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Offline Cornbelt

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wood pellets
« on: November 28, 2011, 03:49:50 PM »
  Anybody know what these have in them besides sawdust?
   Must be some kind of glue?  Water soluable or waterproof?
 
 Anyone ever give them the water test?  Do they fall apart?
 
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Offline blind ear

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2011, 06:12:19 PM »
molasses ? ear
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Offline bilmac

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #2 on: November 28, 2011, 06:39:33 PM »
Maybe molasses where it is cheap, I doubt they put it in pellets pressed way up north. I believe that I read that they just use high pressure and heat to mold them. I know that if they even get very damp they will fall apart
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Offline blind ear

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2011, 03:56:17 AM »
Picked up a load of fire logs in Canada for Fred's I think it was. That factory used molasses, some kind of non food grade (scorched, contaminated?). This was around 1996. Probably changed a lot since then. ear
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Oath Keepers: start local
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Offline Cornbelt

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2011, 04:18:37 PM »
 Molasses, now that might be do-able. We've been making sorghum syrup a couple yrs, but my mind was stuck on glue. There is always a bucket of skimmings left over from the process. With a compaction auger and the right size holes in the end plate, it might make pellets. Tried it w/a meat grinder and nothing sticky, but the holes were too small, and it just didn't work.
  We can get all the sawdust we want from a friend w/a bandmill. Might have to try a sausage press for extrusions. The sugar in the syrup ought to keep a fire hot, too.
  I coulda tripped over both items and not put them together.
  Thanks for the idea.
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Offline Cheesehead

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #5 on: November 29, 2011, 05:11:00 PM »
Pellets are produced by compressing the wood material which has first passed through a hammer mill to provide a uniform dough-like mass. This mass is fed to a press where it is squeezed through a die having holes of the size required (normally 6 mm diameter, sometimes 8 mm or larger). The high pressure of the press causes the temperature of the wood to increase greatly, and the lignin plastifies slightly forming a natural "glue" that holds the pellet together as it cools. A report to the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources estimates the energy required to manufacture and transport pellets is less than 2% of the energy content of the pellets.
 
Cheese
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Offline Cornbelt

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2011, 03:28:35 AM »
  Interesting links. Especially concerning mass production. Even more interesting are the goodies stashed away in the family boneyard: hammer mill, hyd cyls, etc.
  But a project on that scale is one for some other scrounger, maybe one w/o a regular job. Meanwhile, lots of potential pellets going to waste.
 Also brings up more questions like cattle feed and feed conversion of sawdust. It ought to make good roughage if nothing else.
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Offline Cornbelt

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2011, 01:02:47 AM »
 Maybe the molasses was just insurance. The tree sap would contain natural sugar, but in variable amounts. Might make a fine winter project to make a few prototype sawdust turds. Maybe we'll have a fine winter.
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Offline Rex in OTZ

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #8 on: December 27, 2011, 08:43:59 AM »
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Offline spooked

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #9 on: July 03, 2012, 04:15:45 PM »
Starch is used in charcoal briquettes , don't know about wood pellets. :-\
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Offline lakota

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #10 on: July 04, 2012, 06:20:22 AM »
There is an article in the current issue of Backwoodsman Magazine about making a briquette press out of a caulking gun and some PVC pipe. It sounds interesting I might try it and see if it will make cheap functional firestarting logs for the woodstove.
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Offline Cornbelt

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #11 on: July 05, 2012, 02:38:39 PM »
  There ought to be affordable solutions that are fairly simple. Here's a link to a simple screw type press, but a guy could buy a lot of pellets for what they want for one. http://www.vincentcorp.com/
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Offline briarpatch

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2012, 01:33:49 AM »
Youtube has a lot videos on making wood pellets. They just use heat and pressure with plain sawdust.
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Offline muznut 54

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Re: wood pellets
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2012, 02:49:31 AM »
That's what they make em from up here sawdust from the wood mills.I never did the wood pellet thing yet I have enough trees on my property to keep me warm as long as I can still cut wood, when I get to old for that I guess Ill buy a pellet stove or winter in Florida.   
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