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What to do with all the sawdust...

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4K views 46 replies 27 participants last post by  StumpyNubs 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I vent my dust collector out to the backseat of my car and when it get's full I drive over to my neighbor's house and empty it out into his pool. It works for me, but what do you do with your saw dust?

Some people bag it up and leave it for the garbage man. But there MUST be more creative ways to dispose of it. What do you do?
 
#6 ·
I keep it in five gallon buckets. Several friends do mechanic work in the front of my shop. I have a big shop and also thirteen years of mechanic experience to offer, so they usually wind up at my place eventually, from oil changes to engine overhauls. I keep saying I'm going to stop it, but I always get sucked in.
Anyway, back on topic. Sawdust is better at soaking up oil, water, grease, or pretty much anything else, than any commercial floor dry I have found.
I also use a lot of it in the winter. My dog stays inside the shop in the winter. It soak up where she pees. When she craps, I throw a handfull or two of sawdust on it for a few hours and then sweep it up into a dist pan than throw it away. The sawdust not only dries it out to where it sweeps up easily, it also soaks up the odor.
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Pop- not too busy. There are three of my threads in the top five right now, but that won't last. One thread I started several hours ago. Another I started more than a month ago and suddenly it popped up again. A third (this one) I started for the heck of it. Meanwhile I am sitting back with a glass of Southern Comfort and watching TV with the wife… life's good.
 
#11 ·
I take mine to Taco Bell. They pay $5.00 a bag for it. I'm pretty sure that they add it to the 38% beef in their Tacos. They prefer Bloodwood and pay a higher premium for it. With beef at $3.00 lb they save a bundle using 62% Sawdust filler. I must caution you however, last year Taco Bell had a class action suit filed against them when several customers found the Taco meat was sticky, so make sure you don't sell them any sawdust with glue residue, because the customers all suffered from constipation - yeah it showed up as Titebond III and their body fluids just couldn't dissolve it (being waterproof). The TV reports of affected customers being of Chinese descent was completely wrong as the customers had spent many hours on the can straining to pass a Taco, and the strained look on their faces somehow didn't go away.
 
#14 ·
Roger- I don't know what Taco Bell does to their meat… but it's DELICIOUS!

Pop- I don't hunt, but I do kill something every chance I get. And we got another snow storm last week. It's almost April and I'm still trudging the dogs through the snow!

Screw it, I'm having another Southern Comfort…
 
#15 ·
There was a grain mill in the town I grew up in and more than once, there were explosions. Both in the case of flour and sugar, if you get fine enough dust in the air and its thick enough, a spark will cause an explosion.. I don't doubt the same could be true for fine saw dust… Maybe reverse the shopvac to blow it out heavy and hold up a torch to it?
 
#16 ·
Lots of good uses and wild comments…keep this site interesting. But on a more serious note, my #1 method of using sawdust and chips is to soak up old paints, stains and other "hazmat" stuff. Our recycling center has always accepted hazmat stuff as long as it is dry. I've told them everything I've soaked up with my woodworking byproduct, and they have accepted it… as long as it's dry. I keep very clean sawdust - wood chips" in 1 area and contaminated stuff in another. The clean stuff I use in my compost pile… the other I use to dry hazmat. Whatever is surplus, I use as fire starters…
 
#17 ·
superstretch: You may have just hinted at a way to solve the energy crisis and enhance woodworkers income.

If you are saying that fine sawdust in thick air explodes when a spark is introduced, then why not look into it as a FUEL instead of gasoline? For the Green bunch, it's replenishable and ya don't have to drill for wood. Woodworkers would be in the $ seats making all the sawdust they can sell (at inflated prices), they won't even have to make projects, just make sawdust - project will just be "extra income".
Just think, woodworkers can become sawdust Barons and form large fuel corporations, even current LJs could have their own brand: Like;
StumpyGas, PoopieGas, JJGas, Karson-Exxon, RickDust, HelluvaGas, TopaFuel, GrizzGo (contains sour kraut additive) - wow, the possibilities are endless.
Thanks superstretch for stumbling on the idea that will solve many problems …. we owe it all to you, you are our hero.
 
#18 ·
Thanks, I try. I had another idea.. what if we take scraps and feed them into… a stove built into the car. That stove could boil water and the steam used to power the car!

On a serious note, my dad uses his sawdust as fertilizer/insulation for plants in the winter/spring.
 
#19 ·
find the guy/person you dont like. Fill bags with fine dust and place open bags in the back seat of their car, open the rear windows a crack…...........and see if they even drive a block.

I put mine in places I dont want anything to grow
 
#20 ·
superstretch: OK,serious for a moment in time. There are some good uses for sawdust and chips as mentioned by others. Soaking up a spill is the one I use most, I have also used small chips and dust on the garden BUT you have to be careful NOT to have sawdust from treated lumber, else the chemicals will harm the ground.
 
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