Nice application of the press.
I read with interest some of the issues you are having with CEB. We have some of these same issues with biomass and I might make a couple of suggestions.
To get a good press of the material it helps a lot if the pressure on the plunger is applied directly to the center of the plunger. That will help the pressure to be applied evenly throughout the material. This is easily accomplished by adding a small block to the top of the plunger as shown in the picture.
Secondly, to meet your objective of low cost and to achieve a simple and easy ejection of the brick, try this. After compression just raise the mold a bit and set on a couple of rails as shown in the picture, then keep on pressing with the plunger to eject the brick. Make sure the rails are away from the opening at the bottom so as not to interfere with ejection.
See if this works...
Regards
Lee
EWB Cincinnati
