Sawdust - What can you do that isn't a Presto log?

[jamil mehdi]

I'm filling up a 5 yard dumpster every week. There has to be a better use for sawdust other than adding $50 of parafin wax and making a log that burns weirdly for an hour.

I'm calling on the best and brightest minds of SMC to come up with other uses for chips, shavings, and dust. I feel like we're sitting on a dusty goldmine, but don't know it yet. If you have an idea, let er rip. I'm all ears.

[Grant Wilkinson]

We have a guy who has horses pick up our chips from the collector. He is not looking for dust, though. The local cricket club (I know.) picks up chips, too, to spread on the grass to help soak up puddles. Neither of these options pays, though.

[Jim Becker]

Farms do use this kind of material, but it has to be free of walnut for sure. The prefer pine, but other species that are not poisonous are fine, too.

[Zachary Hoyt]

We have a boiler that can burn sawdust or any kind of wood byproduct if it's reasonably dry. It's not the handiest thing to feed into the boiler, but it burns fine and the boiler provides a lot of heat.

[ChrisA Edwards]

We have a guy who has horses pick up our chips from the collector. He is not looking for dust, though. The local cricket club (I know.) picks up chips, too, to spread on the grass to help soak up puddles. Neither of these options pays, though.

Likewise, I don't produce anywhere near as much as you, OP, but I have a lady who has horses that comes and picks up my wood waste.

I catch mine in 55G lawn and leaf bags and she brings those back to me for re-use.

[Erik Loza]

When I was with the millwork company, this gentleman who kept livestock would come and take ours. We were generating about one roll-off's worth of sawdust a week. No charge. He was doing us a favor, since it would have cost us money to have the waste disposal company haul it away.

Erik

[Bill Dufour]

Once it has been mixed with urine and manure it rots faster in a compost pile. The animal waste adds the nitrogen that it needs to rot. The compost can be sold to gardeners. My old Neighbor said his friend had bought a dump trump load of horse manure for his wife's birthday. She was thrilled since she was a gardener. It was better then pumping out the septic tank for an anniversary present.
When I worked at the lab we filled a dumpster with used pine shaving mixed with mouse and rat poop about once a month. It was delivered to the botanical garden who wanted it. I brought some home in garbage bags and tilled it into the garden. The neighborhood cats loved that.
Bil lD

[Jon Endres]

I compost mine. Not at your level of production, but it all goes into the pile along with lawn clippings, food waste and leaves. I also mulch my garlic in the fall with it. Also great around blueberries.

Walnut shavings are not a toxin, per se; it is the tree itself that produces a toxin that will affect plants, and horses will die if they eat enough of the leaves. I can't find any proof that the sawdust and shavings are an issue.

To the OP: see if there is a large composting operation available near you, they may take all you can produce as it is an excellent component to mix into a "wet" system.

[Alan Schwabacher]

The amount of toxin in walnut shavings may be low enough to not bother some things, but I wouldn't count on it being zero.

"Black walnuts produce a chemical called juglone, which occurs naturally in all parts of the tree, especially in the buds, nut hulls, and roots. The leaves and stems contain smaller quantities of juglone, which is leached into the soil after they fall. The highest concentration of juglone occurs in the soil directly under the tree’s canopy, but highly sensitive plants may exhibit toxicity symptoms beyond the canopy drip line. Because decaying roots can release juglone, toxicity may occur for several years after a tree has been removed."

From Morton arboretum website

[John TenEyck]

I think Zachary's solution is your best bet besides giving it away to avoid landfill costs. Either find someone who has a sawdust boiler or put one in and take advantage of it to heat your own shop.

John

[Mike King]

I'm filling up a 5 yard dumpster every week. There has to be a better use for sawdust other than adding $50 of parafin wax and making a log that burns weirdly for an hour.

I'm calling on the best and brightest minds of SMC to come up with other uses for chips, shavings, and dust. I feel like we're sitting on a dusty goldmine, but don't know it yet. If you have an idea, let er rip. I'm all ears.
I have no experience with them, but I understand briquetting is a solution that many use. It is an option to add to some dust collectors.

[Mike Henderson]

I used to compost mine but now just put it in the trash.

