# Sawdust, a problem or a resource?



## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

I was thinking about how much sawdust and shaving are created by LJ members every day, and I was wondering what folks do with it. I also wondered if I'm throwing away a useful resource. I know some use it in the flower beds, but I understand that it ties up the nitrogen in the soil and so is not all that great for that use. What do you do with your sawdust?


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## SuburbanDon (Mar 15, 2010)

I don't make that much sawdust and I just throw it away. I suppose I should bag it. Somebody can use it.


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## zindel (Feb 22, 2011)

If you live in a cold part of the world you could make a sawdust stove. It is basically an oil drum and some vents and you got yourself a lot of heat for the winter. There are videos on youtube if your interested.


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## kaschimer (Nov 10, 2011)

I breathe it… probably should invest in DC at some point… Seriously, the stuff I don't breathe I throw away


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

I have 5 acres so I walk down the hill & dispense of it down there. I probably look like Santa, only skinier while totin that bag on me back… lol I don't believe sawdust should be used in flower beds, but, that's my opinion. I do not know if it is good or bad, or both.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Thanks for the suggestion* Zindel*, but something like that would create an insurance problem here in Norway, not to mention that it would be just plain illegal. Yes *Steve*, I breath a lot too mine too. After all these years I like it better than fresh air, at least that's what my wife claims!


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## jmos (Nov 30, 2011)

I'm fortunate that my Brother-in-law has a small organic farm and uses my sawdust/shavings for the animals. I bag it up and my Mother-in-law hauls it away. Otherwise I'd put it out on the curb with the leaves and branches.


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## superdav721 (Aug 16, 2010)

Large shavings are good for paint and finish removal, also for burnishing wood. I use the big stuff for animal bedding and kitty litter. I also have a compost pile I put the little stuff in and the other when the animals are done with it. I have just swept it out the front door of the shop. Place in your drive way for traction from mud or snow. Use it for soaking up oil under your car. Make a path in your garden. Add to cement or mortar to lighten it up. 
But be careful with plants and animals with black walnut its poisonous.


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## Manitario (Jul 4, 2010)

my wife uses some of it in her compost gardens. I unfortunately use a lot of walnut which apparently is poisonous to other plants, so that gets bagged and out with the trash. It's too bad; when I'm working on a project with rough sawn wood (which is the only wood I can buy up here) I'll fill my 30 gallon DC bin every few days.


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## Bagtown (Mar 9, 2008)

I dump it out back in the alders by the lake.
Hand plane shavings get used to start the weber kettle and the Big Green Egg.

Mike


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## davidmicraig (Nov 21, 2009)

If it is very fine, I will sometimes save it. I have thought about getting little containers and having samples after each wood type I work on. Mixed with some wood glue, there is not a better filler and the wood color always matches.

David


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## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

that's a good point David C. I do have a few small baby food jars (you could use sandwich baggies), with sanding dusts of Maple, Oak, Walnut for the purpose you mention, and it works gr8 for filling in, and like you said, you get a good match


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## jm8 (Jan 26, 2012)

I believe Wood Magazine listed some uses for sawdust. One was you add melted paraffin wax with saw dust that is in a muffin wrapper (Have no idea what the official name of this wrapper is) and voila, you have a fire starter for the fire place.


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## xwingace (Apr 25, 2011)

If you mix it with Gorilla glue you can make some pretty interesting scupltures! I forget what the ratio is to get good results, it's been a while since I have done that.


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## shipwright (Sep 27, 2010)

I burn it in a regular wood stove. Works great as long as you are patient and add it a shovel full at a time so it doesn't choke the fire. It adds heat to the shop and really reduces the dump runs. Between sawdust and scraps, I never need kindling. When I ran the Harbour Ferry fleet I had a lot of used engine oil. Mixed with sawdust that would bring a cold shop up to temperature nice and fast.


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## daltxguy (Sep 7, 2007)

I use it in the composting toilet, otherwise it goes in the compost or gets given away to people with chickens. Nothing gets wasted and sawdust is not waste! It's a valuable resource.

Please don't throw it away! For goodness sakes, compost it!
Those who throw it away probably turn around and pay to buy compost.

Otoh, if it is treated wood ( please say no) then this is toxic waste and should be disposed of appropriately.


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## SPalm (Oct 9, 2007)

Hey Stefang, you are absolutly right about not composting it- because of the need for nitrogen. Wood is almost all carbon. Composting requires a *ratio of carbon to nitrogen*, about 30:1, for the little critters to do their work and turn it into soil.

Wood has a ratio somewhere in the hundreds to 1 ratio depending on the wood. So if one wants to do this you need to add nitrogen for the magic to happen. Nitrogen is found in green plant material. Once it dries, you basically just have carbon. So grass clippings can be used - and other 'living' things like kitchen scraps, but you can do the math and find out how much you would need to counteract 30 gallons of sawdust.

Side note: Dead mature tree leaves are already at the perfect 30:1 ratio. (Give or take).

I don't know what to do with mine, but when I wanted to compost it, I found all this stuff out.

Steve


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## Dennisgrosen (Nov 14, 2009)

if you make enoff sawdust you can compress it to woodbric´s or to pellets 
that can be used in a stove as firewood

but that require a hydralic mashinery 

Dennis


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## joebloe (Feb 13, 2012)

With me it makes a difference what kind of wood I'm working with.If I'm working with cypress ,which I buy rough cut,I save the saw dust for a friend of the family,that has pets ,works great in the bottom of the cages.If its pine I compost it.


