Even if you only occasionally have the need for a fire – say you camp once a year – this fire-brick lets you avoid having to pay for those bundles of wood you see outside convenience stores at $10 a pop.

It is easy to make, requires little effort and if you make them all year long, you very quickly can have enough for the occasional camp or fireplace fire!

This process only requires: Two buckets, a drill (or stabbing weapon), piece of wood (or bottom of another bucket), kinda a custom drill bit, water. + your TRASH!

Out of all of the physical spam you receive in the mail, leaves you rake, dead foliage, paper towel rolls, paper plates, napkins, beer boxes, egg cartons, etc., etc., etc., – why not turn it into useable logs for your furnace, campfire, or cooking?

Step 1

Get two 5 gal buckets. Drill a lot of holes in it, about 2 inches down from the lips and around 3/16 size-ish. Go around all the bucket and on the bottom.

Step 2

Place the holy bucket inside the other normal bucket. Start putting your papers, leaves, bio material in it. Add your water and fill’r up. Doesn’t really matter if you have too much water.

Step 3

You need a custom drill bit, which I have. A good thing to do is find an old table saw blade and weld it to s shaft of steel. This is “the hardest” part of this setup. Drill away and in seconds you will have a nice pulpy wet mess.

Step 4

Next, pull out the holy bucket and let it drain. I put the draining bucket on top of the other bucket to save the water – you can re-use the same water many times.

Step 5

You should have a press that goes far down into the bucket to press out the remaining water. But you will probably want to place a bucket down on some wood, trace around the base and cut out that piece of wood to use as a press.

Step 6

Set your press inside the bucket over the pulp. Then I set the re-used water bucket inside of that bucket. That will work over time.

Step 7

Now once most the water is pressed out – take it out to a sunny/dry place. Turn over the bucket and tap on the top. It will take some time to dry, depending on your location. We live in the desert so this will happen fast.

Making a firebrick is cheap and easy – especially when you consider what you pay for wood today and the process of hauling and stacking wood.

Because it burns slowly this DIY project is ideal for the occasional fire or if you have a lot of trash and can make a lot of firebricks, it easily can replace your need for the same amount of wood you would need without it!

To learn other DIY projects like this one, check out Survival Sherpa!

Featured Image via Survival Sherpa