# Anyone make sawdust logs?



## Reboopie

I have been researching making logs using sawdust and newspaper and then compressing them. Has anyone done this? Most of the information I find is from Europe. I have lots of saw dust and can get newspaper for free from work. 


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## TnAndy

Is the dust 'green' ( straight off saw logs ) or dried lumber dust ? 

Green dust can be as high as 50% water. Dry will be under 20...maybe down to 6-8. Big difference in getting it to burn.

Next issue is some kind of binder to keep it in log form. "Presto" logs use wax/dust mix. Not cheap.

For the most part, dust doesn't lend itself well to burning small scale. 

If you can auger or blow it in a furnace with LOTS of air blown in at the same time, it burns well.....but it takes more equipment than the average small user would be willing to invest.


Friend of mine with a large sawmill looked into making wood pellets for pellet stoves some years back and found it took an investment in the high 100's of thousand range to get in the business. Dust had to be dried, ground to a consistent size, mixed with a binder, then pelletized and bagged. 

He continues to sell his dust to dairy farms ( barn floor litter ) and a local steam generator ( make steam for industrial heat process ) as a result.


On a small scale, you wouldn't be involved in anything like that, but personally, I can cut a cord of good hardwood off my place a whole lot easier than trying to press out dust/paper logs. You can cut a cord/year off an acre (here with our rainfall) forever, and actually improve the eventual timber yield.


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## Reboopie

We cut lots of wood. I was just looking for a way to use my saw dust. We are thinking of trying it the winter just to see if we can. I will see how it turns out. The sawdust is dry it is planing wood for projects my husband And I do over the winter in our "down" time. Q


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## 354508

We tried rolling cardboard/sawdust logs last year, and they burned terribly. We had to constantly open the stove and poke around to get them to burn, or they just sit and smolder. We use our sawdust to make firestarters now. Mix wax, grease, oil, (one or all) with sawdust, dryer lint, and old coffee grounds then pour into egg cartons. About the best use we've found for our sawdust.


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## dancemama

i have used cedar saw dust a lot. the best way i've found is to start a regular fire and when it's good and hot add the saw dust. i've just shoveled it in on fire or i've put it in paper bags -- left overs from junk food lunches etc. or i've rolled it up in a newspaper while it works best to just extend your wood it will work by it's self. the easiest way to start it on it's own is to put a small amount of old oil or desiel on it. i think that it works best if its done in small amounts to begin with.


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## secuono

You can use it as bedding or in the garden.


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## Reboopie

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We are working in this project today. We mixed newspaper, sawdust and water. Soaked it 24 hours like making paper. Now we are pressing it. I have a drying rack set up. We will know in about a week if it works. 


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## Reboopie

secuono said:


> You can use it as bedding or in the garden.



I do use it on muddy walk ways around the house and out building. 


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## TnAndy

While it is clearly possible to do this, I'd still think you'd be time and effort ahead to simply cut firewood and save the dust and newspaper for mulching things.

That walnut standing in your yard, for example, will never amount to anything as timber ( though you could make a case for the nuts ), and if out in the woods, you'd be doing the woods a favor to take it out for firewood.....giving better trees a shot at the sunlight and soil nutrients.


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## Reboopie

We do cut a great deal of firewood.
View attachment 16617

This is just part of what we have for winter. We cut/remove dead to help revive the woods. This is just a fun project to see if we can. 


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## Fire-Man

Reboopie said:


> I have been researching making logs using sawdust and newspaper and then compressing them. Has anyone done this? Most of the information I find is from Europe. I have lots of saw dust and can get newspaper for free from work.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Homesteading Today


I use to do this on a small scale----I had a wood heater in my upholstery shop where I made alot of oak furniture frames(piles of saw dust). All the Upholstery material I got in was wrapped on card board cylinders. I cut the cylinders 18" long(they were 54") I took a page out of a news paper---wadded it and stuck it inside the cylinder---standing the cylinder on its end I used a packer pipe to push this wadded paper to the bottom----I did enough of these to fill a 5 gallon bucket standing on end---I wrapped a big rubber band around the top of the cylinders to hold them tight together. This stayed in the woodworking section of the shop and as we swept up the saw dust we would pour it into these cylinders straight out the dust pan. Once all of them were about full I would take another piece of wadded newapaper and pack it in the end. We mixed these with our other wood after there was a bed of coals in the heater and they worked great. Recycling!!

You might check with your local Upholstery shops, carpet sales places etc and get some of the cardboard cylinders if you want to do it the easy way.


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## fishhead

Reboopie said:


> We cut lots of wood. I was just looking for a way to use my saw dust. We are thinking of trying it the winter just to see if we can. I will see how it turns out. The sawdust is dry it is planing wood for projects my husband And I do over the winter in our "down" time. Q
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Homesteading Today


I just recycled a paper on a sawdust/wood chip furnace. Maybe do a search for sawdust or wood chip furnace.


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## Belfrybat

Instead of sawdust logs, how about a sawdust heater? There are several plans on the internet.
http://www.thespaceattompkins.org/our-services/diy/saw-dust-stove/
http://www.ehow.com/how_4500077_make-sawdust-stove.html


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## texican

Lived nearby, you could just load up your trailers with slabs... I've got em stacked out on the road, and they just sit there...

and at least a dump truck load of sawdust... makes great mulch.


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## Robb40

The sawdust logs made at the factory are usually pressed under very high pressure which forces the lignon out wood. That acts as a natural binder to hold the logs together. Some log makers add a binder. But, they still press the logs under high pressure to form them without adding extra moisture. That's why sawdust logs tend to be heavy. Such equipment is usually too expensive and impractical for a home owner.

Wood pellets are also made buy pressing dry sawdust under high pressure through a kind of sieve. Kind of like a meat grinder. It heats the sawdust up and makes the pellets stick together. You can get small pellet makers for a couple thousand dollars. But, when you add to that the cost and difficulty of drying and grinding the sawdust, it just doesn't seem worth it.


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## Grumpy old man

Why waste your time ?


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## Reboopie

View attachment 17207
View attachment 17208


We played around and made a press using an old bottle jack. We made pucks not logs. They have dried for a week. While they will not replace our wood pile they are free and we can make them in our down time and they made wonderful fire starters. 


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