making pellets-why not cut them 'stead of compressing them?

[pete324rocket]

I'm new here and just thinking "outside of the box" but I would dearly like to get "free" pellets somehow and so I've been toying with the idea of pellet making-wood is so plentiful around here as is sawdust.We have a new pellet stove and I'd like to be able to turn it up full blast without the cost.Do pellets really have to be round? Couldn't you cut pellets from say,scrap lumber or something or devising some kind of cutter to do the same? Too bad the stuff that come out of a wood chipper doesn't meet the requirements of a pellet stove-wouldn't that be easy! Do they make wood dowels by turning them in a lathe? they are about the right size but that would be wasteful.There's got to be a way! We used to have a sawdust burner homemade and the beauty of it was that the fuel was free-in the winter we'd have to open the windows because it got too hot! No insurance company would entertain that! Hope to get some thoughts.....pete

 

[hearthtools]

LOL
you need to do some more research on pellet fuel

Pellets COMPRESSED Saw dust and much more dry and dense that just simple wood.

 

[cbrodsky]

You could buy a small pellet mill.

If you have access to raw feedstock materials that you can finely shred/chop, then you could make your own. Think they start at a couple of thousand or so.

-Colin

 

[pete324rocket]

I've looked at the video of the pelletizer-sure wish I could get a good look at the machinery aspect of it though.Today I let the pellet stove run dry to let all the "sawdust" at the bottom run through...makes me wonder if you couldn't run a mixture of pellets and sawdust-the jamming of the auger would be the main concern I would think.