Dumb questions about wood pellets. 😂

woodmaker · February 10, 2018, 10:12:12 AM

Bargemonkey,I'm not sure what pellets cost in other areas,but in my general area,they can be bought for around $5.50 for a 40 lb. bag ,retail. Of course,we are only 20 miles from New England Wood Pellet,in Jaffrey. It seems like a lot of work for little money

Dave Shepard · February 10, 2018, 10:37:24 AM

Quote from: Crusarius on February 10, 2018, 08:28:56 AM
Wonder if making particle board would be better option?

What's a particle board plant cost, $100 million? :D

Crusarius · February 10, 2018, 10:46:09 AM

I was thinking small time. a press is only like 150k

BargeMonkey · February 10, 2018, 04:21:32 PM

I looked at the smaller ones I saw for sale, if you could use up the waste and make a small amount, I was wondering if you could do it for 100k, guess not 😂. I don't see a huge demand for pellets, more of a niche but if you've got the raw material why not. There's no "money" in colored mulch down here, most people only buy 2-3yds, the first while I will truck it down from someone in Albany, I've got a pile of "mafia blocks" I'm going to set up for various materials. Biggest question I get is for beach sand, there's a pit north of Amsterdam with white sand, go up with 3-4 trucks this spring and bring 100yd home. We recently bought a place down the road specifically for storing chips, set up the trommel and make topsoil, down the road probably look into a larger horizontal like an M266 type machine.

quilbilly · February 10, 2018, 05:56:49 PM

Pellets where I am are around $200 a ton and lots of people have them. Most people that make pellets here are sawmills utilizing softwood waste. No one bids on a job or hauls out pulp just for the pellets. Fir is the most popular around here. I looked into this a little and figured it just wasn't worth it unless the wood was on site and free. Even then it was just barely profitable from what I saw.

Bruno of NH · February 10, 2018, 06:20:37 PM

The big softwood mill in town just built a pellet plant
A month ago their 80 x 300 planer mill burned to the ground
I don't think that helps them out,they use the dry shavings in the mix to make the pellets.
I burn pellets have for 13 years I like hardwood pellets from the south the best for my stove.
I would like some type of bio-mass boiler
Barge a guy two towns over makes mulch from waste and sells a lot
Bruno

Oliver05262 · February 10, 2018, 09:32:30 PM

for Dave Shepard: that plant is still in operation. A big operation with many facets. http://www.greenrenewableinc.com/about-us

SwampDonkey · February 10, 2018, 10:46:37 PM

My brother uses pellets and finds the softwood ones have more ash. He prefers hardwood pellets, but will mix some softwood ones in. Groupe Savoie makes them here in NB, they are a hardwood sawmill.

Mike_M · February 25, 2018, 04:12:36 PM

Barge,
Great minds think a like because I am constantly racking my head on how to utilize our tops and logging slash. Like you, I also looked into both wood pellets and colored mulch but the numbers just don't pencil out. Our main wood is douglas fir and that's what most of our local pellet mills use, but like the others stated it has to be de-barked, dry, and little to no contamination. The colored mulch has always looked good to me, but the capital investment and lack of market knowledge has prevented me from going any further. I realize sometimes to make money you have to take a gamble, but I think logging can be enough of a gamble. Although right now our log prices our very strong. Its a breath of fresh air knowing that others are constantly thinking about how to utilize waste wood, that in our part of the country is mostly piled and burned.

pinefeller · February 25, 2018, 05:14:19 PM

ive heard pellets for horse bedding might be the next big thing.....marketing marketing marketing ;D

BargeMonkey · February 25, 2018, 10:24:54 PM

It's a shame with the waste but from what everyone has said the incentive to do much about it isn't cost effective. At somepoint we are going to buy a decent horizontal grinder, we bought 12acres just down the road and got a "stump dump permit", making it our woodchip / topsoil yard right now, at somepoint outside burning of brush is going to get squashed down here. We have a small trommel screen and mix our topsoil, manure and the finer decomposed woodbark together right now. The cost to get into coloring chips isn't worth the effort here right now.
I've got 2 outlets for pine pulp right now for shavings, down to 8", doesn't pay much but will keep the woods cleaner. Looking into a bagger for the kindling off the processor, I've got a 12way wedge on a bells 6000 and it does make alot of kindling, sell the bags along with the bundlers this yr, machine will be back inside so the sawdust won't be an issue.

mike_belben · February 26, 2018, 08:29:46 AM

Whatre you getting for topsoil by the yard?

pinefeller · February 26, 2018, 08:38:40 AM

the waste in general kills me. im going to try bringing home some of the "pallet" and ''pulp'' grade stuff and just saw it myself. i dont seem to have trouble moving lumber. i dunno about you but it generally makes pretty nice boards as long as its straight. the problem is i cant saw lumber and chop wood. i need an ambitious part timer to take up the slack.

BargeMonkey · February 26, 2018, 04:41:40 PM

Topsoil all depends on how nice of stuff it is and how much someone is going to take, we supply a couple nurserys with stone / material so volume pricing comes in. For the regular guy your 20-25 a yard for nice stuff thru the trommel. Talks of a big job coming for 25,000 yd of topsoil, our trucks, upgrade to a big trommel if that happens, the one we have is a 20-25yd an hr machine max right now, can't make good topsoil thru a wire deck / harp screen, been down that road 😂
We saw alot of the low grade into survey stakes, some flooring, the problem is the price of ash is thru the roof down here so bringing home good wood isn't going to happen the next little bit. I've got a market for my sawdust, it's the bark and chips off the processor that I wish I could find a home for, it's not huge volume, less than 3-500yd a yr. "Part time" good help doesn't exist, I've been begging another logger I know from up north come mud season to come saw for us.

pinefeller · February 26, 2018, 08:01:11 PM

skim the processing area with it during mud season then scrape it off the next year and mix it in the topsoil. should be pretty good stuff after being pounded into the dirt for a year plus stabilize the soil. good fill for the low spots. ;D

i have a friend that will be retiring in a year from his current job that seems interested in sawing and trucking. time will tell.