Mike

[Zachary Hoyt]

I have heard anecdotally that walnut sawdust is toxic to animals if they're bedded in it, though I don't know if that's scientifically proven. The dust from our sawmill gets left outside to age for a year and can then be used in the garden, but when I cut walnut logs I dump that sawdust in the woods out of the way. Shop dust goes in the boiler since I work a fair amount with walnut, I don't generate nearly as much as the OP but when I'm turning banjo rims I can have two or three 5 gallon buckets of turning waste at a time. Our boiler is an AHS Wood Gun, I mostly burn regular firewood but also shavings and dust when I have them. These boilers are not very uncommon, and I imagine that at least some other boilers can burn dust too. Our old boiler was an HS Tarm and it was much more picky about what it would burn, no dust for that boiler. We run ours year round for hot water as well as for heat in the winter. I don't think you could start a fire with dust, but once there are some coals I can fill the firebox with dust or shavings and it will burn them all up. I usually add a piece or two of heavier firewood also, to help it keep the base fire going.

[Mark Bolton]

Unless you are making a ton of super clean fluffy shavings you can sell as bedding or clean coarse chips you can give away to farm/livestock people, there really isnt any good solution other than investing in a briquetter and possibly using them to heat your shop if you can.

The livestock issue (for us) has been a nightmare especially if you have to deal with finicky horse people. They will carry on about Walnut, and even Poplar, and you can feed them fact after fact after fact that the heartwood and sapwood chips are nothing and they will still stay bent on old wives tales.

We had horses for many years, would I use 100% walnut chips in a stall for anything? No.. because they are nasty greasy chips anyway, but mixed in a batch in a moderate percentage they are zero issue.

If your making tons of fluffy pine/poplar/maple chips you should be able to bag and sell them.

Composting is great, but as Bill says, they need to be mixed either with a mile of nitrogen rich material or you have to add them in low concentrations or mix bagged high nitrogen in with them. The micro organisms that breakdown heartwood feed exclusively on nitrogen so the pile goes dead in short order. I have locations around my property where we had the sawmill set and the sawdust piled up 6''-12" thick. Nothing grows there for 10 years or more and you can break into the pile and there are chips like they were sawn yesterday down an inch or two.

We bear the same burden paying to have chips hauled off to the landfill which sucks but our chips are a wild mix of hardwoods, melamine, solid surface, ply, and a lot of fines from sanding. Even when we are just making wood chips the fines from the sanders tend to void feeding the chips to livestock people.

[Jim Becker]

I have heard anecdotally that walnut sawdust is toxic to animals if they're bedded in it, though I don't know if that's scientifically proven.

It's true, particularly for horses. it was mentioned earlier in the thread. So when walnut is "on the menu", that debris has to be segregated if one is selling or giving away the waste for livestock bedding purposes.

[John P Clark]

I "pay" to have my sawdust removed once a month to a local composter - she is glad to get it, and I pay $30 per trailer load to get rid of it - she dose supply me with compost when I ask for some - See if you have a local compost company, I know I pay but I would pay to put it in my dumpster and haul to a landfill

[Mark Bolton]

What is your dumpster fee per week? Ours is about $100 a month for a 4 yard tipped weekly. We are lucky here in that we are on a will-call so if things are slow or were not filling the dumpster if it isnt tipped we dont pay. There is no rental fee for the container. Just the fee every time its tipped.

[Steve Demuth]

The amount of toxin in walnut shavings may be low enough to not bother some things, but I wouldn't count on it being zero.

"Black walnuts produce a chemical called juglone, which occurs naturally in all parts of the tree, especially in the buds, nut hulls, and roots. The leaves and stems contain smaller quantities of juglone, which is leached into the soil after they fall. The highest concentration of juglone occurs in the soil directly under the tree’s canopy, but highly sensitive plants may exhibit toxicity symptoms beyond the canopy drip line. Because decaying roots can release juglone, toxicity may occur for several years after a tree has been removed."

From Morton arboretum website

I am not going to argue that Black Walnut sawdust is not toxic to horses. There seems to be pretty strong consensus among horse vets that it is, causing edema of the lower legs and even laminitis. I'm no horse farmer, so don't have any relevant experience.

