First homemade bag of pellets to test out :-)

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The biggest reason i am doing this is simply because when the subject is brought up on this site, way too many people here instantly throw the idea under the bus. I am one of those guys who need to learn the hard way.

There's only two ways to learn in life. The easy way, or the hard way. 99% learn the hard way.
 
There's only two ways to learn in life. The easy way, or the hard way. 99% learn the hard way.

Not saying it wont be a fail. But im giving it a shot. If prices dropped back down to an acceptable amount (and stayed) i may not bother.
200/ton at lowes isnt bad right now, If you can find decent pellets for that. Not a huge selection. Up here the better stuff is still 300+/ton and not moving in price
 
The biggest reason i am doing this is simply because when the subject is brought up on this site, way too many people here instantly throw the idea under the bus. I am one of those guys who need to learn the hard way.

Welcome brother.
 
please keep us posted on your endeavors. I have looked into this for years, and always chickened out for one reason or another. getting around local codes on what i can or can't do on my property is the biggest snafu. what a bunch of heretics.
 
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Not saying it wont be a fail. But im giving it a shot. If prices dropped back down to an acceptable amount (and stayed) i may not bother.
200/ton at lowes isnt bad right now, If you can find decent pellets for that. Not a huge selection. Up here the better stuff is still 300+/ton and not moving in price
How do you control the length of the pellets? The mill we played with had nothing to adjust to make them longer or shorter. It was suggested the actual ingredients of the pellet might make a difference but evidently not or we would have heard about it. Long pellets will bridge in many stove hoppers so I would think that would be a item to consider. We had looked seriously about one of these machines but after checking into them decided it was more of a hobby then efficient.
 
How do you control the length of the pellets? The mill we played with had nothing to adjust to make them longer or shorter. It was suggested the actual ingredients of the pellet might make a difference but evidently not or we would have heard about it. Long pellets will bridge in many stove hoppers so I would think that would be a item to consider. We had looked seriously about one of these machines but after checking into them decided it was more of a hobby then efficient.


This mill uses a simple bolt that knocks the pellets off the die. I made an L bracket and bolted it in place of the bolt. Hopefully they will be about half the size so around 3/4" inch. Originally 1 1/2" in which is too long. If need be i can make an adjustable bracket to shorten them more.
 
The biggest reason i am doing this is simply because when the subject is brought up on this site, way too many people here instantly throw the idea under the bus. I am one of those guys who need to learn the hard way.
Boy sounds like me, I would love to do something like this just to use up the sawdust from my shop.
But like you every time I researched it I was discouraged.
Please keep us posted on how this works out.
 
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I would still buy some and make some. 50/50. Start off with your own and can't keep up then dig into your stash.
 
That is awesome cedar, thanks for sharing and goodluck!! Really look forward to hearing more about how it goes!

Its a learning curve for sure. I am remembering everything i hated about high school! All of this studying and research is going to drive me to drink... even more ;-)

Being six weeks out before the store gets a shipment of hammer mills in is testing my patience.

Alot of things to do mean while tho. Need to make the racks for cooling/drying and storage bins, etc.
The hardest part of all this is going to be figureing out the bagging/transporting and storing in my shed. I saved all of my bags from this season so i should be able to refill them, tape them up and stack them the same way. In theory anyways. The tape held good on the test bag so the only way to find out is going to be to try.
 
Its a learning curve for sure. I am remembering everything i hated about high school! All of this studying and research is going to drive me to drink... even more ;-)

Being six weeks out before the store gets a shipment of hammer mills in is testing my patience.

Alot of things to do mean while tho. Need to make the racks for cooling/drying and storage bins, etc.
The hardest part of all this is going to be figureing out the bagging/transporting and storing in my shed. I saved all of my bags from this season so i should be able to refill them, tape them up and stack them the same way. In theory anyways. The tape held good on the test bag so the only way to find out is going to be to try.
Glad you are finding solutions to some problems that crop up. As far as cooling the pellets we used old fashioned window screens so air could circulate around them and dry them. As you will find out the more you handle them the more breakage you will get. There is a product you can buy that will make the pellets harder so they don't break. If you google making homemade wood pellets you should be able to find it.
We are located in the Midwest and started out burning corn so buying pellets wasn't in the picture. But we watched dealers and helped them when they were demonstrating their product thinking if we could make our own pellets it may be the way to go. We had a ready supply of ground wood available so that wasn't a issue but being we raise corn and normally it can cost as low as 3.20 for 56 lbs investing in these machines would be a have to be a hobby as for us it wouldn't be cost effective. If you are set up you might be able to buy a old hammer mill that was used to grind feed for livestock and use it for grinding you wood supply. You would need any old farm tractor with either a PTO or a pulley to power the grinder.
 
