How to burn sawdust in a wood stove #shorts

You can burn sawdust in a wood stove, but you don't want to just dump it in there and smother the flames. #shorts

This was originally shot in 2017.
I scrunched this video down to fit into a #short.

[spookje]

Even in a short Matthias can be informative and funny. Great stuff.

[Reman]

I remember when growing up, a mate's dad had shed loads of greasy looking cardboard food boxes all up on shelves in his hobby home woodworking shop. It seems that any boxes that were cereal packet sized or below that his family emptied went in the workshop, he'd then ram them solid with sawdust and wood plainings, but he'd have a 1" dowel in it that would reach to about the middle of the packet. When full he'd pull the dowel out and pour in a little used cooking oil. Apparently the oil would soak into all the sawdust over the months until winter.

I remember thinking it was odd that this reasonably well off guy would take the time to do this (I was young at the time), so one day I asked why he went through the extra work of making these. It seems it was all because he resented paying to dispose of his sawdust, AND THEN paying to get logs for the fireplace. One or the other probably wouldn't have bothered him, but paying TWICE because the wood he already had was just in the wrong physical form irked the hell out of him, so he made these "Box logs". :)

I gather that the small amount of used vegetable oil bound the wood bits together and kept them from just crumbling as soon as the box burnt away, so made them burn slower like real lumps of solid Unfortunately, it also meant that when their fire was going you could just about make out the subtle smell of chips (Fries) cooking, and couldn't quite work out why you suddenly felt hungry ! :D

[arthilliker]

Great ideas here !! Just throw loose sawdust into a fire !!! I almost burned my face when I was a kid helping my Dad keep the fire going in his shop by throwing sawdust into a nice old ACORN stove. BAD DECISION ... but I've never forgotten it. My Dad didn't see what I was about to do. STAY SAFE EVERYONE !!

[davidadaur]

years ago (1966-67) when I was going to college I rented a very nice two story duplex with a basement. In the basement there was a sawdust burning furnace. You placed the sawdust in a tapered hopper ( I imagine it would hold about 1/ 2 bushel of sawdust) To start the fire you first had to wad up a large single sheet of newspaper, then shovel in the sawdust. Then light the paper from the bottom. Presto the would burn for several hours. For the entire heating season I burned 3 units of sawdust at a cost of $21. There was a room next to the furnace that was about 1' x 14' with an 8' ceiling. This was completely filled with sawdust. If you could make a hopper maybe the sawdust could be self feeding. But then it would probably not be very atterctive. David

[mattx]

if your wife orders stuff from amazon like mine, there is always a glut of cardboard

[StrangelyIronic]

Actual saw dust is extremely volatile and can easily explode if it's disturbed/launched into the air and then ignited. Wood shavings are one thing but scooping up fine particulate dust and igniting it is asking for even a small explosive reaction.

[danielmackey]

Great tip! I use paper sometimes and roll up the sawdust like a sausage. Here in the US, we get packages that use long pieces of wadded up paper for filler, and that works really well.

[davidcrenfro]

Dude, I wish I had a saw dust problem like you... You must have tons of good times brother!!!

[piconano]

As you well know, fuel pellets are made of compressed sawdust.
Maybe you can make a press out of wood?

[TrueSighted]

For natural sawdust that will work just fine. As long as it has the air to breath. Use to have a wood stove, in my old home. It was always relaxing tending to the fire at night.

You can also roll it into paper logs, if you have extra news print, the extra sawdust, and the patience. Can be a bit finicky until you get the hang of it. Saves you the boxes and bags though. Just takes a layer of sawdust on top, then roll it up, and tye it with some twine. Easy burning logs. You can eve add a little wax and make a paste if you want to go that route, but just be careful as you gotta clean the wood stove eventually, and you dont want want a mess of it doesnt burn away completely. If you do go that route its best to make a bunch at once, as its a bit messy. Anyway. Have fun.

[Nono-hkis]

The New Yorkshire Workshop channel just built an pnuematic piston-based automatic sawdust compressor that kicks out fairly hard briquettes.

[bryanteverett]

My only sawdust burning experience ended up just as well as dousing a cup of gasoline into the fire. I had been using an orbital palm sander all morning to sand down some old window frames, so when I got done I decided to empty the dust collector which was nearly full, into a fire pit in the back yard. Seemed logical at the time but instead, it went off like a bomb all at once before any of it even made it down to the coals. 🔥 💥 🧨

[tannervoss]

I'm hoping there's a sawdust brick press video coming!

[Glum]

My dad used to burn his shop’s sawdust the same way. What a memory, thanks! 🥰

[jobersudyobodou]

I buy kindling that's packed in cardboard banana boxes. For years I kept the boxes until spring and finally put them in the garbage. Recently I've found that I can cut the boxes with a jigsaw into strips. These strips make excellent tinder for the kindling.

[SeanHodgins]

No shortage of cardboard boxes around here!

[a-q]

This is too simple. No machine to compress the saw dust into brickets, no pressure graphs, no strength test, no estimations of lignin content.

[garydergut]

Don't throw the dust in on top of the fire. It will be like throwing gas on the fire.

[gamingwithpax]

Amazon addicts, “ you run out of boxes?”

[billparrish]

If you have any old newspapers around, you could put 2 or 3 sheets on the floor, shovel a pile of sawdust onto that, and 'roll your own', so to speak. Pull 2 edges together to make a tube, rolling down the doubled edges to the pile, then twist the ends of the tube to create a big 'tootsie roll sawdust doobie'. Should work the same as a flat box of sawdust in the stove, plus it's able to be sized (somewhat).