reusing wool scraps for attic insulation

[Ghost_Nephilim]

I came across a chance to grab a pile of insulation wool scraps from a local housing manufacturer. It's good stuff, just odd-sized cuttings. My thought was: why not grind it down and run it through a blower for attic jobs instead of paying retail for bagged material?

Problem is, most of what I've looked at doesn't handle this kind of waste. Tried testing some in a chipper and it just turned into a clogged mess. Seems like there must be some piece of equipment out there that can handle shredding soft fibers into blower-ready size, but it's not obvious what's right for the job. Anybody here ever made use of wool cuttings like this? What would you use to process them without spending more than the insulation itself is worth?

 

[cordur0y]

I've messed with that idea before and the issue is exactly what you hit, the fibrous stuff just gums up most shredders/chippers. I had to use something like a textile shredder or you could use a hammer mill with a screen fine enough to fluff it, and those aren't cheap

 

[burgundywires]

That’s a tricky one and most chippers just tangle it up, so you’d need something more like a fiber shredder or modified insulation blower. Might work if you can find an old machine cheap and retrofit it

 

[thec00l bill]

I came across a chance to grab a pile of insulation wool scraps from a local housing manufacturer. It's good stuff, just odd-sized cuttings. My thought was: why not grind it down and run it through a blower for attic jobs instead of paying retail for bagged material?

Problem is, most of what I've looked at doesn't handle this kind of waste. Tried testing some in a chipper and it just turned into a clogged mess. Seems like there must be some piece of equipment out there that can handle shredding soft fibers into blower-ready size, but it's not obvious what's right for the job. Anybody here ever made use of wool cuttings like this? What would you use to process them without spending more than the insulation itself is worth?

If the volume is small and you're feeling adventurous, you can try using a commercial leaf shredder or chipper/shredder designed for yard waste, but only if the wool is bone dry and fed slowly.
You'd need a model with a flail/hammer mill type system rather than a blade chopper. The problem is that the wool will likely wrap around the central shaft and ruin the machine.
you need to precut the wool into the smallest possible sections with heavy duty shears first

 

[furg0y]

Honestly though, might be cheaper to just hand stuff it in walls and buy blown stuff for attics and yeah, what's your volume looking like, was it worth rigging up equipment or just change your approach?

 

[Alan]

@Ghost_Nephilim I’ve looked into this before and once you factor in the cost and headache of processing, it usually stops making sense unless you have serious volume and free access to the right equipment. @furg0y is probably right that hand-packing walls with scraps and using proper blown insulation for attics is the most practical and cost-effective route.