# What to do with all the sawdust...



## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

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?


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## GMman (Apr 11, 2008)

Garbage man for me


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## Chelios (Jan 2, 2010)

smoke some ribs


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## Pop (Aug 6, 2007)

Dang! Stumpy you're bizzy tonight. I use to keep weeds down in the garden & my neighborer's lawn..

Pop


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## rrdesigns (Sep 4, 2009)

I dump it in my compost pile.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

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.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

You can also make some colorful home made fireworks with saw dust and gun powder, but we won't talk about that here.


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## Pop (Aug 6, 2007)

William! Tell me more ! ! ! Explosives ! Yea ! Man !

Pop


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

I know nothing about them.
That's my story.
And I'm sticking to it.


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

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.


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

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.


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## Pop (Aug 6, 2007)

Stumpy, So it's true! All you guys up there do is hunt, drink and play in the snow. Sounds great to me. I'll be right up.

Pop


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## Pop (Aug 6, 2007)

Roger, That's a good story.

Pop


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

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…


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## superstretch (Jan 10, 2011)

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?


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## bernwood (Aug 19, 2010)

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…


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

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.


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## superstretch (Jan 10, 2011)

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.


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

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


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

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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## bubinga (Feb 5, 2011)

I dump it in the fire pit ,light it up on four sides, and it burns for 3 or 4 days
Or I should say smolders
Sometimes spread it out in the woods, works good on a windy day,as the fire pit deal ,does NOT


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## bubinga (Feb 5, 2011)

How about have a fish fry,instead of corn meal,use pine meal
Great Fiber,WOW


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## devann (Jan 11, 2011)

I make "art" out of it. Sell it to tourist. Wanna buy some?


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## cannonskate (Jun 10, 2010)

Personally I bag it for the garbage man, but I have seen some people post it on the free section of craigslist…


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

I'm going to invent a sawblade that has no teeth. Y'know, like those cutters used in delicatessens to slice lunch meats or loaves of bread. Then we can cut our lumber with a zero-kerf, and do away with the sawdust issue altogether!


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

That's a crappy idea, poopie kat…


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## superstretch (Jan 10, 2011)

The best email notifications are the ones that include the words "poopiekat" and "StumpyNubs"


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## tinnman65 (Jan 19, 2009)

I really do use it as fuel… in my wood burning furnace, also I use to give it away to a friend who used it for bedding for her horses. She loved it, of course I never work with treated lumber so I'm safe on both accounts.


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## Brian024 (Feb 2, 2009)

If you want to live on the side of danger, why not try:


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## richgreer (Dec 25, 2009)

In my area the ReStore store is always interested in receiving sawdust. They mix it with old paint so they can safely and legally dispose of the old paint. The ReStore store is affiliated with Habitat for Humanity. They accept donations of used building materials and make them available for reuse by other people. It's a good program and I like the idea that I am helping them by giving them my sawdust (of which I have a lot).


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## NBeener (Sep 16, 2009)

Wow, *Rich*.

I had NO idea. I'll reach out to our local ReStore. This would be a great deal, if they'll take the sawdust, too.

Thanks !


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## DaddyZ (Jan 28, 2010)

Put on Driveway, also makes a decent 'Salt' for Ice(course you track it everywhere), I kept a bag in the bed of pickup for snow & Ice(possible better traction if stuck) !!!


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## n2jeeps (Mar 1, 2011)

take your sawdust wrap it in a cotton cloth add a small piece of parafin tie the cloth shut and use as a fire starter for your fireplace or your firepit the sawdust /parafin will burn long enough and hot enough to get the logs burning….....


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## Robw (Jan 12, 2011)

So how do you use the saw dust to soak up old paint? Do you dump it in the paint can and let it dry or what? That sounds like a goods idea.

Rob


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## bernwood (Aug 19, 2010)

To dry old paints, I have an of old plastic food container ( 5 X13maybe) in which i fill with sawdust and pour my paint. This allows me to keep mixing it up to speed the drying process. I sometimes use the can, but if you have too much paint, it takes forever to dry and you end up with a solid stuck mess. The plastic container keeps the cans clean so they get recycled rather then put into the landfill. One caution note… be aware that oil soaked sawdust and rags can become combustible so I never overfill my plastic bin and empty it into a metal safety 5gal pail stored outside. Before I had the pail, I would just be careful not to allow fumes to collect.


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## thebarof (Apr 3, 2011)

I know of several fiber artists who would kill for some wood chips, they use it to dye fiber.

for example: Brasilwood gives a deep burgundy red.


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## verdesardog (Apr 2, 2011)

I have a built in disposal for my sawdust, my wife uses it in her ceramic pit fire process, I can't even keep up with her use. She goes to the local feed store and BUYS woodshavings normally used for livestock bedding.


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

cr1- My example was exactly as serious as yours was…


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## closetguy (Sep 29, 2007)

I give mine to a guy who fires pottery with it. Apparently, there is a style of firing clay pots where you bury the pots in saw dust, light the sawdust, and let it smolder for a couple of days. He gets about 60 gallons a month from me.


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## klassenl (Feb 13, 2011)

I live in one of those fortunate (or not depending on who you talk to) communities that has dumpsters in the alley so we all can dispose of our unwanted-ness anonymously.


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## 33706 (Mar 5, 2008)

*@Stumpy*: Now I remember why I put this thread on "Unwatch"!!


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

Hey closetguy- Thanks for coming out of the closet to tell us that! It's a fine idea.


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## alkillian (Mar 19, 2011)

I run a cabinet millwork shop and will could fill a dump truck almost every week. We have to trailers(t4'WX4'LX4'H)out back of the shop.One is for softwood from the planers and the other gets all the other stuff. everyday at lunch we take them out back and spread them over the 40 acers. The softwood stuff gets taken down the road to the farm and they use it for bedding. In the winter, we just let it blow out back.


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## pjones46 (Mar 1, 2011)

See this Sawdust Stove.

Comments


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

Al Killian- I had a friend who was fined by the EPA for spreading sawdust out behind his house. They said it was hazardous waste!


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## Roger Clark aka Rex (Dec 30, 2008)

I have heard that some LJs with abundant work often donate a large proportion of their sawdust to other LJs who are on lean times, as some sort of morale booster.


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

That's an excellent idea, Roger.


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