My Puck Maker

headgames · June 20, 2006, 05:31:40 AM

hope they work out. let me know always looking for new and improved info ......... currently using maple wood . with the hot weather we have had I cut a 4' x8" log 3 weeks ago peeled the bark immedietly.. took it on the tablesaw last night with my dado blade . dry all the way through making awsome sawdust for bisquets ;D

TomG · June 20, 2006, 08:19:55 AM

HG, Sorry for taking so long to get back to this thread. I was side tracked by a honey do bathroom remodel that took twice as much time and money as planned.

Last February I got what appears to be identical sawdust from
http://www.nwsmoke.com/store/sawdust.htm ,weighed out 14 grams(the same
weight as a Bisquette), mixed it with a little 1:3 wheat flour/water paste,
put it in a 1/3rd measuring cup(which happened to have a 2 1/4" ID)
compressed the mixture by hand with a can to approx. 5/8", put the cup in a
175* oven for 4 hours and ended up with the pictured biscuit. It burned in
the generator and produced smoke and residue comparable to the real thing.
The sawdust in 10# quantities works out to about $0.03/biscuit, paste costs
next to nothing, sizing and drying are the obvious questions. The faux biscuit is on the left.

gpsmoker · June 20, 2006, 10:51:18 AM

That looks brilliant! Will have to give that a go and see if I can duplicate your experiment!

Greg

Oldman · June 20, 2006, 12:18:14 PM

Quoteput the cup in a
175* oven for 4 hours and ended up with the pictured biscuit. It burned in
the generator and produced smoke and residue comparable to the real thing.
The sawdust in 10# quantities works out to about $0.03/biscuit

TomG are you sure about this. Electricity must be cheaper where you live than me. Now I have a solar oven that works real good and if, and I don't had a mind to make these then I would use a solar oven.

TomG · June 20, 2006, 03:47:34 PM

Olds, I didn't calculate the cost of drying. Sawdust @ $1.00/lb works out to about $.03/biscuit. My time, @ usual and customery, brings the cost up to approx. $50.00/biscuit :D. I just bought a 2 1/4" hole saw to cut holes in 1" plastic sheet to make dies, then I'll use the resulting plug as a punch in a simple press to compress and extrude the biscuit per HG's tech. The pressue necessary to compress the sawdust/paste mixture to 5/8" is only about 25-30 lbs. My plan is to punch out a bunch of blanks, rack dry them, pop the racks into my BS and dehydrate the biscuits back to 14-15 grams. After I clean up the resulting mess, I'll call either Bubba or Begolf and order the real stuff ;D

iceman · June 20, 2006, 04:24:58 PM

Don't forget to add in the cost of cold brews also TomG. When I figured out what it cost me to make one puck I could have bought a new Bradley. Ann's still shaking her head at some of the stuff I try. Oh well, a guy has to have fun. Have a good one. ;D

headgames · June 21, 2006, 05:42:09 AM

all right now we are talking . Tom G your my man . you finialy found a non toxic binder that seems to work . I will put pics on tommorrow of a little something I have been working on for a puck maker home kit .......where you can do 12 pucks at a time . I dinked around with gelitine and a little elmers school glue mixed with water but I did not trust it and also I have very little time right now .. but If you like the looks of my proto type home puck maker Tom G and want to take the time to mess with it . I will mail it to you ............... later and in the mean time keep on THINKING !

headgames · June 21, 2006, 10:38:31 AM

this is where I was . I have access once in a while to this 2 3/16" i.d. aluminum machine tubing . My plan was to find a binder compress it into the preslotted tubing, compress it with the bar clamp and 2 bubba pucks. oven it to dry . when completely dry recut my pucks through the slots then press them out one end with a bubba puck. problem #1 drying time of the pucks better then 4 hours with the water and gelitine ... #2 pressing them out . most time the first 2 came out fine the rest in pieces ...... but after seeing through the fog with what TomG did simplicity is best ....... thinking we may as well just finish cutting the tubing into discs and lay out as many as we can on a cookie sheet and dry them singley .............. let me know what you think TomG , like I said earlier if you want to play with it I will mail you the slotted tubes. I dont have the time right now . after all when I need pucks I press them . but was looking for alternitives for our friends on the site

Oldman · June 21, 2006, 03:48:51 PM

What would interest me about making pucks is if I could make them out of citrus wood.

iceman · June 21, 2006, 04:36:58 PM

Quote from: Oldman on June 21, 2006, 03:48:51 PM
What would interest me about making pucks is if I could make them out of citrus wood.

Sounds good Old's. I can't get any citrus saw dust up here otherwise I'd give it a go for you. Maybe headgames can try some for you.

Oldman · June 21, 2006, 05:46:17 PM

A few years back we had a hard freeze and there were thousands of acres of citrus trees that were killed.

Getting citrus wood is not a problem at all. Just go to the bush dump.
Olds

headgames · June 21, 2006, 08:51:43 PM

No citrus here ............. but I have a saw and jointer if some one has a log .......... lol