Sorting wood chips for fuel

[Sting]

I need a new idea. I have been chipping scrap and feeding the boiler with an old coal stoker mechanism - sort of industrial pellet stove style and it works ok.

But the larger chips are a problem. I thought I could screen them out but the screen keeps plugging. Any ideas how to bulk remove the bits that are too large?

 

[Delta-T]

lots of industrial style set-ups use air and gravity to separate things like that. parhaps you could use a screen and a fan to get some air space between the chips so that the bigger parts get caught up in the upper portion of the screen and the smaller stuff travels on without too much manual aggitation. mind you...airborn sawdust is explosive, so cool.

 

[JustWood]

Shaker screen . A dump truck bed vibrator might work.
Or an out of ballance shaft of some sort.

 

[LLigetfa]

A rotating inclined drum screen is your best bet. The big chunks will fall down as it turns and eventually reach the far end. If you make it slightly conical, the feed end being larger, it will be easier to load and will carry the large chunks forward faster.

 

[LLigetfa]

BTW, it's also known as a trommel.