Biomass Briquette Lever Press - Fuel/feed briquette maker

I've been contemplating my rabbitry, and finding the ROI is wanting.  The cost for rabbit pellets per week is around $22, which buys me a fifty pound bag of rabbit pellets.  I've got something like 12 adult rabbits, and 9 bunnies at present.  I typically give them gleanings from the garden and yard, and was for a time putting them out in a duck tractor-ish contraption daily, which gave them direct access to grazing the yard.  This cut down considerably on pellet consumption, but still, I really want to find a way to NOT spend any money on the little things, and STILL produce at a very good rate.

I thought about the possibility of making my own pellets, using the vegetation that is available here in my own land.  So I started looking for a means of producing pellets, or something of the sort.  This is what I have found so far, a briquette maker, or as I see it, a rabbit food maker, as well as some variations on this theme:

Found at ebookbrowse.com

The mix of plants, and perhaps minerals, will have to be what I can come up with on my own land, or nearby.  I've located a section of field on the grounds of a nearby golf course that has a good mix of some sort of clover or vetch, Queen Anne's Lace, Chicory, and a goodly number of other species.  I will ask permission to come and mow that section, saving the clippings in a grass catcher, and then mix the clippings with water, put them in the press and form briquettes.  These will be able to be dropped over a pole, or dowel, for ease of feeding.

The other obvious use of this biomass briquette lever press is to create briquettes to burn as a fuel source, for cooking, heating, etc. I'm going to experiment with that side of things as well.  I've got to come up with a stove to burn use.  The folks who invented this press, also have invented a very good cookstove, made from local materials.  In a pinch, this would make all the difference, easing the toil involved with cooking over an open fire tremendously.

That's it for now.  Enjoy!

Ciao,

Panchito