Was bored on Sunday and tried something of interest.

[musclecar joe]

I was bored on Sunday as the Steelers were not playing so I fabricated a Pellet Basket (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) to see if it would work in my Econoburn 150. I thought “Hmmmm….this might work… same principle of gasification…” so it tried it. I built the basket for about $30. It was able to hold about 40lbs of wood pellets. I lit it and it and it burned for about 5 hours. my boiler had no problem building up to 180 +’ and it was produced excess heat. An Interesting thought occurred to me. If I had a pellet mill and/or a hammer mill I could actually produce pellets out of straw,grass,leaves, sawdust or anything that is readily available for little to no cost with minimal work and I could use the wood boiler I already have. All I would have to do, is build a bigger basket (I feel I can fit 100+lbs. of pellets in it)

my son who helps me cut and split the wood (10 cords) is encouraging me to continue to experiment and seriously consider moving to the use pellets in our boiler. He mentioned building a silo behind the garage where I house my boiler so that we could load the pellets into it with our skid steer and gravity flow them into the garage as need to load the boiler. (funny how all that work splitting and cutting makes you think of ways that are easier on the body)

The biggest problem is, I would have to produce somewhere around 20 ton of pellets to meet my needs, I guess its all relative to 10 cord of wood i use now. I have to say I am intrigued by the idea of a totally mechanized production system of the pellets using what I have readily available on my property. My cost to buy a pellet mill and hammer mill would be about $5000 or maybe even moving to the larger briquette pucks.

Love to hear your thoughts?

Musclecar Joe
Econoburn 150 "Wood" Boiler


ps I have posted the same question in the boiler room and have had some very interesting responses

 

[hoverfly]

Only thing I would really look into is how much energy it will take to make your pellets. Other than that I agree lugging wood when I was a kid, pellets is so much a better deal!

 

[hossthehermit]

MY thoughts?????
Always wondered what sort of folks would be Steeler fans.

But seriously, seems like a boiler system designed for wood is going to lose a lot in the conversion. AND, why bother, unless you've lost your wood supply, or don't want the bother of wood. Good wood boilers seem to sell, used, for enough for a good down payment on a pellet or multifuel boiler. Interesting thought, but don't see it as being practical.

On another subject, come Sunday night you'll wish you WEREN"T watching the Steelers. GO PATS!

 

[smoke show]

I've heard it takes forever to produce pellets with the little homeowner mills.

 

[warmncozy]

I've heard it takes forever to produce pellets with the little homeowner mills.

and $5500 bucks.....


http://www.makeyourownpellets.com/usa-pto-pellet-mill

 

[Corny]

There has been significant discussion on pellet mills on the iburncorn forum. They include the following, in no particular order:

1) An interesting homemade mill made from a gearbox:
http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=10725&highlight=pellet+mill*

http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=10726&highlight=pellet+mill*

2) Pellet Mills; Are they Worth it?:
http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=8182&highlight=pellet+mill*

http://forum.iburncorn.com/viewtopic.php?t=8294&highlight=pellet+mill*

 

[teetah222]

I was bored on Sunday as the Steelers were not playing so I fabricated a Pellet Basket (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) to see if it would work in my Econoburn 150. I thought “Hmmmm….this might work… same principle of gasification…” so it tried it. I built the basket for about $30. It was able to hold about 40lbs of wood pellets. I lit it and it and it burned for about 5 hours. my boiler had no problem building up to 180 +’ and it was produced excess heat. An Interesting thought occurred to me. If I had a pellet mill and/or a hammer mill I could actually produce pellets out of straw,grass,leaves, sawdust or anything that is readily available for little to no cost with minimal work and I could use the wood boiler I already have. All I would have to do, is build a bigger basket (I feel I can fit 100+lbs. of pellets in it)

psst... got a picture of your pellet basket? I've been thinking about building one for taking camping for use in a firepit. Directions how you did it would also be good.

 

[mascoma]

think you got your conversion backwards.
10 cord of wood would require about 6-7 tons of wood pellets... roughly.

 

[musclecar joe]

think you got your conversion backwards.
10 cord of wood would require about 6-7 tons of wood pellets... roughly.

good to know. i do not use pellets now so i appreciate the info

thanks,

musclecar joe

 

[musclecar joe]

I was bored on Sunday as the Steelers were not playing so I fabricated a Pellet Basket (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) to see if it would work in my Econoburn 150. I thought “Hmmmm….this might work… same principle of gasification…” so it tried it. I built the basket for about $30. It was able to hold about 40lbs of wood pellets. I lit it and it and it burned for about 5 hours. my boiler had no problem building up to 180 +’ and it was produced excess heat. An Interesting thought occurred to me. If I had a pellet mill and/or a hammer mill I could actually produce pellets out of straw,grass,leaves, sawdust or anything that is readily available for little to no cost with minimal work and I could use the wood boiler I already have. All I would have to do, is build a bigger basket (I feel I can fit 100+lbs. of pellets in it)

psst... got a picture of your pellet basket? I've been thinking about building one for taking camping for use in a firepit. Directions how you did it would also be good.

