I got the itch and bought a pellet smoker. It's great. Easy to use, consistent results, bla bla bla.

I'm wanting to try and make my own pellets for smoking. The internet doesn't seem to pave the way for this. From what I have read, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference in the process of making pellets for heating and for smoking. Anyway, anyone dabble in this? I'm not wanting to make tons, just a couple hundred pounds a year.

If you are making your own:

1. What consistency of wood sawdust or chips are you using?
2. What mill?

I don't see any way it could be different than how they make feed.
Here is how they make pellets "turkey feed"at a local feed mill.
Grind "in this case wood" to a fine almost flour. Wet it to make dough. Run it through a press ( to make a pellet size string) and cut into pellets. Oven dry the pellets.
That probably don't make sense but thats a simple explaination .
Simple operation but I bet that press is expensive.
just

I understand the process. I agree the pellet mills are similar for livestock feed. Best I can tell, the ones used for wood require substantially more pressure. That said, I'm not sure.

Not really all that hard, it’s the machine that is expensive, a cheap one is 2/4000 dollars not counting the motor, the rental company here has one to rent and we rent it for a couple days to make pellets, the trick is adjusting the moisture to where it’s making consistent pellets, if there to dry and crumbly they need more water if to moist then they need some dry sawdust mixed in, it really is that easy, and as pellets climb in price it makes more sense to make our own, locally the pellets are over 5 dollars a bag and in my opinion not very good, the ones we make ourselves are way better and seem to give more heat

We average about 80# a day in use and for us there is no cost other then the rent of the machine as the sawdust is free for the hauling it’s just taken from the pile at the sawmill and it’s s generally mixed hard and softwood

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask

I've seen some mills have motors and some are pto driven. Which mill do you rent? What's the consistency of sawdust? I'm wanting to use wood that I can't get sawdust for. Needing to make my own, I'm curious if I could get away with sawdust from a planer.

Great thread, I'll be watching!

Here ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7moYXe6YAc

Or, home made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4twp6cJCYc


Charlie

I can't see how this would be cost efficient unless you made extra to sell to keep the costs down.

My wood pellets are about 14" long and about 4 to 6 inch diameter. Don't see how buying a pellet grill for the convenience then turning around and making ur own pellets works. I would think it would take more time to make the pellets than you would save cooking with them. But I might be missing something. Especially if you have to make ur own sawdust and then cook them dry.

This is a trapping forum. Be real. What is this "cost efficient" you speak of?

Point taken

If you have to make sawdust to have sawdust, to me it would be a pain. If you could get sawdust or had sawdust from wood working that would be a different thing. I had looked into it a little and also looked into making logs or briquets for in a stove. I am wondering if I can make logs or briquets out of wet straw and pressing it. I wondered if flax straw would work. I think with good pressure it would bind into a briquet or log.

I'm wanting to do this because I want to make pellets from wood I otherwise can't get. And I just want to see if I can do it.

I was toying with a industrial size, for making home heating wood pellets to sell, I generate aprox two semi loads of mill shavings and sawdust daily. The big problem is with what the local Cogeneration electric plant is paying for mill waste. I would lose money making pellets. I always strip bark from any wood I use for smoking meat. I think it causes some off flavor.

That's a lot of sawdust!