Making Logs for Burner from Paper!!!

[coasty]

Originally Posted by andyw

some people burn sleeper logs and they stink awfull. proper logs don`t smoke much and they smell nice. does anyone know how their emissions compare to other fuels though?

If by sleeper logs you mean railway sleepers, Never ever burn these on an open fire as they are treated with creosote and often have heavy concentrations of coal tar residue and weedkillers in them the smoke can be quite toxic. If you burn them in a enclosed woodburner the smoke can really stain the glass fronts. Also any splinters in your hands through careless handing nearly always become infected,,,

[Paul mabbott]

Also, they can be explosive - I remember as a lad sitting around a wood fire when all of a sudden a big chunk of shrapnel flew through the air. Fortunately didn't hit anyone - were never sure what it was nor why it 'exploded'.

Originally Posted by coasty

If by sleeper logs you mean railway sleepers, Never ever burn these on an open fire as they are treated with creosote and often have heavy concentrations of coal tar residue and weedkillers in them the smoke can be quite toxic. If you burn them in a enclosed woodburner the smoke can really stain the glass fronts. Also any splinters in your hands through careless handing nearly always become infected,,,

[ron1863]

Years ago we bought a paper log maker from one of those Sunday magazines, which was basically a small press where you placed newspapers int a slot and pressed a lever that packed the paper tight. It burned, but very very slowly with very little heat. We threw it out after a week.
We then bought a product called Duraflame or Duralog from Costco that was imported from America, which was excellent. It was made from sawdust that was mixed with paraffin wax and compacted into a log shape and cost about £12 for a box of nine. They burned brightly with plenty of heat for four hours and when expired left a dust that could be hoovered up (when cold).

[coasty]

there was an advert for these in a mag free with the sun on saturday( No i am not ashamed I read the sun) It said the items are available from the sun website

[shirl]

We have just changed from an open fire to a multi fuel stove and I have to say the stove is just so efficient, the lounge is actually warm so you don't need the radiator on. There is very little smoke compared to the open fire (we are not in a smokeless area I suppose because there is no mains gas on the hillside) and it is so much warmer. Wish we had got a stove years ago

Shirl

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by coasty

there was an advert for these in a mag free with the sun on saturday( No i am not ashamed I read the sun) It said the items are available from the sun website

and why should you be! My old boss who is a massively intelligent man proper professor type person engaged both in long running acedemic research and high level ecological consultancy work used to read the Sun every day - he referred to it as his comic!

[Lance Morgan]

'The Sun' should burn well

[coasty]

He is quite right if I wanted to know the news I would consult teletext or the news on TV , The sun is for sport and a laugh.. Definately a comic, However my two colleagues are a telegraph and a grauniad reader , and in the words of the famous sketch they both look down on me

[Hobjob]

I have a friend with a multi-fuel burner you regularly burns old books - books the Oxfam book-shop are sending to land-fill as they can't sell them.

Give good heat but a lot of ash he says.

[amplexus]

I have seen those paper press things for £19.99 plus postage in magazine supplements....often wondered if they were worth it myself.

[gfilmsuk]

I'm sure I've read somewhere that we should be recycling paper, what's with all this burning it?
For every tonne of paper used for recycling the savings are:
at least 30000litres of water
3000 - 4000 KWh electricity (enough for an average 3 bedroom house for one year)
95% of air pollution
Fibre from recycled telephone directories and yellow pages is being used to make egg cartons, cat litter, jiffy bags and animal bedding among other things!
Recycled paper made up 75.5% of the raw materials for UK newspapers in 2004 the list of recycling benefits greatly out-weighs the benefits of burning it.
Encouraging people to burn more paper on what appears to be an enviromentaly friendy web-site? Mmmm..
Dave

[AngeTheHippy]

Happy New Year Chaps,

And thanks very much for all your replies. Excellent reading!

Very much up and running now. These bricks burn FANTASTICALLY, last > an hour usually, they DO have flames (read somewhere they just sort of 'glowed...')Pete made his frame (read start of thread) but decided to go one furthern He discarded the DIY clamps and instead purchased a .... BOTTLE JACK!!! Crikey, it squeezes that paper soooo dry! It's a small bottle jack, I think it was about £6.80 from ScrewFix. I think next year (after a summer of making/drying/storing we'll almost be free-energy for the wood burner. It's true, there does seem to be more soot, so a good chimney clean I think in a months' time.

Next time he's 'making', I'll take some images of the frame with bottle jack. Can I post images on this site?

AngeTheHippy
xxx

[m1.carson]

Hi Ange,

Yes you can post images, but, they must be from the WAB gallery not an external site, otherwise you'll get a slapped wrist,

I wish you luck finding a sweep nowadays, they're few and far between, I also saw a film recently that showed the survivors burning library books, just chucking them on an open fire, have you ever tried burning a whole book, you need to tear them up, otherwise they're not too keen on burning, tend to smoulder and go out.

I've heard all sorts of comments about AGA's, like, great, wonderfull etc, untill the summer comes then the kitchen is so hot it's unbearable, no doubt lincsyellowbelly will put me right.

Max.

[AngeTheHippy]

Evenin' Max,
Thanks for reply. No I haven't burnt books - don't think I could bring myself to do it either!! Pete's got a sweep set, he's done it twice before so not a problem. I don't think there wld be a prob finding a sweep in this part of the world though Max, there are plenty of open fire households.

I tried posting an image in another forum of WAB, I can't find how it's done!!

AngeTheHippy
x

[witham]

Making bricks or similar from paper is a very old fashioned method, I was brought up by my grandparents and they often used to tightly screw up paper to add to the fire or to help start it if the sticks were running out. Another fuel I have heard being burned here in Lincs are straw bales, the large outside stoves/boilers are big enough to hold one of the smaller rectangular bales and one will burn for hours. I don't know how much smoke these will produce but I have been told some fires can be fitted with a small fan or some device which blows the smoke back into the fire chamber as smoke is only unburned fuel, perhaps Lincs Yellowbelly would know more about this.

[thunder]

Originally Posted by witham

Another fuel I have heard being burned here in Lincs are straw bales, the large outside stoves/boilers are big enough to hold one of the smaller rectangular bales and one will burn for hours. I don't know how much smoke these will produce but I have been told some fires can be fitted with a small fan or some device which blows the smoke back into the fire chamber as smoke is only unburned fuel, perhaps Lincs Yellowbelly would know more about this.

They had one of these at the farm I used to lodge at, twenty five years ago. It seemed pretty efficient as far as I recall, and not much smoke.

henrya

[AngeTheHippy]

Hi Everyone!

It's been almost a YEAR since I first posted this thread, and we've seen some pretty interesting views on the subject. I'm STILL receiving PMs regarding this, and for anyone that's interested, as soon as I'm feeling a bit better (gone down with a Flu-like bug,headache,teethache,bones ache, runny nose and sore throat) I'll post images taken of the frame and everything Pete uses to make the brickettes. Just been speaking with Pete and he thinks there's about 300 dried and in the log-store awaiting use . I told someone earlier I thought about 100...DOH!!!

I'll keep ya posted, anyway.

Ange
xx

[AngeTheHippy]

Thanks for being patient, Chaps. Almost over the Flu, 2 weeks yesterday!! Left with a rotten cough. ANYWAY, as promised, I've started a new thread with images posted of just how we make the **FREE** logs for the MultiFuel Burner. Threads title is: Log Making from Start to Finish. Nip along there if you want to see just how it's done. See ya there!!

AngeTheHippy
xx