sawdust/shavings

brickie58

wondering if anyone converts sawdust/woodshavings from builders merchants they sell in bales for pet litter etc, i have bought a paper log maker and was wondering if anybody makes briquettes out of this and what do you use to bind it together,was thinking of pva glue as its soluble so i could soak sawdust in it then turn into briquttes and reuse pva, thanks.

mark_j

Sorry

But i have visions of a sticky, smoking chimney thats going to catch fire at some point.

The chemicals in a glue compound are going to do your fire no good at all.

Best left alone

brickie58

mark_j wrote: »

Sorry

But i have visions of a sticky, smoking chimney thats going to catch fire at some point.

The chemicals in a glue compound are going to do your fire no good at all.

Best left alone

hi im talking a very weak watered down mix of pva, if you google it its non toxic, people have even drank it! i have heard of mollasses being used as a binder as they do with coal briquttes/nuts/ovals.

macman

But the shavings will already contain a high proportion of glue and other chemicals derived from MDF, particle board, hardboard, plywood etc. Very little of the waste output will be pure natural wood.

brickie58

macman wrote: »

But the shavings will already contain a high proportion of glue and other chemicals derived from MDF, particle board, hardboard, plywood etc. Very little of the waste output will be pure natural wood.

no, these are pure softwood shavings straight from the sawmill.

John_3:16

I would be unhappy with mixing anything with it eg pva, mollasses etc I can just see it tarring up the chimney. Shavings may be better as a lighter but you will never beat logs etc. It may be worth putting more effort into building a log pile.

There are stoves that are designed to run on dust bricks but I am not sure if it would be suitable for a log burner. Why not find a manufacturer of these bricks and ask them what they bind them with? I would not be happy burning many on my stove. I try to use wood as dry as possible usely upto 2 years old seasoned under cover outside. In fact half the garden is used as a store .

brickie58

John_3:16 wrote: »

I would be unhappy with mixing anything with it eg pva, mollasses etc I can just see it tarring up the chimney. Shavings may be better as a lighter but you will never beat logs etc. It may be worth putting more effort into building a log pile.

There are stoves that are designed to run on dust bricks but I am not sure if it would be suitable for a log burner. Why not find a manufacturer of these bricks and ask them what they bind them with? I would not be happy burning many on my stove. I try to use wood as dry as possible usely upto 2 years old seasoned under cover outside. In fact half the garden is used as a store .

yes im the same most of my garden is a wood store! i know the manufacturers use wax but the cost of buying and melting it defeats the object of trying to save money will stick to mixing newspaper and sawdust and turning into briquttes.

Greenfires

Proper firewood briquettes contain nothing but wood - but a machine to make good ones will set you back around £100k. They have no binders or anything else added. It's only the "instant fire" logs that have wax and other petrochemicals added to make them burn - wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Proper briquettes are a perfect fuel for any stove and have a lot more energy than the same weight of any sort of logs - and they'll also usually work out cheaper unless you're getting your logs for nowt.

Using mashed up newspaper will bind shavings together, but will also be messy to make, take ages to dry out, produce little heat and fill your stove with large piles of ash - wouldn't bother myself.

If you have a workshop needing a heater, you can buy stoves designed to run on sawdust alone - but they're a bit industrial looking for sitting in your lounge!

Andy