Pelleduster?

to reiterate what steamguy said.....i consider the need to reduce fines to be a great preventative measure if deemed necessary or not. For the small amount of cash it gives me piece of mind
but the screening solution takes care of several objectives at once
my fiancee is very alleregic to dust
1.screen the fuel to eliminate fines/dust for the girl and stove
2.move the pellets from basement to main floor w/o lifting a single pellet by hand
3.provide a small container w/in feet of the stove with pellet fuel clean and dry and ready to burn....good for the girl to fill up as well as me

This looks like a fun project. I thought I was all set with my contraption until I saw this. I paid $7 for the 4" round vent pipe and used scrap wood from the shop. Curious though, How long does it take to fill the 5 gal bucket of clean pellets ?
Also, how does the user operate it ?
Fill hopper, turn on vac, turn off vac, wait for cleaned pellets to drop then feed hopper again and repeat
Or
Fill hopper, turn on vac, wait for cleaned pellets to drop then feed hopper again and repeat
Or
Turn on vac, feed hopper continuously until pellet source empties, then turn off vac?

Breckwell_owner said:

This looks like a fun project. I thought I was all set with my contraption until I saw this. I paid $7 for the 4" round vent pipe and used scrap wood from the shop. Curious though, How long does it take to fill the 5 gal bucket of clean pellets ?

Click to expand...

Mine takes me I think about three minutes per bag to clean. Imagine pouring a "stream" of pellets about the size of two-three fingers continuously out of the bag and into the feed chute - that's how long it takes. Just long enough for my arm to tire out.

Also, how does the user operate it ?
Fill hopper, turn on vac, turn off vac, wait for cleaned pellets to drop then feed hopper again and repeat
Or
Fill hopper, turn on vac, wait for cleaned pellets to drop then feed hopper again and repeat
Or
Turn on vac, feed hopper continuously until pellet source empties, then turn off vac?

Click to expand...

The last.

What usually happens with me:
- Vac on, pierce end of bag with small hole while vac is winding up
- Start pouring at about the right rate - pour about 2/3 of the bag at that rate
- Arm gets a little tired, so I get impatient and pour faster - momentarily clog the feed
- Set bag down and wait about 5 seconds while feed clears
- Pour the rest of the bag at the right rate.

Takes about a bag and a half as I recall to fill a 5-gallon bucket. If you build yours with an adjustable height, you can lower it down if you're using a washtub for instance and that in turn lowers the height of the feed. You want the output tube as low as possible so the pellets don't go all over when exiting. To feed it, I put the bag across my elbow in imitation of the way the old hillbillies used to do when drinking moonshine from a crock and control the speed of the feed with my free hand.

If I was truly lazy, I'd have some kind of shelf that I'd set the pellet bag on and then just slash the bottom... or maybe an Archimedes screw with a feed hopper... Hey, a new project for this winter...! :lol:

Hope that explains it.

i bought the schedule 40 1 1/4" pvc and 90 degree elbow
ordered the cornvac
have an 18 gallon tote to practice with then moving to 45 gallon garbage can for main storage
going to convert the 220 to a double 110 outlet to power the insert and the shopvac on dedicated breaker
i also decided to run the pcv thru a return in the floor, i bought a few threaded two piece connectors
a few c-clamps and steel strapping so i can have a 3 foot piece of pipe permanently attached and supported in the duct and i can unscrew the top in the off season and put the grate back
and i can unscrew the bottom to switch bins, clear clogs, and get out of the way in off season etc

in-control said:

How about scooping the pellets out with a small strainer, shifting them around to get the fines out over a trash can? Cost ~$2.

Click to expand...

I did that for the first half of the season last year. Took too long, too much work. The pellet duster I built is AMAZING EFFORTLESS WITH NO MESS.

itworks said:

I guess I'm either very lucky, or missing the whole point. To date I've burned approximately 40,000 lbs of pellets, many different brands, hard and soft wood varieties without dusting or massaging them in any way without ANY problems.

Click to expand...

You are missing the point. Any pellet stove with a bottom feeding auger will absolutely have fines built-up in the auger. These fines will eventually jam the auger system. Pellet stoves with top fed auger, where pellets and fines are "dropped" via gravity have less of a chance for obvius reason. Salesman will never tell you this. And until they start selling pellets in clear bags, and you buy a ton at a time, you will always get bags that are crappy.

Tristan said:

itworks said:

I guess I'm either very lucky, or missing the whole point. To date I've burned approximately 40,000 lbs of pellets, many different brands, hard and soft wood varieties without dusting or massaging them in any way without ANY problems.

Click to expand...

You are missing the point. Any pellet stove with a bottom feeding auger will absolutely have fines built-up in the auger. These fines will eventually jam the auger system. Pellet stoves with top fed auger, where pellets and fines are "dropped" via gravity have less of a chance for obvius reason. Salesman will never tell you this. And until they start selling pellets in clear bags, and you buy a ton at a time, you will always get bags that are crappy.

Click to expand...

I disagree. I believe fines will most likely jam the auger within a top feeder than a bottom feeder. Within a top feeder system the aurger has to push up the fines and dust with the whole pellets. The dust will find its way down between the auger shaft and auger chamber hall. Over time, the dust would accumilate at the bottom of the auger feed, eventually causing the jam.
With bottom feeders, the auger shaft is horizontally feed into the fire pot. Fines are eventually pushed towards the fire pot taking pellets with it. This is why we do not here of Harmons having auger jams. There bottom feeders.