Compressed sawdust Briquettes

[JOE PUBLIC]

1. Given the growth in Joe Public (JP) returning to wood burning, I would'nt have thought these briquettes would have a major impact on the log market in the short or mid term if ever.

 

2. If the supplier tries to hold customers to ransom with higher prices, then surely JP will just switch back to the logs he used before if they are better value for money.

 

3. The manufacturer IS marketing and trying to sell his product, that is why he's been in touch with Bingoben. Many manufacturers produce a product and then enter into a relationship with a retailer to sell to the end user. Cadbury's don't own all the corner shops that sell their chocolate products!

 

IMO: If the briquettes are as good as or better than logs then its a win win situation. It makes excellent use of a waste product, log suppliers have another product to offer to picky customers to create revenue, and if we have another long cold winter its another source of of burnable material when the retailers log pile stocks are running down.

 

ive send a facsimile to the members of the clergy, they all prefer proper logs, they feel that too much sawdust mixed with cadbury's reminds everyone of the awful cakes that are sold nationwide to raise local funds at xmas!!

[renewablejohn]

whats a joiners log????

 

Joiners logs are softwood planed all round timber cut into a standard length of approx 9 inches and typically 3x2 or 4x2 we also do Joiners splits which again is joiners softwood typically 18x6 which we process through a splitter to form logs similar to split logs and finally the random offcuts we sell as joiners noggins.

[renewablejohn]

Ok, just a slightly random question here but its been bugging me for a while. Are these briquets always made from untreated timber?

 

In theory yes but the environment agency have prosecuted in the past manufacturers purported to be using virgin timber when in fact they were using treated pallet wood. As for imported briquettes it could be anything I have even heard of a 50/50 split woodchip and plastic.

[18 stoner]

Cheers for that John, glad you realised why i asked.

 

It seems to be a large can of worms and I'm sure there are many who will jump on the "green" band wagon to get shot of treated waste. Would take some policing i guess.

[eddie8217]

i would use the briquetes to try and expand your sales to new customers, they all love real logs, my bro and his mates are in to the natural but they will take some briquetes, sometimes its worth it to stock something thet makes little proffit, if you don,t have them others will and then sell them firewood as well.

[County4x4]

John - are you doing briquettes for domestic use now then? I remember last time I asked you were only doing stuff suitable for WID plant?

 

Ben - would this happen to be UK Heatlogs by any chance - I had a chat with them last night as it happens - they seem to be doing the rounds at the moment. The thing to remember about briquettes is that they are far from being "all the same". Different types of machines will produce different types of briquettes - some which expand and then collapse into a pile of hot sawdust, and others which don't expand and form proper embers. Others are made by small operators using machinery adapted from other industries - and these often produce what I call "garden centre specials" - little chunks which according to one of my regular briquette customers are, and I quote - "rubbish - just like you said they'd be"!!

 

cslogs - yes they are really dry - mine average less than 9%. However, they are also extremely dense and so long lasting. Other softer types I've trialled have burned far too fast as you suggested, and while they may have been cheaper per tonne - if they only last half as long they actually work out more expensive than top quality ones.

 

I suppose the other things to bear in mind are that quite a lot of blokes these days are into male grooming products and moisturiser, and not so many relish the thought of getting dirty hands these days - so briquettes offer a very clean and high energy alternative to logs that won't leave bark and crap all over the place, and with which you can store an awful lot of energy in a very small space. Not everyone has room for a massive woodpile out the back. You can also push the green aspect - it's a 100% natural (or should be) product which is also diverting valuable waste from landfill, so you can have nice fuzzy warm feelings about saving the planet while the briquettes are keeping your tootsies warm!

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

Edited October 27, 2010 by County4x4

[Andrew Reed]

I tried a few of these, from a manufacturer who produced them as a bi product from specialised horse bedding production. 1st point is they have to be kept very dry, sealed the bags they arrive in until you need to open a bag for use. Even left in my dry store in an open bag, they still seemed to pick up some mositure. But that did not make any significant difference. On the fire they light easily, and burn with a low flame, fairly hot from what I could tell. Not very attractive to look at in the fire. It remimded me of my old coal fires burning furnacite. I used them mixed with other various wood. Anyway, i could not see the point. Maybe you get more heat per cube, and maybe it is good/green to re use waste that otherwise would be landfilled, but you still have the pastic bags left over. My samples were free, as is my wood for burning anyway. I guess for most punters who just want as much heat per £, the it's price compared to decent hardwood to decide how popular it would be.

[renewablejohn]

County 4x4

 

At the moment waiting for an Italian engineer to fix the briquette press. We had swapped the WID compliant material into pellets for producing cat litter as the margins were greater. This allowed us to produce normal briquettes for domestic stoves which we have been selling. At the moment the machine squeezes but does not compress it would appear the clamp is not working in sequence apart from on start up so we only get 6 briquettes before the machine goes wrong. This is a brand new machine so I would be very wary about buying a used machine.

 

Treestuff

 

We sell our briquettes in recycled stackable 600x400 plastic boxes containing 90 briquettes. When the customer returns the empty box they get a discount on a replacement full box. We market this as Zero packaging and it has gone down well with our Eco friendly customers.

[County4x4]

I know exactly what you mean John!

 

We bought a brand new 50 ton paper baler a few years back when I was at Envirofirst. It was late arriving for starters and after a number of excuses like they wanted to upgrade the hyrdaulic power pack on it and so on, this machine arrived on a low loader. It took us about two minutes to see that it wasn't new at all, as there were remnants of paper and cardboard inside it, plus evidence of wear on the wire guides and so on. Some of the debris inside the machine had actually been spray painted over the top!

 

First thing I did was stop the cheque that had been handed over too soon by the finance company, and then we got the MD of the company along to explain why he'd sold us a second hand machine as new. He said it was brand new and so we started pointing out all the evidence against - at which point he said it was brand new but had been used for factory demos. "Ah - so it's second hand then?" He insisted it was still brand new and after an exchange which looked like getting unpleasant, he left us to sort it out with the sales exec.

 

I told him I'd already cancelled the cheque and said we'd pay him the original price less £10k. At first he said no way so I told him he'd better arrange collection sharpish then, as the machine was going to get dragged out in the yard in about ten minutes and was unlikely to still be there the following morning!! That was when we got the discount!! Couldn't believe the front of the guys though trying to pull a stunt like that.

 

I may be interested in some samples and pricing etc when you are back in action John - I'm currently selling screw extruded briquettes which are the best I've ever had to be honest, but always interested to check the others out.

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

[ail901]

I am considering making my own briquettes from sawdust and wondered if anyone could advise me on a machine

 

theses are for personal use, I live in France, yes we have lots of wood but have a source of sawdust too, good idea to use it.

 

the machine is capable of producing briquettes at 50mm, but only at 140kg/hr, ok for me i think.

 

it uses a pressure of 15-20Mpa to screwpress the sawdust

 

will these briquettes be ok

 

ANY comments welcome