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.


Don't forget to vote for your favorite instructables for the Maker - Bot contest!

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

[dmeidan]

How about getting 2 for price of one – shred and make the paper bricks from your junk mail by using the papermasher bags: a revolutionary new concept in document shredding and identity protection. It eliminates the actual shredding and gives consumers a time-saving to traditional document destruction. Simply fill your Papermasher bag with your confidential documents and load the bag into your home washing machine. As the washer cycles, your information is mashed into an unreadable paper pulp.

[Xthinker]

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

[frogmama]

Rather than "baking" methods, I'd try to get as much water out as possible. (think like high-efficiency washing machines) I'd use a form with holes in it , a piece of plywood cut to fit inside the mold and a heavy brick to let sit on it for several minutes while making other bricks.

Of course, anything to help the drying process would be good - somethig that allows airflow under and around the bricks, warm... like putting them on a lattice board, corrugated metal sheet, etc, on saw horses in the back yard(or deck, or even roof), in a breeezy, sunny spot.

[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.

[frogmama]

This sounds like a fun project. I didn't read all the comments so I don't know if it was suggested, but I wonder how a paint mixer bit would work for blending the pulp. We have one we used to use for making liquid laundry detergent (we make dry now :) ) They are made to mix paint in 5 gal pails and could probably do a nice job, especially if you soak for a few days. (I'd prefer that to shredding, personally.) Our newspaper printer place always has lots of extra newsprint.

For those who are interested in alternative wood sources for burning -imagine having to twist and twist "logs" of hay for heat. the Ingalls family had to do that in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book "The Long Winter". It was that or freeze to death. It is a true story. 30+ logs a day. Good book!

[howdotheydothat]

I have recently began making these for upcoming camping trips to supplement out firewood use. I was watching an episode of I Want That! on the DIY channel and they showed the Lehman's Newspaper Brick Maker. I bought one ($30 plus shipping). I have boxes and boxes of old bills and things that should have been shredded but I didn't, plus tons of junk mail and newspapers. I tried making the bricks out of shredded material and from non-shredded material. I have found that using paper that hasn't been through a shredder actually holds together better. Working outdoors on the lawn (I can't imagine trying this indoors. WAY too messy!) I take a bunch of junk mail and soak it for a couple of minutes in one of those black retangular cement troughs until it is thoroughly saturated. I tear up the soaked paper, then taking it by the handfuls, I kind of rub it together in my hands until it feels a little like cooked oatmeal. Then I start filling the newspaper brick form. It has holes and a top piece to press down into the form to squeeze out some of the excess water. I've been setting them on my mesh bottom garden cart to dry in the sun. After doing this a couple of times I've learned that I need to lay an old piece of screen down on the lawn first, as this process creates a lot of paper lint that covers the lawn. It's biodegradeable, but messy looking. I'm hoping these paper bricks burn well so that I don't have to buy so much firewood for our camping trips. And to DIY-GUY, are you trying to burn your house down? I hope no one actually tries any of the drying methods you suggest. The whole point of making paper bricks is to burn them, because they burn easily. Just lay them out in the sun to dry.

[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.

[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.

[frogmama]

Not sure about reccommending cooking with these, but Organic Gardening (a popular magazine in the US that encourages chemical-free gardening) has addressed the issue of using newspapers in gardens for weed control and fertilizer and claims the soy-based inks pose no threat to those concerned about chemicals. But of course, that is not burning the paper and directly cooking food with the heat. Its a personal opinion, I'm sure. Just thought I'd share

[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.

[Frowney001]

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

[adsandy]

thank you!

[bmiller1]

Canada has legalized Hemp! Hemp makes very durable paper. Imagine that Hemp paper will burn too, but have no real experience for this, just great hopes, because hemp takes even less than a year to produce, in some locations even grows more than one crop a year! Much more eco-friendly than wood! Any other, more knowledgeable input on this?

[clax1227]

soak them in gasoline them sundry them you'll only need 1

[mogg]

if you're using the bricks for heating, not food, how about mixing in a little used cooking oil when you make the bricks? it will make the bricks easier to light, and is still carbon neutral. i use something similar to this to start my wood heater, rolled newspaper with a shot of old oil. Means i can skip firelighters and messing about building up from kindling.
I know someone will likely say the oil will burn dirty/smokey, but that will only happen if you havent built the fire right, and once it's hot enough it isn't a problem.

