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Thread: Sawdust, shavings and waste - what do you do with it?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Chappell Hill, Texas
    Posts
    4,741

    Sawdust, shavings and waste - what do you do with it?

    Burn it? Bag it and sell it for bedding? Haul it to the dump?

    For the slabs and end cuts, I suppose a good sized firewood stack could be produced. What's a good length to chop that stuff up into for firewood?

    I think I'll have a lot of bark to deal with too.

    I'll be working on the ground, at first, so the shavings (etc) will fall into the grass. It'll have to be a pretty good sized pile to be able to shovel it.

    Todd

  2. #2
    Todd,

    Most of my milling production is on-site so I don't have as much to deal with here at home. Of the material produced here, some will end up on the burn pile but I do have outlets. Scrap/slabs are piled on pallets which I sell for firewood at a rate of $20 per pickup load. If someone shows up when I'm in a cleaning mood, or I have quite a bit, I'll forego the $20 to get rid of it. Burning here requires a permit (free) so I only burn once or twice per year. Most of what I mill are hardwoods and I have a couple of people who want the sawdust. One leaves plastic, 55 gallon, drums and will pick them up whenever I send him a text - he makes pellets for his stove. Some want it for compost, mushroom culture, etc. It helps if you can separate by species, sometimes I can, sometimes not (pellet guy wants only hardwood, mixed is fine - composters want no walnut, etc.)

  3. #3
    The bark can be sold for mulch, slabs as pallet wood and fire wood and sawdust as a material for fire logs. its all good.
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  4. #4
    I sell the slabs for $10 for all you can load on a pick-up truck or $20 for all you can load on a 16' trailer. The sawdust and planer shavings are sometimes sold at $10 per pick-up truck load unless they have walnut in them. Then, they go to the woods to break down naturally on my tree farm.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Tyler, Texas
    Posts
    2,041
    I usually just burn my slabs and sawdust. I have cut Oak slabs into firewood but I'd rather burn split firewood and we don't use a lot with our mild winters, anyway. I do still cut a few hardwood slabs into firewood lengths to use at the lake when camping in cool weather.
    I use planer and jointer shavings for mulching around my Blackberries and Cedar shavings for mulching around my Dogwood trees. All the Walnut sawdust and shavings go to the burn pile.
    Cody


    Logmaster LM-1 sawmill, 30 hp Kioti tractor w/ FEL, Stihl 290 chainsaw, 300 bf cap. Solar Kiln

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Indiana
    Posts
    46
    I burn the slabs in my boiler. I have a large 16 foot long rack that sits directly behind the mill. It is basically a "U" shaped wooden rack with uprights every 24". I pile the slabs and strips in it as I cut. When it is full I saw them right in the rack then pile them in the loader bucket to move to the woodshed.

    I cut all hardwoods and always have a few cord of slabs to burn every winter.

    The sawdust is either given to people to use as mulch in their gardens or I spread it on the lanes in the woods to keep weeds down. Works real well for that.

  7. #7
    I'm a turner, not a sawmiller - but I still have considerable amounts of material to get rid of...

    I have a friend out in the "country" that uses all my wood shavings (from turning, and from chainsawing blanks) for mulch. I'll bag them all up and when I have a truckload (6 or 8 large bags) I deliver them.

    off cuts and wood I don't turn (too punky, no figure, too much checking) - I give away to my neighbors to use in their fire pits.

    all walnut shavings are bagged up separately and put out for the city to pick up and take to the dump.

  8. #8
    Burn it....

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Halifax, Nova Scotia
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    90
    Quote Originally Posted by Tim Offutt View Post
    I burn the slabs in my boiler. I have a large 16 foot long rack that sits directly behind the mill. It is basically a "U" shaped wooden rack with uprights every 24". I pile the slabs and strips in it as I cut. When it is full I saw them right in the rack then pile them in the loader bucket to move to the woodshed.

    I cut all hardwoods and always have a few cord of slabs to burn every winter.

    The sawdust is either given to people to use as mulch in their gardens or I spread it on the lanes in the woods to keep weeds down. Works real well for that.
    I'm not sure about the latter. A good friend builds canoes and used the cedar shavings to build paths into the words. Unfortunately a fire in the woods followed the path back to his home which was burned to the ground. I'd scratch that one off my options
    Bill

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    WNY
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    9,650
    I cut the slabs into firewood for my wood stove. I love free heat. The bark that falls off and the saw dust go onto a big pile out back that my wife uses as part of her feedstock for the chipper/shredder to make mulch for all our planter beds. Same for all the planer chips I make from the dried wood. Even as a hobbiest wood miller I produce hundreds of gallons of sawdust every year.

    John

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Northern Michigan
    Posts
    4,973
    Not as coarse as sawmill shavings but my shop makes about 2000 gallons of chips a year. I have ten acres and I just spread it around in the hardwoods. I just disappears in a year or so. Poplar goes in the garden or compost pile.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Central Square, NY
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    243
    All of the shavings, sawdust goes into the compost pile or straight to the garden and tilled in. The scrap boards get burned for camp or backyard fires. once its ashes it goes into the garden. I don't care what kind of wood it is - I use a lot of walnut and I have tomato plants over 8" tall out there now.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Tyler, Texas
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bud Millis View Post
    All of the shavings, sawdust goes into the compost pile or straight to the garden and tilled in.
    Do you have to add a lot of nitrogen fertilizer to the garden when you put un-composted shavings/sawdust in it?
    I think I will begin stockpiling the sawdust from the mill and shavings from the woodshop for composting...except for the Cedar. It takes too long to break down into compost. My vegetable garden plot is very sandy and the soil could use some amending. I bought 16 yards of Black Gold compost last fall and tilled it in but that stuff is pricey.
    Cody


    Logmaster LM-1 sawmill, 30 hp Kioti tractor w/ FEL, Stihl 290 chainsaw, 300 bf cap. Solar Kiln

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    north, OR
    Posts
    1,160
    Firewood and fire starter for friends (and for the fire pit to a lesser extent).

    The green shavings from "safer" woods end up as mulch on the flower beds.

    Recently found a potter who does pit fired pottery and can burn large amounts of wood that way as well.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    In the foothills of the Sandia Mountains
    Posts
    16,622
    Most cut offs & waste become kindling. Sawdust/chips from the DC goes to the dump.
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