directions are very simple. Need: 2 peieces of steel 1/2 wide by 1/8 thick 6 foot long (available at hardware store $6)measured and bent it using my hands and a vise to make a W out of the steel(2 of them) trimmed excess with sawzall. connected the 2 W's with a piece of the excess I trimmed off with nuts and bolts in the middle of the W. bent another piece of steel into a V and mounted it in the center of the connecting steel for extra support of the basket. drilled holes and mounted together using nuts and bolts. used a sawzall to cut the grating to size (bought grating at a salvage yard that also sold steel ( i think it was $80 for a 4x8 sheet)(had extra laying around from building a pig roaster this summer) bent the grating into a U by hand using my body weight and the table. wired the grating to the steel. vwhalla. done. took me less than 1 hour. your size of each piece of material will depend on how big you want to make it therefore i did not include measurements. sounds more complicated than it is. i am sure if you examine my photo closely you are smart enough to figure it out. if you want to see the image of my pellet basket go to the same titled post in the "boiler room" (https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/62633/) scroll through this forum. you will find it there. you can also go to (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) that is where i saw it first and decided to make my own. (for much less $)

m-joe

 

[hossthehermit]

I was bored on Sunday as the Steelers were not playing so I fabricated a Pellet Basket (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) to see if it would work in my Econoburn 150. I thought “Hmmmm….this might work… same principle of gasification…” so it tried it. I built the basket for about $30. It was able to hold about 40lbs of wood pellets. I lit it and it and it burned for about 5 hours. my boiler had no problem building up to 180 +’ and it was produced excess heat. An Interesting thought occurred to me. If I had a pellet mill and/or a hammer mill I could actually produce pellets out of straw,grass,leaves, sawdust or anything that is readily available for little to no cost with minimal work and I could use the wood boiler I already have. All I would have to do, is build a bigger basket (I feel I can fit 100+lbs. of pellets in it)

psst... got a picture of your pellet basket? I've been thinking about building one for taking camping for use in a firepit. Directions how you did it would also be good.

A guy here in Maine came up with this a year or so ago, don't know much about it, you might be interested
http://www.reposenow.com/

 

[teetah222]

I was bored on Sunday as the Steelers were not playing so I fabricated a Pellet Basket (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) to see if it would work in my Econoburn 150. I thought “Hmmmm….this might work… same principle of gasification…” so it tried it. I built the basket for about $30. It was able to hold about 40lbs of wood pellets. I lit it and it and it burned for about 5 hours. my boiler had no problem building up to 180 +’ and it was produced excess heat. An Interesting thought occurred to me. If I had a pellet mill and/or a hammer mill I could actually produce pellets out of straw,grass,leaves, sawdust or anything that is readily available for little to no cost with minimal work and I could use the wood boiler I already have. All I would have to do, is build a bigger basket (I feel I can fit 100+lbs. of pellets in it)

psst... got a picture of your pellet basket? I've been thinking about building one for taking camping for use in a firepit. Directions how you did it would also be good.

directions are very simple. Need: 2 peieces of steel 1/2 wide by 1/8 thick 6 foot long (available at hardware store $6)measured and bent it using my hands and a vise to make a W out of the steel(2 of them) trimmed excess with sawzall. connected the 2 W's with a piece of the excess I trimmed off with nuts and bolts in the middle of the W. bent another piece of steel into a V and mounted it in the center of the connecting steel for extra support of the basket. drilled holes and mounted together using nuts and bolts. used a sawzall to cut the grating to size (bought grating at a salvage yard that also sold steel ( i think it was $80 for a 4x8 sheet)(had extra laying around from building a pig roaster this summer) bent the grating into a U by hand using my body weight and the table. wired the grating to the steel. vwhalla. done. took me less than 1 hour. your size of each piece of material will depend on how big you want to make it therefore i did not include measurements. sounds more complicated than it is. i am sure if you examine my photo closely you are smart enough to figure it out. if you want to see the image of my pellet basket go to the same titled post in the "boiler room" (https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/62633/) scroll through this forum. you will find it there. you can also go to (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) that is where i saw it first and decided to make my own. (for much less $)

m-joe

Cool, thanks... will be much cheaper than buying bundles of firewood for a weekend. Especially since I already have several pallets of pellets.

 

[teetah222]

I was bored on Sunday as the Steelers were not playing so I fabricated a Pellet Basket (http://www.thepelleteer.com/) to see if it would work in my Econoburn 150. I thought “Hmmmm….this might work… same principle of gasification…” so it tried it. I built the basket for about $30. It was able to hold about 40lbs of wood pellets. I lit it and it and it burned for about 5 hours. my boiler had no problem building up to 180 +’ and it was produced excess heat. An Interesting thought occurred to me. If I had a pellet mill and/or a hammer mill I could actually produce pellets out of straw,grass,leaves, sawdust or anything that is readily available for little to no cost with minimal work and I could use the wood boiler I already have. All I would have to do, is build a bigger basket (I feel I can fit 100+lbs. of pellets in it)

psst... got a picture of your pellet basket? I've been thinking about building one for taking camping for use in a firepit. Directions how you did it would also be good.

A guy here in Maine came up with this a year or so ago, don't know much about it, you might be interested
http://www.reposenow.com/

Another interesting idea... I probably would go with the basket, though, as I like to have a campfire for several hours in the evening when I'm out camping. Could just keep adding to it.

 

[ct_administrator]

First off apologies to my pellet bro's in northern CT and Mass, but lets hope your Steelers romp the Pat's this week Joe. And nice work on the basket.

JETS fan here

 

[Fast4wood]

think you got your conversion backwards.
10 cord of wood would require about 6-7 tons of wood pellets... roughly.

No I think you have got the conversion backwards, Sorry.