I'm new to milling and I would like to set up my area as efficiently as possible.
I have my spot picked out for two 1500 bf solar kilns that I plan on building in the not to distant future, but I would like input in what to do with the sawdust. I have plenty of chicken houses that will buy a lot of the dust as is, but a horse stable asked me about drying it.
I have searched around some and cant find much about drying sawdust. Suggestions?
What volume of sawdust do you think you will have in a week or months time?
I'd suggest selling it and let the buyers deal with drying it. They could spread it out on a floor protected from rain and get it dry to their specs, so you don't have to be concerned what their specs are on your end.
After some careful consideration and entering the acquired figures into my SWAG (Sophisticated Wild A** Guess) calculator, I came up with 8 to 10 yards per month. I will be cutting everyday with 1 or 2 helpers. Does that estimate sound too far off?
You can use a rig similar to a grain or corn dryer, or even a hay drier. In the past, drying costs were more than the market could afford. But maybe you can get a large parking lot and put the dust in small rows and turn often, similar to hay drying in a field.
I guess the question is, is the premium they are going to pay for the dry dust going to cover the cost of drying it?
Probably not....
Small amounts of sawdust are usually a problem. If you can produce a truck load a day, someone will be interested. A load a month? Not so keen.
Been talking with a buddy about setting up a business to market smoking wood. Need to do the figures. but if the trees are free, and we can sell dry chips for $10 a pound then it's worth investigating. Drying it and selling for 10c a lb, hard to justify.
Ian
I found this saw dust dryer a few years age while looking for pellet mills for the pellet stoves. It is use to dry saw dust down to 15% moisture. It can dry up to 600lbs. an hour. Here is the link. Hope it helps.
http://www.alaskapelletmill.com/dryers
New to posting have been a long time reader have two ideas for drying sawdust one heated floor put sawdust about six inches thick remove when dry and repeat other plan was too blow it with dust collector hoping speed would dry it built a sawdust stove but it likes sawdust twenty percent or less maybe somebody has dried with dust collection and could let us know if it works