The chips are in the barrel, now what?

[Steve Stube]

The chips are in the barrel below the cyclone, the barrel is full, now what do you do with the contents? To the curb? To the garden? To the woods out behind? Do you burn them (my option)? I see a lot of folks spending a $1,000.00 on up to collect them but once you have a barrel full what do you do with them? I think some of you fill that barrel several times in a day so I'm curious about your solution to disposal. TIA.

[Michael Ballent]

Depends on the wood that is in there... You can give the wood chips to a horse owner if there is no walnut in there (poisonous for horses) or you can create a mulch for the garden, again depending on the type of wood that you have in there... Personally I do not have a garden and I do not know any horse owners and do have exotics and walnut mixed in my chips so I don on the face mask and put it in a bag and out to the curb.

[Fred Ray]

I've read that the walnut chips are also bad for plants. So, I just bag and haul the walnut to the dump and recycle the rest in my LOML's flowers.:)

[Frank Pellow]

So far, all the dust and chips that I have collected have been safe stuff. So, they get used as mulch on my garden.

[Matt Meiser]

The guy next door has harness racing horses and said he'll take whatever I have. He doesn't care about walnut or anything exotic--says that unless they basically eat a bunch of it, it won't affect them and since he doesn't put their food on the floor, they won't eat it.

[Charlie Plesums]

I do a lot of work with Walnut, so I have been collecting answers (that I can't prove are true, but they are consistent).

Walnut keeps seeds from germinating, but does not interfere with most plant growth. Therefore I have a waiting list for my walnut shavings from people who have rose gardens and other plants that are transplanted, not grown from seeds. On my own flower beds, no weeds for 3-4 years, but it is time to use the walnut shavings treatment again.

I have heard that horse urine on walnut shavings creates a substance that is toxic to horses... they don't eat it, but the toxin enters through their hooves. Not a problem to me, since I have other ways of using the walnut shavings, but I have heard this enough times to worry about walnut shavings and horses.

I use a separator for the bulk of the chips... so lathe output and white wood from the jointer/planer get composted. I don't have a garden, but it seems virtuous.

The fine stuff from the sander and saws goes directly to the collector, without a separator. When I am working with odd wood (e.g I just did a project in Ipe), I sent everything directly to the collector. With much of bulk coming out at the separator, the collector only fills occasionally, but is pretty ugly - it goes to the dump in heavy construction site cleanup bags.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

All mine goes to the curb. If I lived out in the country I would probably spread it around more.

[Nick Mitchell]

Some I use for my own compost , some I give to other garden types and the majority gets burned out on the farm, smells great.

[Jamie Buxton]

I've got a string of garderners who take it. They use it for mulch and composting.

[Jim Becker]

Mine are used for additional composting material, the garden paths and general fill where we dump yard waste that is not being composted. Last year, our garden had cherry pathways! :D

[Steve Stube]

Thanks for the feedback, roughly what I expected might be the case.

The only waste spoken for here is the white Cedar planner shavings for dog house bedding.

I was hoping that somebody would provide a recipe for their own twist on "chipboard", perhaps a cheap binder + pressure + heat. I have a couple of plastic compression molding machines - maybe some wood chips and recycled milk jugs to produce a product.

[Steven Wilson]

MDF and plywood waste is either burned or sent in the garbage. Real wood I send to the garden pile or the kids play set.

[Greg Mann]

Walnut keeps seeds from germinating, but does not interfere with most plant growth. Therefore I have a waiting list for my walnut shavings from people who have rose gardens and other plants that are transplanted, not grown from seeds. On my own flower beds, no weeds for 3-4 years, but it is time to use the walnut shavings treatment again.


When I think about how much we have spent on Preen to keep the weeds down, I am not going to feel guilty about doing some Walnut projects when I get the chance. I can deduct the cost savings on the Preen directly from my project! Thanks Charlie. :D

Greg

[Ernie Hobbs]

Usually the shavings go the garden or my dog. She loves to sleep in a fresh pile of shavings. My garden is in raised beds and I usually line the spaces between the beds with shavings to keep the grass from growing- so I don't have to get my riding mower in those tight spaces.

[Dev Emch]

Does anyone use a bricateer (sp?) ? This is a machine that makes jumbo briquettes out of sawdust and chip waste which can then be used as solid fuel. I have looked for a used one but none have showed up. Would like to learn more about them and hear from anyone who has used one.

[Charlie Plesums]

I was hoping that somebody would provide a recipe for their own twist on "chipboard", perhaps a cheap binder + pressure + heat. I have a couple of plastic compression molding machines - maybe some wood chips and recycled milk jugs to produce a product.

I have been thinking about mixing shavings (and possibly sawdust) with a glue made from flour and water, and pressing the glop into sections of plastic drain pipe. When it dries (slow - weeks or months), hopefully it would shrink and slide out of the pipe, in the shape of a log. Flour burns without wierd chemical fumes, so it would add to the fuel. I don't currently have a wood burning fireplace, so haven't tried it and have no idea if it would work, but if you try it, let me know.

[markgoodall]

I believe someone once mentioned that they did this. I can't remember if it was here, or at Badger Pond or at WoodCentral. Something about compressing the dust and making brick/logs for the fire. Can't remember who or when, but you might want to look in the archives here and at WoodCentral.

[Garry Smith]

I make a pile for my wife to use in her gardens each year. I also put the chips on our trails in our woods. They seem to disappear in a year or two. In the winter I burn them in a 55 gallon drum when burning scrap.