wood bricks

[carlow]

hello all on this fine rainy fathers day
i am wondering if anybody has had experience with making wood bricks out of sawdust to use on a fire .i am asking because i have four [4] plastic bags full of red gum saw dust from my thickneser and planer so i am trying to figure out what to do with them, wood bricks seems like a good idea for next winter.
so my questions are these 1-how to make them
2-do they burn well
3-whats best to burn them in chiminea .brazier.potbelly stove etc.
any info. would be much appreciated thanks carlow:

[Krunchie]

mix it with bees wax and make bricks out of it

[Lumber Bunker]

not worth it...
Put them in the compost, and then in a few months use as mulch.

In the UK many large shops have a dedicated fire wood maker, it uses LOTS of pressure and a propitiatory "glue" to make brickettes, so save waste?

Later

[Krunchie]

if you do use sawdust in compost mix in a nitrogen fixer as sawdust/chips leach nitrogen from the soil to decompose

[Ozkaban]

if you do use sawdust in compost mix in a nitrogen fixer as sawdust/chips leach nitrogen from the soil to decompose

Add used coffee grounds :2tsup: They're rich in nitrogen.


Cheers,
Dave

[Krunchie]

that's an awesome use for two readily available "waste" products

[carlow]

didn't know that about coffee might be a way of using some of the saw dust i have .Any idea about proportions?
Still trying to make wood bricks some sites suggest water and flour as a binder mixed with the saw dust and packed into a small mould .Can only try !!

[Lumber Bunker]

Water and flour, sounds smokey...

off topic, but does wood "leach" nitrogen or does it absorb it from other stuff?
or (what i think), It just changes the carbon / nitrogen balance heavily to the carbon side.

I just add 10x the amount of grass clippings and any type of poo i can get my hands on. to correct the balance.
Seems to be working?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

Or you could make yourself a sawdust stove! ;)

There are quite a few "how-to's" on the web, but this is the one I recommend:

http://nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/rn/rn_ne208.pdf

"Abstract - An inexpensive home-made stove for burning loose saw-dust is described. The stove, which is in common use in other parts of the world, can heat a room 20 feet square for 6 to 10 hours without tending."

[Cliff Rogers]

....
off topic, but does wood "leach" nitrogen or does it absorb it from other stuff?
....
The wood doesn't, the microbes that break it down do.

[stuffy]

I thought about trying this....

Bio-fuel-briquettes (http://www.instructables.com/id/Bio-fuel-briquettes-compress-paper-pulp-and-sawdu/)

..but I don't have a fireplace!

Best wishes

Stuffy
:)

[pjt]

Water and flour, sounds smokey...

off topic, but does wood "leach" nitrogen or does it absorb it from other stuff?
or (what i think), It just changes the carbon / nitrogen balance heavily to the carbon side.

I just add 10x the amount of grass clippings and any type of poo i can get my hands on. to correct the balance.
Seems to be working?
Steve's in the right direction there, good compost that gets hot (60°C) will have a C to N ration of about 25:1, from memory green fresh sawdust is somewhere about 500:1 C to N old dry sawdust 250:1 and fresh green grass clippings roughly (bad memory) but I think about 5:1 so depending on how much you have of each and at what ratio determines how much of each to get it to 25:1, too much N and it will be giving of ammoinia and too little and it wont get hot, the bacteria that break it all down like the right ratio, but for 4 bags all that's a bit much, I'd just spread it thinnly on the ground and add N (read that as pee on it:o) it'll soon turn black and with a bit of water it will decay,....but that also depends on your gardening regime

I seem to recall seeing something on tele (abc) about an african? village making some sort of brick from waste sawdust? and then drying to then burn in the cookers,:?

Pete

[percy seadog]

Carlow,

Good topic. I went down this path many years ago and as I recall with moderate success. It was in the era of making briquettes from mushing up paper with water and pressing the resultant into moulds, drying and they burnt reasonably well. The fad died out. I still have the mould, much like the old can crusher we used to all have. I thought the same process would work with wood shavings as well as all sweeping off my shed floor. I used a concrete mixer with the sawdust / wood shavings in and added a bucket full of flour + water (= clag) until it was just moist, held a ball shape when squeezed with no excess water evident. Then pressed them in the moulding machine, carefully laid out on many sheets of paper and left in the shade. Can't remember how long, they were a bit fragile but easily handled. Burnt well in the cast iron space heater but fell apart and died if you stoked them. Don't know why I gave up on that process, I reckon there was potential there.
I now add NPK, blood & bone and water to the shavings in the mixer, then my wife puts it into her tumble composters, to which normal kitchen compost materials are added. Works well for me with great veges the outcome.

Regards,

Ross, aka Percy Seadog.

[carlow]

made a couple of bricks today using only water as a binder and a 6"
garden pot as a mould .they came out in one piece , a bit crumbly so i put them somewhere to dry .i will give them a month to dry and then see how well they burn .

[Tony Morton]

If you have access to it cow dung is a good binding medium and burns well too cow dung is the staple fuel for cooking in some countries.

Cheers Tony:2tsup:

[Cliff Rogers]

If you have access to it cow dung is a good binding medium and burns well too cow dung is the staple fuel for cooking in some countries.

Cheers Tony:2tsup:
Keeps the mossies away too... (along with a lot of other things. :D )