TBN is the place for good ideas

[OldMcDonald]

Well, we all know that, so let your mind wander a little. I have prunings from 500 olive trees, 100 grape vines, fruit trees, ornamentals, shrubs, bushes, as well as corn cobs, corn stover, etc. A limited amount of leaves and smaller twigs are consumed by my livestock, but there is still a lot left for burning. I take what I can for the wood burning stove, but the fiddly stuff takes too much time to prepare to length, leaves and fine twigs are lost, and it is slow to load into the stove. I am sure many TBNers have their own supplies of suitable material too. Apologies if a similar thread has been done to death before.

Has anybody made their own pelleting/wood brick making machine? Or even just thought about it without putting it into practice? What did you come up with?

I have done a fair bit of Googling and viewed YouTube videos. A lot of the machines on view seemed to be more complicated than necessary and made the pellets very small. Two or three inch logs would suit me for the stove although a future possibility of a self-loading stove could use pellets. I was thinking along the lines of ｾ or 1 inch pellets and it seems a moisture content of 12-15% of the material to be pelleted is suggested by most manufacturers. I think this should be easy enough to manage even if it means some trial and error. Grinding of the materials and filling the intake hopper is another project.

I looked at animal feed pelleting machines too because I have the materials and use for these pellets, and ideally I would like interchangeable dies. One of the sites I came across is short on photo details, but had a simple small machine that obviously does not need a lot of power to operate since it can be turned by hand and it does not need much pressure to push out the pellets either although wood pellets probably need more pressure as they are harder than animal pellets ljs.academicdirect.org/A13/022_029.htm

 

[charlz]

I burn a fair amount of stuff each year but nothing close to what you do with that many trees etc. I cut branches etc in to firewood length stuff until they get too many small branches to mess with. The rest goes on the burn pile. I have thought many times it would be nice to capture all that waste fuel/heat and use more of it in my shop stove.

I think the downside to pelleting the stuff would be having to chip it pretty fine first. Chipping is a very slow process versus just pile and burn. Grinding it into 'hog fuel' would be an option if you have something that can burn that fuel. I have thought even just some type of shear that could cut the stuff into 12" or so chunks would help. Something like a firewood processor but handles piles of limbs. Once in pieces that size they would probably not be to bad to grab bucket or two out of a pile and set near the stove for burning.

From my experience of heating my house with wood pellets I would say that bark, leaves etc. included in the pellets don't burn very cleanly so in reality you don't want that stuff in your pellets.

There has been a thread or two on here about buying a pellet maker and making your own wood pellets IIRC it kinda came down to how much time you want to spend messing around versus just buying a pallet of pellets.

 

[Tor Arne]

Maybe something like this can work to what you are thinking about?

 

[OldMcDonald]

Thanks to you both. Charlz, I realise the problems with lots of leaves and bark (not that there is much bark in the stuff I have available) and it could be that I would compost some of that sort of thing. I work with a neighbour on these odd projects, and neither of us is keen on a burn pile. Especially since we cannot have fires like that in our dry summers. Mixing the leaves etc. with comfrey and fym helps to break down the woody material faster. A lot of the leaves are quite soft too. Additionally, my neighbour has ideas for a non-domestic stove, where a clean burn is not so critical, and it would be better (as you have pointed out) to at least get some use from what is otherwise waste.

The olive leaves from prunings go to the goats as far as possible and they leave any branches over about half an inch diameter. Some leaves could be incorporated in feed pellets. I also hand pick olive leaves for sale via my website and I am left with twigs and damaged leaves. Again, the goats eat some, but very little given the regular supply of prunings - from which I do not sell leaves. Time spent is of less consequence than the heavy work it takes me to bust up bigger trees. I am getting older, but am full-time on my "semi-retirement" farm so continue to look for ways to reduce my muscle building work.

Tor Arne, Those machines look suitable for the first stage of reducing the size of smaller branches. Shovelling, or augering them into a suitable grinder would not be too much of a problem.

 

[jaotguy]

any OLD push style reel lawn mower around ? like when we were kids ... 2 wheels and a spinning drum ...

a small chute and an electric motor with a belt and you should be in business ....

 

[muddstopper]

Some folks just want to get rid of what they see as waste, and other seek ways to use the waste product. Here is one way to use the waste, without resorting to burning.
Using Ramial Chipped Wood to Improve Fertility in a Fruit Tree Nursery

I usually get wood chips whenever the local power crews are chipping their right of ways. Its free and the only work involved on my part is taking the FEL and turning the piles every now and then. Nature does the rest. I spread the composted material on my garden every fall, till into soil and plant a cover crop. By the next planting season, you cant see any wood byproducts, and the clay soil looks and feels like loam.

 

[charlz]

Maybe something like this can work to what you are thinking about?

Wow that makes short work of those limbs. The output is exactly what I was thinking of, something small enough to feed into a stove. Looks just a tad dangerous to use though

 

[charlz]

Here is another one that looks a little safer to use, even has a bagging option:

 

[Tor Arne]

Wow that makes short work of those limbs. The output is exactly what I was thinking of, something small enough to feed into a stove. Looks just a tad dangerous to use though

Yes it looks dangerous and personally I would shielded it more, but the video showed how the principle works better than a machine with lots of covers on all sides:thumbsup:

 

[OldMcDonald]

muddstopper, The link is not what shows in your thread. I do make a lot of compost, and as I posted, intend to make more, but I also have a need to burn wood for heating. Just looking for ways to use what is available. I still have a few old olive stumps. They have to be bust up with a block splitter and wedges - too much dirt and embedded stones for chainsaws.

jaotguy, I have seen one used to chop leaves lying on a lawn and it worked well. I have not got my mind wrapped around feeding a static one. Maybe two close together and feed in between them?