News Paper Rollers

[Vermontster]

Remember these things? I saw them as a kid for sale in magazines, now I see them for sale on eBay.
What are they? cast iron rollers for news papers to make "logs" for the fire.
Is this a good idea? safe? creosote? or the next solution to home heating?

 

[elkimmeg]

Back in the 70's I tried one without much sucess and gave up using it

 

[Gooserider]

I've got one, only made about 20 "logs" with it - IMHO it's a real PITA to use, it is almost as much work as splitting a round by hand, and takes a lot longer. The logs that you get don't burn all that well either, and depending on what you roll into them can be problematic if you have a cat stove.

The one I have is essentially a steel trough with a removable axle that connects to a crank. The axle is two parallel steel rods. You fill the trough with water and start the log with a couple sheets of newspaper threaded between the two rods. You keep turning the crank to roll it up and adding paper to the roll until it fills the trough tightly, adding more water as needed, then you feed a couple of twist ties through and tie them off to hold it in shape. Once it's tied, you pull the axle out of the center (which can be a bit of a struggle - it helps to crank it backwards a couple times) and remove the log, which needs to dry for several weeks before being burned.

I tried making logs with just newspapers, and others that also contained a bunch of mail order catalogs and other glossy paper - didn't seem to make much difference what the log was made from, they all burned like crap.

If anyone wants the one I have - let me know....

Gooserider

 

[jtp10181]

My dad had one of those when I was kid. Was fun for my brother and I back then. Don't remember how well they burned, we just had fun making the things.

 

[Gibbonboy]

I just took one of those to the recycling center the other day, tossed into the metal bin. Lehman's also sells a "brick maker" where you wet the paper, put it in the press, and squeeze hard enough to get the paper to stick together and squeeze out some water. When dried, you supposedly have a "brick" of paper.

Bottom line is, they don't work. I don't read newspapers, so I even have to grab some from work for starting fires at home.

I know where there's another if you want to play with it, just cover the shipping. Saves me throwing it with the other in the metal scrap bin.

 

[DiscoInferno]

My grandfather had a whole circular log rack full of those newspaper logs at one time. They didn't burn well, as other have noted. Probably why they never got used. Some of the newspapers were a lot older than me.

For some reason this thread reminds me of a news segment (60 Minutes?) I saw as a kid, about a guy who signed up for as much junk mail as he could, and heated his house with it. He rented this huge mailbox, and made a trip to the post office every day to collect his mail. Hard to see how that could have worked well, though.

 

[myzamboni]

I was the newspaper roller when I was a kid. Dad to too cheap to actually buy one of those. My fingers were black from the child labor I provided. I never did like how they burned.