tin and pour in kerosine. They make marvelous fire lighters.
I use them in a brazier on cool nights and in a brick bread/pizza oven in my yard. I do not use them for open flame cooking despite assurances to the contrary their is still too much chemical smell in their gasses for my comfort Despite what I have read, coated papers like glossy paper does not work. Neither do a lot of corrugated cartons because they waterproof glues.
In all it is a messy process, definitely for the back yard but very satisfying.

[sw1mfa5t]

Warning:
Newspaper ink stains the hands

[unaffiliatedperson]

mi friend would make these in prison. but just out of TP and sugar to make a cheapy paper mache

[Tim Temple]

Here's a good use for this stuff; a holey briquette stove.
http://www.bioenergylists.org/en/taxonomy/term/243

[nhoja]

There are a lot of ideas about how to remove the water from the paper. How about placing them on a used terry cloth towel? The towel will wick away the largest amount of moisture. what's left will soon evaporate in a sunny location with plenty of ventilation. like on the sidewalk, or roof, or even on the window sill inside the house!!!

[cliqboom]

This is a great way to make a dry source of fire started for your wilderness/survival kit. Just stick a couple in a baggie with some water proof matches.

I haven't tried it yet but it would probably be a great addition to my caving kit with the bacon grease tip above. Great torch material if your batteries run out.

[nhoja]

I use a "magnesium stick" instead of matches. It can be found at any outdoors stores in the same area as matches but it doesn't care if it gets wet. Matches absorb water through the wooden stick and become defunct over time; magnesium doesn't!! It even has a sparking striker on one side to start the magnesium. Good item for survival kits.

[nhoja]

We used to use old tuna cans with rolled up cardboard box cut to height and filled with paraffin wax for all of our camping needs. It's big enough to use as a fire for cooking and it's small enough to control in a survival situation (snow cave, tree hut, etc) by putting the lid mostly back on. as an aside... we used old pop bottle caps (back in the days of glass pop bottles) with pieces of cotton string for wicks and filled with wax. great candles.

[auggie003]

I am in boy scouts, and we use them

We call them 'smudge pots'

They are good to use

[nhoja]

:-) We also used dryer lint as the base material and paraffin wax as the fuel!! Both are pretty easy to get a hold of. I know of several people who use old toilet paper rolls stuffed tight full of lint and wax poured in them. they further place them in the refrigerator to chill them so that cutting them in 1/4ths is easier. They use them as fire starters for their wood stoves!

[bajablue]

Impressive!!!!!!!!!

[ducktape.mac]

will these be useful when using a flint?

[bonecholampworks]

I've had success using a flint with dryer lint...(and hey, they rhyme!)
Lint from your dryer is extremely flamable. Some of that, mixed with a bit of wax, some wood shavings, worked into small balls & wrapped in newspaper make great firestarters, btw.
Flint and lint, who knew...

[djsc]

you mean as a kind of tinder? no, they don't go up that easily.

[nhardy]

In my blog, I posted a fun and easy way to make firestarters...I use these firestarters everytime I start a fire in our firepit and they have never failed me....even when it was windy!
www.pixieleedust.blogspot.com/

[jfree1]

I like were this is going and the instructions are simple enough to have groups of younger kids helping out (Over some different youth groups with ages from 8-12) I can see this being very helpful in the fire starter and with different additives for the grilling/smoking......Thank you for taking the time to post!

[jadink96]

I've been saving up paper all school year to make this. I see you've beaten me to the post, though.. Oh well, good job!

[viper64]

love it