DIY Sawdust Fire Log

This weekends activities brought many adventures to the Mini Farm and instead of cramming it all in one post, I decided to share a little throughout the week. 

Believe it or not I found myself bored at one point during the two day weekend. I was sitting in my shop trying to think of something to do and coming up empty. I searched through my project list and soon found many items on the list that were still out of reach or they would have taken several days to build.
All I was looking for was a quick one hour job and I actually found it by tripping over it.

On my way out the door to stand outside, scratch my head and look around for my next great build I tripped over my sawdust bucket. I save all my sawdust in the shop for help with starting fires in the pit. The buckets were piling up getting in the way and I needed to do something with them. I also save all the shredded paper from the house for the same reason and also to put in the compost bin. I also save my wood ash from the fire place for the gardens and for the chickens to dust in. That is when it hit me. I needed something so I can get rid of this stuff and maybe combine them all together. That is when I can up with the Saw Dust Log Press.

I took some cedar 1x6 and some scrap 1x2 with a little hardware and started to build.

This picture is what I finally came up with. I didn't take the time to research this and I am sure there are many designs out there a lot better than this one but I think this design will fit my needs. 



 With the press built I was on a mission to gather all the materials and mix it up to see if this will work.
Taking a few big hand fulls of shredded paper, A two gal bucket of sifted sawdust and a couple of hand fulls of wood ash. I mixed all that with water to a soup like effect. 

 After letting the mixture sit for about an hour to soak, I took hand fulls of the mixture, squeezed out as much water as I could and then began to fill the form all the way to the top.

 Once the form was full I pushed the plunger down by hand as hard as I could to squeeze out some water and then placed a couple weights on the handle to give it some down pressure.
Whenever I thought about it I would go by and push down on the handle to expel out more water. I did this until there was no more water to push out.     

I let the form sit in the sun for a day and then disassembled it to reveal a nice pressed sawdust log.
The log will still need to dry for about a week just like an adobe brick to harden and cure. At this stage it is a little spongy, but it is stiffing up really good.
 I can't wait to see how this thing burns. 

So there you go, a quick and simple way to find another use for all that stuff you are saving. This log can be burnt all by it's self or broke off in sections and used as fire starters.