So we recently moved to Montana (Oct '16) and I turned 40! Any way for the past few years I've been keeping an eye out for niche ideas to earn *extra $$.
I live outside of Helena and drive past a wood yard twice a day with a pile of sawdust twice as big as my 3 br house, so I got the idea of using that sawdust to make a product. And of course pellets and bricks are pretty much all I can come up with. Buying a pellet mill means you will be able to produce livestock feed as well but that's a whole 'nother complex topic..
Anyway I have limited experience myself using a pellet stove and since I'm more than positive this mill's sawdust is evergreen (meaning 90% pine) I wonder, do people even look for softwood pellets? Does the burn rate over hard versus soft pellets at the per pellet level matter? Nice sappy evergreen wood burns hotter IIRC but the stigma is that more creosote is produced. I can disprove that with regards to burning lumber scrap but....
Thoughts? opinions?
*I should clarify. I'm not looking to quit my day job producing pellets as there is no way I could compete on that level with big box stores @ $5 per 40lbs. But an extra hundred or two a month would be the goal.
I live outside of Helena and drive past a wood yard twice a day with a pile of sawdust twice as big as my 3 br house, so I got the idea of using that sawdust to make a product. And of course pellets and bricks are pretty much all I can come up with. Buying a pellet mill means you will be able to produce livestock feed as well but that's a whole 'nother complex topic..
Anyway I have limited experience myself using a pellet stove and since I'm more than positive this mill's sawdust is evergreen (meaning 90% pine) I wonder, do people even look for softwood pellets? Does the burn rate over hard versus soft pellets at the per pellet level matter? Nice sappy evergreen wood burns hotter IIRC but the stigma is that more creosote is produced. I can disprove that with regards to burning lumber scrap but....
Thoughts? opinions?
*I should clarify. I'm not looking to quit my day job producing pellets as there is no way I could compete on that level with big box stores @ $5 per 40lbs. But an extra hundred or two a month would be the goal.
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