Unusual use for snowblower

[gerard]

Just thought some of you might get a chuckle out of the ever inventiveness of the american farmer. Got a load of sawdust the other day from our supplier which I then push up high with the loader into a bin I built off the arena. He mentioned that one of his customers stores his sawdust in an empty stall but the aisle way is to narrow to get his truck in so he dumps at the entrance to the aisle, then the farmer gets his walk behind snowblower and uses it to "blow" all the sawdust into the stall!! Said other than being a little dusty it only takes him a few minutes and beats the heck out of shoveling. Has to be the most unusual use of a snowblower I've ever heard of!!

 

[thcri]

Up in northern Minnesota a logging company has a rig that resembles a snow blower. They use it for blowing wood chips in places that they need them. They use the chips for (gravel) on soft roads so the trucks can get through.

murph

 

[slowzuki]

I suggested that use to my sister a few years ago and she flipped due to the concern of a chip catching on fire from the exhaust and burning her barn down.

I have to say I agree with her.

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Depending on the moisture content and size of the saw dust particles, less then say 400 microns, it can also result in a dust explosion! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[gerard]

While I think the fire from a chip on the exhaust is a pretty remote possibility - the dust explosion sounds almost like a liklihood, hadn't thought about that but when you hear about grain silo explosions that doesn't seem too far fetched /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[livincountry]

The concern of the explosion seems valid I just wonder why these explosions always happen in closed areas. Saw dust and corn dust in silos can be like dynamite. If the barn is well ventilated it may not be an problem?????

 

[art]

Only in New York!!!!

 

[gerard]

Educated guess is the sawdust particles aren't fine enough. In silo explosions the dust is just that, a fine dust that almost hangs in the air. Get the right air/dust mixture and a spark and boom. The sawdust particles are actually pretty large and course comparitively speaking but I don't know as I'd want to be the test case of my theory /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

I looked in some of my resource books and found some interesting stuff. Factory Mutual a large insurance company did some testing. They took a 4 inch diameter cylinder by 18 inches high and dispersed the dust with 20 psi of air and then ignited the dust with a spark plug. They placed a transducer to record the pressure developed by the explosion. Here is what they got..

Wheat Flour- 98 psi
Wood Dust- 87 psi
Graphic Fines- 0 psi
Instant Coffee- 60 psi
Powered Milk- 96 psi
Tea- 105 psi

Saw dust may not ignite, but the finer the dust is, the greater probability you have for a problem. I have investigated a few explosions involving dust, mostly in the pharmaceutical and metal working industry. Places look like a bomb went off! Lift roofs, moves machines, a lot of damage.

 

[ScottAR]

I'd agree, Sawdust from a sawmill is alot larger than shop sawdust and much larger than grain dust. Grain dust it basicly flour. Toss a little flour on a small fire and you can see what happens in the graineries.