How to Make a Sawdust Briquette Press

Heating your home with a stove creates a rustic quality and is usually cheaper than electricity, coal, or oil heat. It insulates you from increases in fuel prices as well. However, you may not have the time or vigor to chop firewood. One solution is to make your own fuel briquettes from waste material such as newspaper and sawdust. Common in developing countries, this is cheaper, quick and environmentally friendly. You can build a home briquette press in an afternoon.

Measuring tape
3 wooden boards, 3 feet long
3 wooden boards, 1-foot square
Hydraulic jack
Hammer
Nails
Screws
Screwdriver
Drill
10 wooden discs, 4-inch diameter, 1-inch thickness
Wooden dowel, 1-inch diameter, 1-foot length
PVC pipe, 4-inch diameter, 2-foot length

Instructions

Frame
- 1
  Nail a 1-foot-square board to a 3-foot board, 6 inches from the end.
- 2
  Nail a 1-foot-square board to a 3-foot board, 6 inches from the other end.
- 3
  Nail a 3-foot board to the other side of each of the 1-foot-square board. Stand up the structure so it looks like a ladder with most of the rungs missing.
- 4
  Nail the last 3-foot board to the top of the structure, and flip the whole structure.
Press
- 5
  Screw a jack into the lower 1-foot-square platform using the holes in the base of the jack.
- 6
  Nail a 4-inch wooden disc to the center of a 1-foot-square board. Place this board on top of the jack.
- 7
  Nail two 4-inch discs to either end of the wooden dowel. This will be the piston.
- 8
  Drill holes in rows and columns in a 4-inch wide PVC pipe, 1 inch apart.
- 9
  Place the PVC pipe onto the 4-inch disc that's nailed to the 1-foot-square board. It should nest firmly.

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How to Make a Sawdust Briquette Press

Instructions

Frame

Press