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Monday, March 22, 2010

Briquette Making - Mold

The mold is another item in the Briquette Making Machine Components that needs to be fabricated. But it's easy enough to make with a hacksaw and a power drill. The mold is made of a standard 2-inch PVC pipe. You don't need the entire length of a pipe so it's very cost effective if you can find a scrap length, maybe from nearby construction sites. That way you can even source it for free.

The mold is the component that will form and shape the briquettes. In the briquette making process, you will be able to finish more briquettes if you have several of these molds.


The procedure to make the briquette mold I made is outlined below. The dimensions specified may not apply exactly to your equipment or workplace, so be sure to adjust accordingly to suit your needs.

How to Make the Briquette Mold

Materials

  1. 2-inch diameter PVC pipe
  2. Pencil
  3. Hacksaw
  4. Power Drill with 1/16" drill bit
  5. Masking Tape (optional)
  6. Quick dry Enamel Paint (optional)
  7. Paintbrush (optional)

Procedure
  1. With a hacksaw, cut a 2-inch diameter PVC pipe to 7 inches long.
  2. Cut the 7-inch pipe LENGTHWISE along the middle using the hacksaw. You should have 2 identical halves after the cut. Cutting the pipe along its length is a bit tricky and you might need some sort of a vise to hold the pipe steady.
  3. Take a half of the mold and lay it on its edges. Use a pencil to mark points that are 1/2-inch apart along the half's length.
  4. With a power drill, punch 1/16-inch holes on the marked points.
  5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other half of the 7-inch PVC pipe.
  6. Join the PVC halves together.
  7. Measure 1-inch from one end of the PVC pipe.
  8. Wrap a masking tape around this mark.
  9. With a paintbrush and paint, paint the end, inside and out.

Do steps 6 to 9 only if you don't have identical PVC halves. In my case, the halves were not identical due to the imperfect lengthwise cut. So I painted one edge of both halves. That way, I always knew how to join them together so they're correctly oriented. This meant no gaps in between the PVC halves' edges.

Shown in detail below are the drilled holes along the length of the PVC pipe. Also shown is the painted end at the right.



Matching the the two painted ends together kept the halves correctly joined.

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