What I do know is that if the sawedust is toxic, it's not because of juglone. There is little to no juglone in Black Walnut heartwood. It's found in the nut husks, the leaves, and most heavily in the actively growing root zone. Wood experts agree on this, and I've demonstrated it myself: juglone is fairly long lived, taking several years to break down at soil temperature and moisture. I've got more walnut trees in the acres around our house than any other species. I've killed tomato plants reliably with a walnut leave mulch, by mixing leaves or husks into the soil I plant in, and just by planting tomatoes under or within root reach distance of a walnut tree. Mulching them with sawdust or having the sawdust in the soil doesn't phase them.

[johnny means]

It's worthless. Alchemist will turn lead to gold before anyone comes up with a way to monetize sawdust. I do know of a shop that pelletizes their waste and heats the ship with the pellets during the winter months. The owner calculates that he still takes a loss, but like the idea of doing the "green" thing.

[Christopher Giles]

I used to have a machine shop take some of mine every month. He preferred using the chips to soak up the errant oil and coolant on his floor.

[Mark Gibney]

My sawdust has a lot of plywood, particle board and MDF dust.
I do not want to compost this stuff, I dump it.

[Erik Loza]

It's worthless. Alchemist will turn lead to gold before anyone comes up with a way to monetize sawdust...

Not so sure about this. Briquetting machinery is it's own industry: https://www.ruf-briquetter.com/...

Wood pellet stoves, fire logs, etc.

Erik

[Mark Bolton]

Not so sure about this. Briquetting machinery is it's own industry: https://www.ruf-briquetter.com/...

Wood pellet stoves, fire logs, etc.

Erik

How many small shops that you know of are profitably briquetteing their chips and marketing them for a profit on mass directly to the consumer? I'd guess the answer is zero. Major producers of chips with a local option dump their chips to a secondary who then labels them appropriately to their retailers.

I've never heard of a single sub-5million dollar shop, profitably briquetteing or pelletizing, labeling, bagging, and selling direct to consumer (only way it's profitable).

[james manutes]

At my last shop in Ohio , I had a co-worker who raced cars for years . He wanted all my saw-dust for his stove . We worked for a big Foodservice Co. , and could save the " tubes" from the shrink wrapping machines . 18" long - about 4" across , very , very strong . He had an old cement drum mixer , and would blend old motor oil w/ sawdust . He would also soak the tubes in oil ,but not so long they lost all their strength . A race shop is going to have an press or two , and he would plug one end w/ wood and fill it in 3 lifts / 3 presses and plug it w/ wood . That was 80 - 90% of his heat for the race shop . Drink a few beer's , spend time w/ friends . I miss it , really .

[William Hodge]

Because I don't cut plastic or sheet goods, an organic meat farmer will take my sawdust and shavings. I blow it into a trailer with a 4' x 4' x 8' box on it. The price is zero. If he's too busy, an organic dairy farmer will take it. Summer can be hard. I don't burn anything, and the animals are in the pasture fertilizing the hay fields. I have a long term compost pile for the occasional load of sawdust.

In the winter I start the masonry heater twice a day with a five gallon bucket of sawdust. Being a masonry heater, the stuff burns fast and clean. I figure it's 1800 gallons a winter. This won't work in a wood stove.

The material from vacuuming the floor can have nails and paint in it. That goes in a dumpster.

[Steve Demuth]

In the winter I start the masonry heater twice a day with a five gallon bucket of sawdust. Being a masonry heater, the stuff burns fast and clean. I figure it's 1800 gallons a winter. This won't work in a wood stove.


I don't know why you'd say it will not work in a wood stove. I burn buckets of sawdust in a steel and cast iron shop woodstove during the winter. Granted that I have to start the fire with shavings and solid wood, but once it's reasonably hot, stuff bags of sawdust, or just shoveling the stuff in, works fine.

[William Hodge]

You're right, if you know how to run a wood stove, it will work.

[Erik Loza]

How many small shops that you know of are profitably briquetteing their chips and marketing them for a profit on mass directly to the consumer? I'd guess the answer is zero. Major producers of chips with a local option dump their chips to a secondary who then labels them appropriately to their retailers.

I've never heard of a single sub-5million dollar shop, profitably briquetteing or pelletizing, labeling, bagging, and selling direct to consumer (only way it's profitable).

Well, it seems to be a major industry in Europe. Those are RUF machines are definitely not cheap. But you're right: Small shops here in the States probably don't see the need.

Erik