[ExploreFLoutdoors]

This is an excellent way to recylce old newspapers/ magazines. The ashes are good for your compost bin too. You get 2 uses from it!!!!.

[Finker]

To dry the bricks i put them in the microwave.But my bricks were only about the size of a large bouncy ball from those quarter operated vending machines.KEEP a watch on them if you leave them for to long they will catch fire.I learned the hard way.

[crowland1]

My Father bought one of those brick press things, he got a bit obsessed with making the bricks at one point and every windowsill upstairs was lined with drying bricks. I believe they sell them in those betaware type catalogues.

[KiwiBuggy]

Been thinking about doing this myself for some time now (just been too lazy to get going with it till now.)

I had planned to use some seedling pots with the drainage holes at the bottom - was planning to get a few of those going with bricks resting on top to help drain the water.

[bajablue]

Great instructable!

[daltonjcw]

Perhaps mixing borax with these? Or, as long as you are not cooking with them, mix the Krazy Fire Krystals with them? Pretty fire.

[BtheBike]

I would think the blender is not needed if soaked long enough. A better straining /compacting method can cut dry time and pulverize . maybe C-clamp or car-jack ?
I've used them to press cider/applewine .

[Madrigorne]

power drill and paint stirrer works as a great upsized blender for macerating paper pulp in a large container like a trashcan or storage tub, the longer it soaks, the more pulpy it gets.

[andy]

@BtheBike I know this is a entirely off topic, but I found that using a blender on apples (for apple wine) worked well - it naturally settles in the demijohn. By the second racking it had cleared of it's own accord. Truth be told it was half apple, half wild plum; nonetheless it was the best batch I've done yet, and unexpectedly it turned out strongly carbonated.

Regards,
Drew

[tjesse]

The award for random post of the day goes to...
Drum roll*
Andy!

[andy]

...I'd like to thank my manager for all the words beginning with GAH! ... green Smarties for not tasting of cinnamon and of course, a big thanks to the people of Ursa Minor Beta for their delicious flan-hats...

[mandersen]

can you do us an instructable on Cider making @Andy....YUMMMM

[andy]

I've had my eye on this Instructable for later this year;

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-cider/

I've never made any cider but there are lots of apple trees planted on roadsides near me. When you get an eye for spotting them, roadsides in the UK are littered with fruit trees, notably apple, green gage and wild plum (each of which there are many different sub varieties). There are also some less obvious but very nice sources for wine such as rose hip, blackthorn and elderberry/elderflower.

D.

[BtheBike]

Your area in the UK sounds lots like the NW of the U.S. . Tons of berries year round and big wild apple territory . I've heard a best source of wild wine is Dandelion . Love to make that 1 season .

[andy]

I never thought of dandelion for wine (young leaves are nice with salad though) - I think I'll give it a try and report back.

Thanks,
D.

[BtheBike]

Yes, I've seen modded wood cutters and sink disposals used to grind fruit pre-mash.
might work for a big paper mulch job too.

[dropkick]

First my bonifides:
I've lived with wood heat my entire life, most of it with a wood stove as my primary heat source, and I know about burning paper.

Paper is tremendously more condensed than wood, and it is actually much harder to burn. - Try lighting an equal thickness of wood to paper and see which one burns first.
Books actually make a very good flame retardant wall.
You need to have air pockets in untreated paper bricks in order for them to burn. Otherwise all you'll burn are the edges - if you can even get them to light.

On the other hand you also don't want to burn to much loose paper as it will go up your chimney and catch your roof on fire. This happens to many people with wood heat every year.
It also can burn too cold, or smolder and let off a bunch of creosote which leads to chimney fires.

That being said, I burn all my trash paper, and have done so for years.

