Disposing of Wood Turning Shavings / Chainsaw Chips ?

[Marty Tippin]

(Robo Hippy's chainsaw video reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask for a while...)

I find that roughing out a 12" x 5" bowl will generate about a wheelbarrow full of shavings, and that breaking down a log into 2 bowl blanks (removing the pith section) will generate almost another wheelbarrow full of shavings. (I currently break down logs in my workshop)

So what to do with all this stuff?

I live on 3 acres and have a fire pit, so we've been having a *lot* of bonfires from the shavings lately, but winter is coming and that might become more difficult. I'm also finding that if it rains on the shavings before I get around to burning them, I may as well not bother - though I've been using some liquid accelerant lately to get things going...

I also have a line of trees on the edge of the property and could probably dump a lot of shavings there, but I feel like I can generate waste a lot faster than it will decompose.

What do the rest of you do with your shavings?

[David Delo]

My chips go in the weekly trash pickup with everything else. I use 42 gallon contractor bags and if I start with a round blank, I can get 4 eight to 12 inch bowls stuffed into them. But if the blank is rectangular shaped I've really got to compress hard to get 3 bowls worth in them. Usually never have more than 2 bags worth in any 1 week with the time I have to devote to turning. I've been telling my better half lately that I could do more stuff if I had a coring system, so I wouldn't have to stop because I've reached the 2 extra bag limit for the week.

[Robert Henrickson]

Most of my shavings go into the cart designated for the weekly pickup of yard trash, which gets recycled (composted?) by the county government.

[Tim Passmore]

I bag mine and take them back to the people that own the woods where I get much of my wood supply. They are spreading the shavings on their walking paths throughout the woods------we're both happy!

[Bob Hamilton]

I have a access to a municipal composting site where I can take my shavings and chips.

Bob

[John Conklin]

We live on 5 wooded acres, so I just take them out and dump them in a low spot.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

find someone with horses - they'll usually take shavings. But - just like plants - walnut shavings are bad for horses to stand on.

we have someone in my club that his son-in-law keeps a few horses. Dave provides me with bags - I provide him with shavings.

I usually wait until I have 3 bags full then deliver.

[Gary Baler]

Marty,

I produce about ten 50 gallon bags of shavings a week. I am currently harvesting down aspen from a property west of Pikes Peak. The owner of the property picks up the shavings and all my cut offs. The shavings are composted for a green house and the cut offs are burned for firewood. Aspen is a small part of what I work with, so she actually gets more wood back than I harvest.

[Don McClure]

Do not put them in your garden or flower beds as they will take all the available nitrogen up as they decompose. They can be composted,or burned or used as "litter" for animals avoiding walnut shavings.

[Robert Willing]

I give all of my shavings, chips, dust to a chicken farm. I put them into 100lb bags which had corn in them from feeding wild life around my property (41 acres). I use to return them to nature in the woods but the chicken farm said they would take them for bedding. I also clean out my shop/garage with a leaf blower it all goes back to nature.

[Rick Gibson]

I have a town owned compost site at the edge of town where I can dump them. Some go into my garden and flower beds and a few friends stop by occasionally and take a couple bags before I have a chance to dump them. I dump between rows in the garden and some research has shown they only use up the nitrogen from the top inch or so from the soil so a little higher nitrogen fertilizer in the flower beds takes care of that.

[Bill Boehme]

Depending on the species of wood. If it is a type that termites and ants avoid, the we put it in the shrub beds to help control weeds. It cuts down on the amount of hardwood mulch that we need to buy. Other species of wood gets sent to the dump where it is composted.

[Thomas Canfield]

I have one friend that spreads my chips/shavings around his fruit trees for mulch, and another that has used some in his chicken pen to be later removed and composted along with some chicken manure.

[Joe Bradshaw]

I dump mine out back of my shop. When the pile gets too high, I spread them with my tractor. I live outside of town, so I am not concerned about nosey neighbors.
Joe

[Jerry Rhoads]

Paths through my small woods area, a low spot, and honey uses hem for mulch. We quit taking the paper, so might have to make fire starters out of them.
At one of the places (local Farmers Market) that I demonstrate. there are a couple of different couple who stop buy to scoop them up for me. I just kick them over for them so they are not in the way when they pack them (and they bring their own bags.
It sure helps me when it is clean up time.

Jerry

[Russ Halsema]

I keep a stainless steel trash can with a lid outside of my shop. I dump my shavings/dust in the can, when it fills up I light it up. I can keep an eye on it from my shop, if I need to leave I put the lid on the can and it will snuff it out. If I'm in the shop on the weekend, I'm usually burning something. The neighbors have never said a word about it.

[Jeff Wayne]

Grilling/smoking over wood is another way to use these good by-products.

Woods that leach colour—Osage orange is a good example—can be used for dye-making.

Pave your own pathways with wood shavings.

Finally, compost piles need lots of carbon additions. That's where are leftovers go for me.

[Don Orr]

I save my clean domestic hardwood chips for our pottery friends for their Raku firings and pit fires. Other stuff goes on a rubbish pile down behind the pond or on a path to the neighbors fields. I sure don't generate several bags a week like some of the other responders though. I don't have that much shop time.

[john patrick]

I give all my shaving to my neighbor, who makes mulch by mixing them with dirt. She's growing good vegetables in there!

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

well, I lost my horse guy.

so I put out a message to some friends and found one that wants some mulch. I imagine after a few months that she'll have more than she knows what to do with.

