Making pressed logs?

[930dreamer]

Has anyone made their own pressed logs? My shop is next to a cabinet shop so there's no shortage of oak pieces plus the industrial sawdust collector. My thought were a motor driven hydraulic press using dry sawdust.

 

[blades]

To get the density need a lot of pressure, as in hydraulics. Plus heat to get the particles to self bind other wise need to add a binding agent. There is a lot of info out there on this of which about 90% is sales hype. Low density is easy to attain and that is what the bulk of the vids and such are. I made some up with damp saw dust and a 20 ton press in a die/fixture I tossed together. I would rather cut split stack real solid wood for the time involved. They did work, burned rather quickly but my density was no where near say an Eviro brick or similar. The brick presses or extrusion types start around $60K for something worth while. What I made up, as a cooking fuel, would be fine. Every couple of years I dig around on this subject to see what's new in the brick/puck/extruded not much has been happening. Lot of items in the pellet field of which 98% are sourced from Chi-com. Compression units for blocks kinda fall under waste consolidation as such are way to big volume wise. In the pellet industry The US is of secondary importance as the money lies in selling to Europe which is where likely 98% of the product goes. Got to Turn a large volume to overcome the associated cost of production. There is a large mill work mfg not far from me. They turn their waste into pellets as a secondary operation- as such it is profitable for them as it eliminates waste disposal fees. Which when subtracted from the cost of pellet production and marketing leaves them a small profit or a break even point on the books. Pellet production on a home scale is much easier to achieve Even there it is about a $5k out lay to get going with solid wood/ saw dust. The machine is much more robust ( requires a double reduction drive line) than the feed pellet type units.