I normally get the paper wet and wrap it around an old broom stick, making rolls about 2 inches across - not much bigger or they don't burn completely .
(I don't soak the paper, as all I'm actually trying to do is get the paper to stick together after it dries and not fly up the chimney, and soaked paper would take to long to dry and make a mess. )
I then tie it off with a couple of loops of wire (which I recover from the ashes and reuse later). I let it dry for a few days and then burn it along with some regular firewood. (I never burn paper logs by themselves, as they won't burn completely).

[Questor]

with a little of the right chemicals they'll burn colors

[tjesse]

I use used toilet paper for this.

[Turtleholmes]

I use other people's used toilet paper for this. Preferably from public toilets, but I'm not fussy.

[maxhuey]

Hummm, I am wondering if you have a way to calculated how much electrical energy was used in making these paper bricks and how much heat energy you were able to get out of them?

[bishopdante]

watch out for dem plastic inks!

[germeten]

The brick press container can be made from boards nailed or screwed to form a rectangle, a hardware cloth (mesh) bottom. Maybe able to make bigger bricks and cut while wet with a machette or fine-tooth saw.

Possibility of adding sawdust to the paper. Just a little white glue added to the paper mush solution would increase the brick strength when dry. Also possible to make paper mush logs by pressing in a PVC pipe.

[loki.68]

I use a hydraulic press in my workshop to push out the water, made up a home made jig to do it. They burn at least 5 times slower :)

[mandersen]

a home made jug like this???

[adsandy]

Awesome! I'm working on finding ways to make them more dense.

[Lareau]

We used to do this as well when I was a kid (to add to our wood stove or fireplace) We used the 'traditional" news paper roller but added left over bacon grease and cooking oil. Burned well and smelled great!

[azgiles]

If you leave the paper to soak in water for a couple of days you can get away without the shredding.

Compressing the logs using a mould with holes in gives you a log that burns for about an hour.

[menahunie]

WOW- You want to blow yourself up?
If your that worried it won't light; quit using two sticks and use a match.

[kirkb150]

Try a l little wax on the dried paper log instead of gas. We save the wax from spent candles, but canning wax is cheap.

I use the pressed paper drink trays and egg cartons with a bit of wax as starters, when I have them.

[thegreat58]

With the world going green, I think instructables like this are awesome, bet they'd be great for starting a charcoal barbecue. You'd only need one or half a one. Good Job.

[pfiddle]

I chuck newspapers and light cardboard into a small (electric) cement-mixer I have and use rain water to soak the paper - tap-water contains too many chemicals and the paper won't mulch well.

I use a press - "briquette-maker - been around in Ireland for longer than I can remember (I'm old). Trick is to let the air dry the briquettes. Failing that put them in the glass-house and they'll keep the air moist as they dry.
For more - using sawdust as well as paper ;
http://pfiddle.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/paper-and-sawdust-briquette-maker/

[wheeets]

Can you soak the newspapers in white gas instead of water to make them more flammable or will they catch fire too easily? Good Instuctable. Thanks for the help?

[azgiles]

The white gas would evaporate away so it wouldn't make them any more flammable.

There's also the risk of the white gas igniting when you're working with it so I wouldn't recommend it as it could be dangerous.

[majeral]

100 years ago my hubby and I found a paper rolling tool, it was made from iron and you rolled up newspapers in it nice and tight. Then ad just abit of water ,then when you get a nice fat roll you soak it in water over night. Take it out and place in sun we made dozens of them as my son had a paper route so we always had newspapers. If the paper is tight, and allowed to dry all the way through you will get a nice burn.

If I was using your method I wold not put in lbender just soak really good then make your form.Let dry

[MalcolmL]

Hi,
Nicely done. Another source of paper is egg cartons. They do not burn well on their own, but maybe as a fibre mix would work better. Regarding the rolled paper fire logs, I remember “helping” my mom make the fire logs when I was about 10. What I remember was that once rolled and tied, you had to soak the roll in water for a day, then let it dry out (just like seasoning fire wood). We did put these in with the new wood for next season. I do not remember how well they burned though. Regards, MAL.

[martins999]

Cool instructables! Just remember not to use these bricks to cook food because printed paper contains a lot of ink which is made with toxic substances

[mce128]

Unless you use say newspaper, which uses "ink" made of soybean oil and lampblack, which is essentially soot.

