Briquette Making - Stop Block and Push Block

The mold mentioned in a previous entry uses a standard PVC pipe with an inside diameter of 2 inches. This mold casing is the chamber where the compression of the briquette material takes place. But by itself, the PVC pipe has two open ends. The Stop Block and Push Block plug these two open ends.

Stop Block

The Stop Block plugs the rear of the mold. It remains stationary inside the PVC pipe through out the compression process as the Push Block pushes the briquette material. The Stop Block, in turn, presses against the C-Clamp Pad.

Shown below is a magnified view of the front of the Stop Block. This is the face of the Stop Block where the briquette material pushes against.

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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.

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Briquette Making - Clamp and Stand

These two items from the list of the briquette making components essentially form the "machine" that will allow the briquetting compression to happen. The rest of the components are merely accessories that will facilitate the briquette-making process.

Although the clamp is easily available in most hardware stores, the clamp stand needs to be fabricated (more on this later) and customized for the clamp. Shown below is the clamp mounted on the stand.

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Briquette Making - Pail and Tray

Since you will be mixing various biomass ingredients for briquette making, big plastic pails or vats are suitable containers for this purpose. The wide mouth of these containers will make it easier for you to mix the ingredients and transform them into a slurry.

Plastic Pail

For the actual making of the briquettes though, you may want to use a smaller pail with a handle. Using a smaller pail will allow you to move it around for getting the briquette ingredients. It will also be convenient enough to raise it on the sink counter. The briquette ingredients are easier to reach and get from inside a small pail (shown yellow, below) when filling up the mold.

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Briquette Making Machine Components

In a recent entry, I wrote about the workplace where I make my homemade briquettes. Biomass briquettes can come from various ingredients and so the entire process may be a bit messy. Use an apron to keep dry.

In the absence of an affordable commercial machine for home use, you could easily fabricate the various parts that will up the briquetting machine. Shown below are the parts of the homemade briquette making machine. The parts are numerically labeled and briefly explained.

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The Briquetting Workplace

The basic workplace for making the briquettes would be a sink. A sturdy table with a good catch basin would be a good alternative. Shown below is the basic setup I have at home. It is essentially a sink made of concrete at our "dirty" kitchen. It sometimes doubles as a place to wash clothes. =) There is plenty of space at the side for the briquette equipment and the pail containing briquette ingredients.

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Preparing the Briquette Ingredients

In a previous post, I mentioned how paper should be prepared as a briquette ingredient. Two other ingredients I use on a regular basis are crushed dried leaves and sawdust.

Sawdust need not be broken down further. Just ensure that wood shavings and chips that typically come from wood planing processes are removed. Dried leaves need to be really dry and brittle that they break up when crushing with your fingers. A really neat tool is a mortar and pestle setup like the one below that's big enough to crush and grind huge amount of dried leaves into smaller suitable pieces. Of course a hammer mill would be convenient, but we're just talking of simple and no-cost tools here.

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Preparing the Paper Component of Briquettes

In a previous entry, I mentioned that paper has good binding properties that helps create a briquette that doesn't immediately fall apart. It's actually the fibers of the paper that has this.

Cutting or shredding the paper (with a paper shredder) like in the picture breaks down the paper in size. The clean cuts do not however expose the paper's fibers.

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