Hi my name is Kobus Venter from VUTHISA
we're here in South Africa and we are
demonstrating the use of the ratchet
press let's take it apart this is how it
comes...just undo the bolts... ok like that
and keep these bolts handy as it will be used again to secure
the base stand and the press stand components together
this is the press stand with the cylinder the handle and the piston
and this is the base stand...take the back supporting
bar and it goes behind here like that and down here like that just let it kind of stand
like that and take those bolts and nuts and we use the the same ones to
secure this horizontal bar and the two
stands together...ok so when these are quite
tight we're going to be leaving this here to catch the water so we can re-use it recycle it
right so here we've got newspaper
that I've soaked in water for about six
days it goes quite soft like paper pulp
paper mache if it's not all soft
and in pieces you can just use a stick
or a crowbar or something and just mix it up
mash it up
I mixed some sawdust with this about 50%
by volume about 40% paper is enough to keep
a briquette together
ok so let's make some briquettes
as you can see this handle is held up
here and now make sure that the bottom
latch is closed slide it in like that to
lock it down...put your material in there...be very wasteful it does not matter
whatever we spill on the sides we can just
mix it back in...alright...ok put the piston and the piston rod inside like that I like to
compress a little bit which allows me to fill
up some more material...if you want a slightly bigger briquette...so...
let's compress this now...start at the top slotted notch
gradually go down
using quite a bit of force...so all the water most of the water is drained out
the last stroke will actually eject the briquette
so we loosen the eject latch like that
and then with a final push...the briquette then
comes out like that as you can see it's
quite well compacted and won't fall apart
and just leave this in the sun to dry