Also going to try my local FFA to see if they can use them for the kids project animals.

[Chris Colman]

If my trash guys see a single leaf, or a handful of shavings in my trash bags, they reject them as yard waste and will NOT take them.

I tried to explain to a couple of them that the shavings were from woodworking, not yard waste, but with 3 30 gallon trash bags full of shavings, they would not believe me.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

If my trash guys see a single leaf, or a handful of shavings in my trash bags, they reject them as yard waste and will NOT take them.

I tried to explain to a couple of them that the shavings were from woodworking, not yard waste, but with 3 30 gallon trash bags full of shavings, they would not believe me.


I could do that - but the City of Houston requires us to use specially marked biodegradable bags for "yard waste" - they go to be mulched instead of to the landfill. The bags are outrageously expensive - something like $10 for 10 bags - and the bags are small (33 gallon or so) and they rip very easily.

the lady that says she needs mulch lives on 5 acres, has a mulch pile - and her property back up to a creek. she mentioned she might even have some trees that need to be removed...then she says "have you seen the inside of a box elder?"

"why yes, yes I have"

so I'll make my first run out to her place on Sunday to survey the situation and take her a few bags full.

[Robert Henrickson]

I could do that - but the City of Houston requires us to use specially marked biodegradable bags for "yard waste" - they go to be mulched instead of to the landfill. The bags are outrageously expensive - something like $10 for 10 bags - and the bags are small (33 gallon or so) and they rip very easily.

Our local government provides a wheeled bin that holds 15-20(?) bushels for 'yard waste'. I can use that for shavings -- no comments yet. For additional yard waste we are supposed to use very large paper (biodegradable) bags, which have a capacity greater than the black plastic garbage bags, and are quite strong. Although they are sold in local stores for $2.50-$3.50 for five, the local government provides coupons to every household once or twice a year so that up to 50-60 bags can be gotten for free with each set of coupons.

[Wayne Lovell]

We live on 55 acres and have an intermittent creek bed about 100 yards behind the house. I put the shavings in the creek, 2 or 3 time a year we get enough rain that the creek gets about 150 ft wide and the shavings disappear. I assume that they decompose naturally on their trip to the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles away.

[Olaf Vogel]

My stuff goes into large biodegradable bags which get dumped at the end of the driveway in large batches.
I put a post on Kijiji (CDN version of Craigslist), advertising them as "FREE GARDEN MATERIAL!! Come an Get em'"

They are usually gone by morning.
:)

Olaf
<sometimes I like scavengers>

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

We live on 55 acres and have an intermittent creek bed about 100 yards behind the house. I put the shavings in the creek, 2 or 3 time a year we get enough rain that the creek gets about 150 ft wide and the shavings disappear. I assume that they decompose naturally on their trip to the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles away.

They don't decompose as fast as you think - they end up washing downstream and clogging the creekbed along the way, causing flooding when they clog up. That's why "2 or 3 times a year" the creek gets wide. Too much rain - and too much debris in the creek.

if you live on 55 acres - surely you have a burn pile or compost area - please consider using that instead of dumping them in the creek.

[Jeff Wayne]

∞
Same issue with neighbours thoughtfully blowing yard debris into the street . . . from where it would wash into drainage systems . . . if/when rained.


"have you seen the inside of a box elder?"

"why yes, yes I have"
Good, green karma.

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

so I went by today and dropped off 2 bags of shavings for the mulch pile, and 4 large bins of off-cuts from processing logs for the burn pile - she give me tour of her 5 acres.

really cool place next to a creek and she grows & grafts many many varieties of citrus fruits. The box elder she wants taken down is near the creek and gives too much shade to the citrus she's growing and her pecans.

that one will be coming down very soon. :D

[Scott Brandstetter]

Shawn,
Have chainsaw and will travel. I highly suggest you don't try this job on your own. Let me be a second set of eyes........for safety reasons of course. :)


so I went by today and dropped off 2 bags of shavings for the mulch pile, and 4 large bins of off-cuts from processing logs for the burn pile - she give me tour of her 5 acres.

really cool place next to a creek and she grows & grafts many many varieties of citrus fruits. The box elder she wants taken down is near the creek and gives too much shade to the citrus she's growing and her pecans.

that one will be coming down very soon. :D

[Shawn Pachlhofer]

that's a long way to come for one tree.

I have plenty of "supervisors" that volunteer to help.

[Scott T Smith]

(Robo Hippy's chainsaw video reminded me of something I've been meaning to ask for a while...)

I find that roughing out a 12" x 5" bowl will generate about a wheelbarrow full of shavings, and that breaking down a log into 2 bowl blanks (removing the pith section) will generate almost another wheelbarrow full of shavings. (I currently break down logs in my workshop)

So what to do with all this stuff?

I live on 3 acres and have a fire pit, so we've been having a *lot* of bonfires from the shavings lately, but winter is coming and that might become more difficult. I'm also finding that if it rains on the shavings before I get around to burning them, I may as well not bother - though I've been using some liquid accelerant lately to get things going...

I also have a line of trees on the edge of the property and could probably dump a lot of shavings there, but I feel like I can generate waste a lot faster than it will decompose.

What do the rest of you do with your shavings?

Marty, I generate them by the dump truck load and compost them onto my pastures (although sometimes the dry pine shavings get set aside for the horse barns and chicken coop). In your situation I think that I would just mulch them into the tree line.

[Steve Hayes]

If it's the right wood like mesquite, cherry, apple and such it goes straight to the smoker.