[adsandy]

Thank you for reminding me! Don't use these for cooking.

[martins999]

and also avoid breathing the smoke

[camp6ell]

and don't pick up a burning brick and poke your eyes with it

[Oldbear]

And certainly don't eat it or use it while sleeping...

[mandersen]

and dont juggle with them!

[Oldbear]

...and don't use them while driving...

[sgsidekick]

Or in the bathtub or shower...

[Questor]

or carry an ember in your pocket

[Madrigorne]

not to be used internally.

[hjliv]

If you experience a burning brick that lasts more than 4 hours seek medical attention.

[captsomer]

Great idea! I like the comments about compressing the pulp into a tighter brick. You could take this to a whole new level and modify a hydraulic log splitter to compress the blocks. It would squeeze out excess water and produce a much denser brick. It would be interesting to see what would happen to burn time and residual ash.

[ladybanksia99]

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Love this 'ible!

A few thoughts - since shape isn't necessarily a limiting factor, one can use most anything for the outer container: how about a plastic strainer, a meatloaf pan (the inner one with the holes), etc.

Also, these make perfect sense to me, but why, when I roll up newspaper and bind with wire or a bread tie, do my rolled "logs" burn out as the outer pages peel back while burning? Oftentimes, I come back to the fireplace a few minutes later and find that the roll has burned out, yet not clear through to the center. Even when I relight it, it still burns out. I gave up on the rolling idea, and went to wadding up the pages instead.

[djsc]

see also:
http://www.instructables.com/community/paper-log-maker/

[Mr. Potato Head]

They look like dinosaur poops!

[goosezilla]

For compressed bricks try finding two pans of the same size. This way you can press down with one pan to help squeeze out water. Drilling some small holes into the mold pan will also help press out water. I think the only thing to keep in mind is that the larger and denser your bricks the longer they may take to dry.

[rickharris]

No need to blend - Soak the paper in water and compress into a suitable mould - It will be more dense and burn longer for lss effort.

[adsandy]

That's a great idea. How did you build that mould?

[rickharris]

it's widely available - That image is from amazon.

[FriendOfHumanity]

These are readily available and inexpensive; just google something like  'paper log maker eco '.

http://www.paperlogmaker.co.uk/heavydutyekomaniapaperlogmaker.htm

There is a demo here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVGUui9XdgI

[BtheBike]

woe, pretty much wut i was thinkin of in my last comment . maybe a cheap device people can sit on the strain the paper .

I've found that an fire isn't deterred by slight dampness once its going.

[Kaljakaaleppi]

Do not burn damp wood, especially if you burn it in a fireplace with a chimney of some sort. There will be more soot in the chimney and the warming effect will be far less, as boiling away the dampness in the log will eat lots of energy.

[TheWillRogers]

been doing something similar for a while, we just do this to news papers and we add in our dryer lint. we make ours to about 6x3x4 blocks and use them as fire starters when it gets cold. great instruct-able by the way.

[ilpug]

http://oktradingco.com/archive/1978-01-01/66054.htm

this reminds me of the above link, although much more ecologically friendly, as it uses no oil. nicely done.

[adamantchess]

you could probably squeeze out 50% of the water then add more to the baking pan and continue squeezing out water, adding more, etc. until you have a larger brick.

[ilpug]

this would be greatly facilitated by making a simple mold and pressing the paper in that, letting the water come out a hole in the bottom.

[Don,t try this at home]

If i riged up a big food dehydration chamber would it effect the stranght of the bricks or would it be a fire hazard?

[adsandy]

I think it would only be a fire hazard if you kept the bricks in there too long. You should be fine.

[mrmerino]

i bet you could compress the hell out of them and make them at least 5 times denser

[icebird]

I believe I will be using this method with a muffin tin to make starter bricks to light the charcoal and wood in my smoker.

[technosasquatch]

could you save on drying time by making them with less overall thickness?
like shallow pan versus a loaf pan

[adsandy]

Sure! But remember, the thinner your brick, the faster it will burn.

[onemoroni1]

This is a great and simple idea. I have thought about using shredded paper to make logs and thought it would be great if you could compress the wet material making it denser and burn longer.