Should I be sparating fines?

I'm embarrassed to say ... the first time I saw fines referenced to a bag of pellets ... I thought that it was some percentage of the manufacturer's revenues that went to pay fines of one type or another! LOL ... MAN ... some people's kids!

Seems like a source of fines is the man- (and machine-) handling of the bags ... largely out of control of the manufacturer. I the bags get handled gently and you buy direct from the manufacturer ... I might expect to find relatively few fines, compared to the same stuff being shipped and banged around bo 5 shippers , loaded and unloaded by the owner etc.

So .. maybe, on average, you might be well off to stick to relatively close manufacturers.

Also seems like all the sifting and extra banging around involved would actually create more fines. But ... at least you should be getting rid of what you create.

All speculation, of course.

Dhosh said:

largely out of control of the manufacturer. I the bags get handled gently and you buy direct from the manufacturer ... I might expect to find relatively few fines, compared to the same stuff being shipped and banged around bo 5 shippers , loaded and unloaded by the owner etc.

Click to expand...

The handling part is absolutely true but is only one side of the equation. The manufacture can have an effect on how many fines there are in the bottom of the bad. I'm not a pellet expert, but among a couple things one significant thing pellet manufactures can do is run the presses extruding out these pellets at high pressure, the pellets are more dense and glued together with the natural wood glue binding agent better than when run through at lower pressures. You can take two brands of pellets and take a piece of pellet and snap it in half and it can take a noticeable difference by feel to brake one in half than the other. So in the result of handling you will always have some fines created, but it can be more or less just based on the pellet itself