In the spirit of recycling old how-to threads...

Made another batch of flake over the weekend. Received a nice pressure chamber from @emperorzurg, 4"x4" steel, with a steel pressure plate. This batch is a mixture of cigar scraps and VA flue cured. A few posters suggested flavorings, but for this batch I wanted to see how straight tobacco would taste.



Here's the chamber as it's being filled. I applied alternating layers of VA flue cured and cigar scraps, slightly moistened with DW for pliability.



Here's a pic of the whole setup - the floor plate is a piece of 1x8 pine with a layer of waxed paper on top. Also, I coated the chamber and pressure plate with vegetable oil to minimize rust and interaction between the tobacco and the steel.



Here's the setup in action. Approx. one plastic grocery bag of loose cigar scraps plus a little less than 1/4 pound of VA flue cured with stems removed pressed down to about 1".

Result: flavor is pretty good, although not as good as commercial VA flake (what was I expecting?). Burned pretty well - nice and cool, only requiring 1 relight in the 45 minutes that it burned, and no gurgling