Selfsufficientish.com

Hi i bought a paper log maker, i have made a good few so far, you get the old news papers put them in a bucket or bin with water and turn it every day till it turns to masha and put it in the log maker and press it down and out comes the log and then you leave it to dry out, it seems like a good way to recycle paper, because i can get lots of old news paper in the shop over the road from me. i got it on the net.
www.natualcollection.com good site.

jessie

I looked at those. You'll have to tell me whether they burn well or not, but I'm guessing you won't be lighting a fire in this weather. We have an open fire in the living room and it'd be nice to make our own logs.

I make these paper logs, I find they are brilliant for starting the fire and mine last for ages if you burn them with a combination of coal and wood logs. There is something really satisfying about making them and leaving them to dry out (that takes an age too). Please use rubber gloves when making the paper mash, the first time I did it my nails and cuticles where blackened for days despite using every hand cleaning substance known to womankind.

could you not just do it by shaping mache coals by hand? Or do you need a log maker to get the water out or the density right for burning?

I guess you have to squeeze quite a bit of water out... we've got an old peat press that we ended up with as part of an auction lot we won earlier in the year.. Actually I think we'll have a go with that now as it's good brick drying weather... might even persuade my 12 year old to have a go

You would need to have exceptionally strong hands to squeeze enough water out, the paper log/brickette maker is ideal, it's mechanical, works by lever and is really very satisfying to use. We have lots of jokes here in this very silly household about me 'making my own logs'. Sorry to be so coarse!

roflmao

G'Day All,

Yep! Ive had one for while, my problem is the time taken to make each log, but otherwise they are OK

Nev

roflmao ?
What does that mean Shirlz?
My text spell isn't so hot!
Pam

I meant speel not spell....

Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Arms Off.

Might not be arms.

Use your imagination.

we have used the paper log maker for years - they burn much quicker than wood, but hey - its free. we make them out of scrap papert - envelopes, junk mail etc, as we can recycle newspapers easily. they do take a fair bit of effort. we also make little 'coals' using a potato ricer we bought at IKEA it looks like a giant garlic press - when I saw it i knew what it would be good for!
We dry the logs and 'coals' in the greenhouse in winter - use up any spare heat...
Another idea - our local pub saves corks for us. you have to pick out the plastic ones.. but then bung them in the coal skuttle and shake them on now and then. be careful tho.. those wine fumes.. just occasionally they have lit with a bit of a woomph! ack i love my wood burner. we need to get a new one put into our new place if we ever get there.. and get enough money together...

Red

Ooh! Ooh! I've got a potato ricer. I use it for making mashed potatoes (call me conventional) but I could use it for that too.

It's interesting to hear that some people have success with the log/brick maker. It's a topic that's come up on this forum a couple of times before. I'm a bit disenchanted with them - making the logs, or bricks, is messy, time consuming, and mighty unsatisfying (give me a saw and a tree trunk any time).

I'm also a bit sceptical about their heat output - if one newspaper = one log, then you are only ever going to get one newspaper's worth of heat out of it, regardless of how much hard work you put into preparing it. This could be i) a noticeable amount of heat for a short time, or ii) a barely detectable amount for ages. My experiments with them tended towards ii).

But as Red says, they're free.

Great idea about the potato ricewr, Red!

Nev