Iluvmyhome 4 in 1 Paper Log Briquette Maker Newspaper Fireplace Recycle Log Maker

The only fault of this product isn't enough to rob it from a 5-star rating. It does what it is supposed to do and is much better than the single brick makers, which I can't imagine ever buying; what a chore doing one at a time! We successfully made 16 bricks in about 40 minutes once we started to press them. We used our shredded highly confidential paperwork containing our personal financial information, grandmothers' middle names, and shoe sizes that we just knew the governments of several countries would be clambering to steal out of our garbage bin and painstakingly piece back together. We went to home depot and asked the lumber department if we could freely take some of their sawdust which they gladly obliged. We took 1/3 of a 39-gallon black garbage bag. We had been soaking our shredded secrets for about a week in an extra-large plastic storage bin, so we added about 1/2 the sawdust to the paper/water and mixed it together at first with a large spatula, and immediately switched to using our hands for the sake of sanity and time. Do yourself a favor and buy a paint mixer to attach to your drill!!! It will make this part a breeze, and they are cheap, and it was something we forgot to grab when getting the sawdust...doh! This brick maker is heavy-duty and sturdy, and works very well doing exactly what it was made to do, however the handles will start to bend almost immediately near to where they connect to the base due to physics, and other kinds of science I'm sure. They just can't handle the pressure and weight placed on them to get enough water out of the bricks, but they can't be made thicker and criss cross smoothly and properly. Like I said, science ... so I didn't take a star off of this review, especially since it is in this fantastic price range with the quality of workmanship and materials the rest of it is made with. You will need to open the handles and get them out of the way, and stand on the top insert to press down the paper bricks getting the most water possible out of them if you want them to dry before you die, or at least in under a month. We first used the handles gently, then we got them out of the way and placed a square piece of shelving on top of the insert to spread our weight easily while standing on it. You will have to tip the water off of the very top so that it doesn't soak back into the bricks, so just refold handles and hold down the topmost one to do so and neither the insert nor the bricks will come out in the process. Afterwards, lift the insert out and then gently pry each end of each brick holder up and out, and wallah! Protection for your sought after earth-shattering secrets, identity, and personal information all bundled up in a homemade fuel source for only the cost of your time and a one-time purchase of this brick maker. We set ours to dry on several cookie cooling racks that have fold-out stands in the unfinished part of our basement near the furnace area where it is always warm and dry. (I'm sure I'll get some comments warning me of some scientific danger doing this, but until then I will assume that it is perfectly safe. Two weeks later there have been no fires and the bricks are drying quite nicely. There are some great YouTube videos that give wonderful visuals of what we did and other ideas too, so find them and watch them first if you want to like your purchase. We followed one of those tips by placing two 3" pieces of 1" pvc pipe in the middle of each brick. Press the paper down to halfway first, then remove the insert, add the pvc pieces and add more paper on top of them repeatedly, pressing in between, until the paper reaches the top firmly and is as drained of as much water as possible. When you remove the bricks, the pvc easily slides out like butter when you press on the edge of one, and you have two nice holes in the middle of your bricks to aid in both drying time and burning quality. Gotta love YouTube!