Q&A for How to Make Wood Pellets

The answer depends on where you purchase your raw materials from. Buying lumber, like logs and scrap lumber, can be very expensive because resources are limited. Using sawdust from a local mill or carpenter can be inexpensive, but the wood tends to have more contaminants like rocks and metal. You may also have to purchase special machinery for making pellets, which can get pretty expensive.

Most pellet mills are pretty similar, regardless of their purpose, so you should be able to use the same machine for making feed pellets and wood pellets. However, when you're switching between making feed and wood pellets, be sure to clean the machine thoroughly according to the manual. This will prevent contamination in the pellets.

No, they are low smoke when burned in an appropriate environment.

You can purchase a pellet press at most agricultural hardware and machinery stores. You can also look into buy pellet presses that are marketed to create animal feed, as they can work for wood pellets as well. If you can't find an agricultural machinery store near you, consider purchasing one online and having it delivered.

6 mm and 8 mm. 6 mm is more common in households and 8 mm is more common in industry.

The pressure and resulting heat in the press softens the lining in plant cells, which acts as an adhesive to hold the pellets together.

It's not so much a "savings" as using materiel that might otherwise be wasted. Sawdust and shavings from other processes are good materials for a pellet press and often can be obtained free or at little cost.

Yes, the machine can re-process the broken one too. If it is broken do not hesitate to put into to be re-processed.

Absolutely. But it raises the question whether it is worth it. For one thing, the heating power of the pellets you buy vs. the wood you sell has got to be much lower. I should also think that for someone who spends the effort to cut/split/stack/haul firewood, the convenience of switching to a pellet stove might be a clear luxury.

It depends on what kind of pellets you are using and how you are burning them. There is not much of a change to the wood other than a lower moisture content and higher density. The smoky flavor depends on what type of wood you are burning, how much moisture is in the pellets, and oxygen/temperature levels. The material that you are burning has a big impact on a smoke flavor. Burning hickory or apple wood pellets will taste very different from sawdust pellets from treated lumber or recycled pallets. If you burn your pellets really hot and dry, especially if it is not a flavorful wood, you will get little smoky flavor.