Burning sawdust

[Stelcom66]

After cuttting some wood in the garage I swept the sawdust from the floor at put it in paper bags thinking it would be very good kindling. That wasn't really the case - the only thing burning well was the bag itself. I wonder why, maybe because it isn't dense at all?

 

[mark cline]

No air can get in between the fibers . It burns when its fluffed up, I'll bet .maybe high moisture?

 

[Hogwildz]

Smolder yes, burn nope.

 

[fespo]

Use it as mulch or Oil dry

 

[Z33]

I hang on to the strings when I am noodling a log down to size that I can't split.

They work GREAT as kindling and dry out almost instantly it seems.

 

[JustWood]

My furnace room floor ends up with a lot of sawdust and small bark pieces. I scoop it into a 5 gallon bucket and soak down with fryer oil remains from making biodiesel and maybe some fuel filter drainings. Makes great firestarter.
If its been dried in a paper bag awhile it should burn fine.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I keep a garbage can full that I sprinkle on coals before putting some pine in after an all night burn. If you don't dump a lot on the coals it works great.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Throw a handful on a blazing outdoor fire pit, it will light up like firecrackers.....

 

[blades]

Fine saw dust used in burners is actually sprayed into the burn chamber not unlike fuel oil . When mixed with the proper air ration can become very explosive. Evey so often you hear or read about a grain elevator exploding- it is the dust mixed with air set of by a spark of some kind in most cases.

 

[Stelcom66]

Thanks - I'll sprinkle some on coals, and keep some on hand for oil dry. Seems like no matter how careful I am when changing the oil I get some on the driveway. I should save some for my son's outdoor fire pit to 'light it up'! I'll still save small pieces of wood too small for kindling and collect them in a bag. Doesn't seem right to just throw them out if it'll burn. I didn't realize applied a certain way sawdust could become almost combustible.

 

[CenterTree]

Fine saw dust used in burners is actually sprayed into the burn chamber not unlike fuel oil . When mixed with the proper air ration can become very explosive. Evey so often you hear or read about a grain elevator exploding- it is the dust mixed with air set of by a spark of some kind in most cases.

Thanks - I'll sprinkle some on coals, and keep some on hand for oil dry. Seems like no matter how careful I am when changing the oil I get some on the driveway. I should save some for my son's outdoor fire pit to 'light it up'! I'll still save small pieces of wood too small for kindling and collect them in a bag. Doesn't seem right to just throw them out if it'll burn. I didn't realize applied a certain way sawdust could become almost combustible.[/quote]

.

They have that safety issue at large capacity storage for PELLETS too. (as in pellet fuel for stoves).

 

[Stelcom66]

They have that safety issue at large capacity storage for PELLETS too

Good things to keep in mind. (Hope I'm doing the quote right, new to this)

 

[SawdustSA]

...OK, just had to come look and make sure you were not referring to me...

 

[blades]

Recently they had a problem of dust ignition at one of the pellet plants- I do not remember where -other than eastern section of country. Locally several years back a set of grain elevators being cleaned went ballistic took quite a bit of territory with them, not long after that a pallet company lost about 1/2of the building to a similar problem - sparks from commutator in a table saw were the cause- ( pallet companies around here are notoriously cheap) they had replaced motor with an open frame design instead of a tefc unit- caused there own problem. There was litigation on that one, as faculty was leased.