I want to use all my sawdust !

[farlet]

I produce loads of sawdust from my mill and I want to utilise it for heating. I only have regular woodburners, so dont want to invest in a new system to burn it. I was in Sweden once and there was a guy who had made small discs about 3" across and only about 1/4" thick out of sawdust. They seemed to burn really well, but stupidly I forgot to ask how he made them.

I was thinking that I would need some kind of binding agent (Maybe wallpaper past because its cheap) and a simple press. Not sure if it would be a hand press or hydraulic.

I like the idea of using everything from the sawmilling process and not wasting anything. Has anyone done anything similar and was it succesful ?

I can fabricate anything, so I am thinking I will build something to do the job

[bandmiller2]

Farlet,I've always heard the natural lignin in sawdust will bind if their compressed.Try an experiment take a short piece of pipe and a short rod that fits in it put some sawdust in and use a press or bottle jack under a heavy machine and see what you get.Mayby pushing it through a restriction would give you large pellets,think of how a hay bailer works. Frank C.

[Oakcreek]

Farlet!
I know this is an old posting, but I've been thinking of making a similar machine/device and wondered how you made out with your idea?

[west penn]

oakcreek,  If you do attemp to build something, remember that the temp of the sawdust has to reach somewhere around  180 degrees for the lignin to become a binder. this is accomplished in pellet machines by the extrusion process. good luck!!

[Warren]

if y'all use the search fucntion. I am fairly certain there are other threads here on the Fourm that describe pellet making.   I think one term for the molded chunks of sawdust is "briquettes."  There are commercial machines to do this.  You could probably build something small scale to do the same thing if you're handy. 

One of the twists is that the pressing process requires approx 20 to 25% moisture content to make a good solid pellet/chunk/briquette.  However, if they will be stored for any length of time, they need to be dried down to approx 15% moisture content to prevent mold/mildew...

AS always, if you do buy or build something ... pictures please !

Warren