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## gfadvm (Jan 13, 2011)

I have dumped it on the flower beds for years and it has not caused any problems contrary to others and yes I put the walnut right in with the mesquite, pine, fir, hedge, etc. I'll post some pics of the flower beds if it ever stops raining! (6" and still raining).


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## Schwieb (Dec 3, 2008)

I have to be a little careful about this. We use as much as we can for our animals. You must be sure of what you are spreading out for animal contact. I find some use for MOST but not all shavings. Some woods are toxic to some animals, Walnut for one. If I am running a bunch of pine or cypress, even oak I will use it in the horse stalls. If a bag is really mixed up with different shavings, I will spread it out in the chicken yard. They'll scratch at it like crazy and after awhile it makes pretty good compost. I discard real sawdust and fine dust. The hand-plane and green turning shavings are pretty nice for rabbit beading and making paths. The spiral shapes are pretty cool as they dry. I do have a open burning site and am allowed to do that but I see energy just going to waste and wish I had a simple method of taping into that potential. It does not work good as mulch unless you don't want things to grow.


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## devann (Jan 11, 2011)

I dump some of it into the compost pile. I use some of it in my art work, the wood art pieces. I bottle it up depending upon how it was cut, by species, and by size .


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## buffalosean (Feb 15, 2009)

Saw dust, shavings and chips are good bedding for animals.


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## Martyroc (Feb 1, 2012)

I compost it, I have plenty of green and brown items in my compost, so there is never the wrong mix in my composter.before the composter I would just throw it out, very wasteful but I honestly didn't know how else to utilize it.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

A lot of great ideas for using the waste. I think it might be good if someone came up with an affordable sawdust compactor for home use. I remember quite a few years ago we tried putting sawdust into empty milk cartons. They didn't burn very well. Plus it was PIN to do that.


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## WDHLT15 (Aug 15, 2011)

I sell it for $10 a pick-up load. The sawmill makes a bunch of sawdust.


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## bleorgh (Mar 22, 2012)

Saw dust.75% Ashes from a wood stove 25%(binding agent). Sugar and water cut 50/50. Make a paste pliable like silly putty. Stuff mix in 6 in. Sewer pipe scrap piece 18 inches long and wait about a week. Knock out your log with a handle of a sledge hammer. May come out in pieces but who cares…you're gonna burn it. You may drill some ventilation holes in the pipe also depending on the humidity in your area (I live in the desert) .


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## bleorgh (Mar 22, 2012)

Saw dust.75% Ashes from a wood stove 25%(binding agent). Sugar and water cut 50/50. Make a paste pliable like silly putty. Stuff mix in 6 in. Sewer pipe scrap piece 18 inches long and wait about a week. Knock out your log with a handle of a sledge hammer. May come out in pieces but who cares…you're gonna burn it. You may drill some ventilation holes in the pipe also depending on the humidity in your area (I live in the desert) .


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## bleorgh (Mar 22, 2012)

Experiment with the mix. Sugar is cheap but you wont want a syrup as it will burn way too hot for a wood stove.


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## racerglen (Oct 15, 2010)

Sawdust also works suprizingly well as a hand cleaner, I have a mechanic friend with a cabnet shop next door, he uses all he can get as floor cleanup and as a hand cleaner.


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

I dump it under the berry bushes to try to keep the weeds down. Doesn't seem to do any harm. I also have a chipper and often chip walnut branches. This stuff also goes under the berry bushes and seems to do no harm.

-Paul


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Now if we just had a way to dispose of cutoffs. Maybe a termite nest?


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## Yonak (Mar 27, 2014)

I divide it out between shavings and sawdust, according to operation and which dust collector I use.

There are many horse owners in my area who, basically, fight over my wood shavings. I sell it for the cost of the bags and a little bit for helping to load in their trucks. I've never had a problem getting rid of it.

The sawdust I sell to a business that uses it, somehow, as a stuffing for a product they manufacture, I've never asked for details but they buy all I produce.

Regarding walnut shavings, the latest research I had heard, the shavings are safe for plant bedding. Juglone, the chemical which is hazardous to some plants and to horses, is concentrated in the nut hulls and roots of the walnut tree and only scarce amounts in the wood itself.

A few weeks ago, another poster reported a more recent study regarding juglone and horses and the specific danger, which was not as was generally reported and long thought. I don't remember the specifics. gfadvm may have more up-to-date information on that.


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

I use mine for mulch in the back yard, but I've pretty much reached my limit for use there. A friend on Facebook said that some potters use sawdust when they fire their pottery. I'd love to donate mine to that.


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## Ocelot (Mar 6, 2011)

I re-woke an old thread and I see y'all are working it!

I just now read this :

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-08-03/classified/ct-sun-0804-garden-qa-20130803_1_black-walnut-tree-tolerate-juglone-plants

... and maybe I've just been lucky. I suspect that chipping whole walnut trees and dumping it under blueberries is a bad thing - but it surely hasn't shown any signs of trouble yet. I'll stop doing it anyway, just in case.

Here's a PDF. I had to substitute spaces for the %20 to get it to load.

I don't know if the chips and dust from dried walnut has the same effect as parts of "fresh" trees.

http://hort.uwex.edu/sites/default/files/Black%20Walnut%20Toxicity.pdf

-Paul


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## shawnmasterson (Jan 24, 2013)

Also you could invest in a pellet mill and make it into wood pellets to use or sell.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

I compost my planer shavings unless it is walnut but just toss the sawdust.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

I compost my planer shavings unless it is walnut but just toss the sawdust.


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## timbertailor (Jul 2, 2014)

Since I do not separate pressure treated from non treated saw dust, I bag it up and use is as an oil\fluid absorbent.

I always manage to spill something when servicing the vehicles.


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