How To Clean A Blocked Pellet Mill Die Template

A issue that we get a lot of questions about is blocked pellet mill dies. Sometimes its from people who already own a pellet press and are experiencing the issue and sometimes its from consumers looking to purchase a pellet mill and are concerned about blocking the press die.

A blocked pellet mill die can be very frustrating, and obviously while you have a blocked die you are not producing any pellets. Therefore the wasted time is the biggest issue to most people. So once a die is blocked what can you do to fix it? Well the first point to raise is try and clean the die out while it is still warm, and if it has already cooled try warming the die up in an oven. Some people may have a very large die where this is not possible. Basically the point is try and get some heat into the die in some way but do not put too much heat on to one section of the die as you could damage it. So now the die is warm how do we get the pellets out of the holes? The slow way is to tap out the pellets with a punch and hammer, the quicker way is to use drill and drill out the material. The first method while slower is the safer option, as drilling can damage the interior hole finish even more. What that will mean is that in the future you could increase the odds of blocking the die again. Once the holes are clear you need to inspect what condition the holes are in. Basically if they appear rough then this is clearly the issue. Corrosion can build up on the hole surface and this makes it very easy to block the pellet mill die. Put the die back in the pellet mill and run through a soft oily material, typically oil and bran repeatedly. This will help to polish up the holes but it can only do so much. You can also add a small amount of sand however be very careful using sand. If you re-process a sandy material frequently you will also wear down the surface of the die and rollers, reducing their life and increase production costs.