Has anyone ever tried to make their own pellets ?

I just cut down a 40 foot pine tree, I would love to make it into pellets ****

I might be interested in buying a bag or two, let me know how you make out

Yea, me too. Nothing to it!

Hello

Well this 20 Amp 220 volt 3 Horse Power electric pellet mill uses alot of Juice and is not cheap at $2,395.00 ! !
http://www.pelletpros.com/id68.html

Of course for a good 30 Horse Power Diesel you are talking $10,500 ! ! !
http://www.pelletpros.com/id69.html

Or split the difference and get the 15 HP unit for only $4,500 ! !
http://www.pelletpros.com/id69.html - Click here and scroll down!

It would take some time for the payback. I use $600 of pellets for the winter.

So 4 years to break even on the cheap electric not counting my time and labor and of course Electricity!

Cut that thing up, split it, stack it, dry it , and burn it.

Pay off on the needed equipment to DIY pellets is way out there for most folks. Someone on the forum has a unit and was going to let us know how things progress.

Most of us pellet burners tend to be older somewhat broken down tree burners or folks that leaped in to cut the pain caused by oil or propane costs.

Every so often, a pellet machine shows up on craigslist. There is one in North Rose, NY just posted for $3,000 on May26, it is 15 HP size. Dont have any clue what is a good deal or not on these. But if it can make you 12 tons of pellets, won't it start to pay for itself? (minus fuel and raw material cost)

Don't forget that you also need a chipper and a hammer mill to get it into small enough pieces to feed the pellet mill. AND spare dies for the pellet mill and spare screens for the hammer mill. That's a FEW thousand more. And for small mills, you need to add binder since they don't get hot enough to release the lignin. (sp?)

This is very interesting looking machines....If you lived in a rural area, I bet they would work good. The question is when they say soft wood for the smaller electric models can you make quality pellets out of softer stuff? Can you make pellets from switchgrass or ground corn cobs? Once I was given 4 bags of "switchgrass" style biomass pellet. It was given to me from a man who got the bags mixed in with bags of discounted cattle feed product. I will tell you...never again with grass-made biopellet. Never...Never. I burned maybe one bag. The smell from the pellet smoke was like burning grass. Not a nice smell like wood smell. But like someone was burning grass clippings in their back yard. I am fortunate it didnt smell like burning weed, but that comparison came to my mind.

Great, now I just need to purchase a wood cutting mill......

Keep talking like that and I'll beat you with my cane!

For starters Andy, pine ain't gonna make a very good pellet. Pellet manufacturers in our area use hardwood, I know a family up the mountain who owns a milling and cabinet making setup and they used to sell truckloads of hardwood scraps for 20 bucks a heaping load. Now, they don't sell it anymore, because they bought a pellet processor and it was a lot of money, and uses a LOT of power. I think they've had it for several years now, and I know they do sell a lot of pellets, but they make it all out of hardwood. Pine wouldn't be very good.

Typical misunderstanding from a cord wood burner.

Softwoods make some of the best pellets.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=why softwood pellets are better

never would've guessed it, SS. I stand corrected! But I am sure the guy up the mountain uses hardwood in his pellets, that is all he mills.

Hello

Here is a good video on making and burning pellets from leaves in a Harman P61

Nothing wrong with good quality hardwood pellets either.

I'll see you coming and unleash my attack chickens, you'll be sorry .

Ya know I just might be a bit younger than a lot of the pellet burners on here. But that's OK, there are days when if I bend down to pick up things my joints let me have a ration. When I break down and get a rototiller or a ride'm mower then I'll be old.

Scotty, as Smoke Show stated... Softwoods make some the cleanedt burning and highest BTU rated pellets out there.

Hardwood and Softwood pellets are compressed and make the density and weight very close to one another. Which makes the Softwood a better pellet. When talking weight. BTU content is the same. 40 lbs of Fir has the Same amount of BTU's as 40 lbs of Hedge.
The difference is Volume. 40 lbs of Fir will take a lot more space than 40 lbs of Hedge. By turning it into a small fiber, the pellet puts them on equal playing fields. But softwoods contain elements that allow for cleaner and hotter burning....

Canadian Softwoods are some of the most Primo pellets out there...

Dexter and smoke show, I'm impressed with the leaf pellets! After being taken to school by you pellet burners, I did some youtubing and was impressed with some of the options out there. Glad to see that you can even make some good fuel out of sawdust and leaves!! The guy on YouTube making logs out of leaves in a homemade press, that's frigging cool!