Glad you are finding solutions to some problems that crop up. As far as cooling the pellets we used old fashioned window screens so air could circulate around them and dry them. As you will find out the more you handle them the more breakage you will get. There is a product you can buy that will make the pellets harder so they don't break. If you google making homemade wood pellets you should be able to find it.
We are located in the Midwest and started out burning corn so buying pellets wasn't in the picture. But we watched dealers and helped them when they were demonstrating their product thinking if we could make our own pellets it may be the way to go. We had a ready supply of ground wood available so that wasn't a issue but being we raise corn and normally it can cost as low as 3.20 for 56 lbs investing in these machines would be a have to be a hobby as for us it wouldn't be cost effective. If you are set up you might be able to buy a old hammer mill that was used to grind feed for livestock and use it for grinding you wood supply. You would need any old farm tractor with either a PTO or a pulley to power the grinder.


The hardening occurs as the pellets cool. Of all the searching i have done never ran across anything that hardends pellets. I think you may be talking about a binder not a hardener.
The hammer mill i am looking to get is actually gas powered. But chances are it will run off electric once i get it..

Corn is way too expensive up here. Most farmers around me struggle to get enough crop to feed there livestock.
 
The hardening occurs as the pellets cool. Of all the searching i have done never ran across anything that hardends pellets. I think you may be talking about a binder not a hardener.
The hammer mill i am looking to get is actually gas powered. But chances are it will run off electric once i get it..

Corn is way too expensive up here. Most farmers around me struggle to get enough crop to feed there livestock.

I've been wondering how much binding action a small percentage of corn or soybeans added to the wood mix would do?
 
I've been wondering how much binding action a small percentage of corn or soybeans added to the wood mix would do?

I havnt looked into that part too much.

The very vague instructions that came with the mill state pine or spruce at 50% or more needs no binder. Less than 50% to add 0.2-2.% corn or potato starch to get a stable pellet.
 
I havnt looked into that part too much.

The very vague instructions that came with the mill state pine or spruce at 50% or more needs no binder. Less than 50% to add 0.2-2.% corn or potato starch to get a stable pellet.

That's interesting. I guess the starch would actually be a glue/binder. That's cool. I wonder which is cheaper, refined starch or whole product?
 
The hardening occurs as the pellets cool. Of all the searching i have done never ran across anything that hardends pellets. I think you may be talking about a binder not a hardener.
The hammer mill i am looking to get is actually gas powered. But chances are it will run off electric once i get it..

Corn is way too expensive up here. Most farmers around me struggle to get enough crop to feed there livestock.
I was talking about a binder. We seen a large number of pellets just fall apart after they cooled and were dropped into a pail. A binder is supposed to keep the pellets from breaking up after they were cooled. I used the wrong term in describing what needed to be done
 
Really do admire the initiative here. This is the first serious exploration of homemade pellets I've seen in the forums, at least for some time. Most threads have been populated by goofs with no hope of success. Your more scientific and practical approach is refreshing, and has several of us cheering you on. Great to see.
 
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Is the hammer mill needed if the sawdust is mostly smaller-fine dust ?

A screening system would be best used in front of a hammer mill if you already have the majority to the desired particle size. That would reduce your input cost if you do not have to run material thru a hammer mill that is already sized.
 
Pretty cool good job!! Ive always wanted to try this but could not justify the cost to just tinker with something. I wish you could rent one for the weekend it would get the bug out my system probably.
 
Saw a couple of vids on youtube of a Harman burning some leaf pellets....looked pretty normal. Good job on the pellets. Growin corn just seems like a lot less work to me....lol.
 
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Is the hammer mill needed if the sawdust is mostly smaller-fine dust ?
The holes in the die look close to 1/4 inch and in most pellet machines there is a couple of rollers that force the wood dust into the die under a lot of pressure. In the machine we watched the wood dust had to be stirred or it would bridge above the rollers
 
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