What do you do with your sawdust.

[Joe Hillmann]

When building my sawmill I hadn't given any thought to how to get rid of the sawdust.  Last night I made a bunch of small adjustments and cut my first actual boards on the mill.  I now realize that I am going to have much more sawdust than I had planned.  Now I am trying to figure out what to do with it. 

I live in town and saw in my back yard so just leaving the sawdust in piles isn't really a great option.

[Ocklawahaboy]

I also live in town.  I spread mine around the yard with a leaf blower.

[Den-Den]

I have a neighbor who takes it for animal bedding.  It saves her from buying shavings and gets it off my hands.

[Leigh Family Farm]

Call the closest cow and horse farms near you to see if they would take the sawdust. Also, post an ad on craigslist and you might get a few takers on picking up the sawdust. Another option is find someone who has a large compost pile...compost requires about 25:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio and sawdust would be great as carbon.

[barbender]

Are you guys speaking about circle saw or band mill sawdust? I don't see how my bandsaw sawdust would work as bedding, it's too fine. A buddy has a swingmill, and that makes good bedding sawdust. In fact, he has beek sawing 1x material and I think it produces more bedding than boards ;D

[pineywoods]

I use mine to build large sawdust piles.



 

Now I have a problem figuring out what to do with sawdust piles. :

[thecfarm]

I had horses and I used mine for bedding. Now I have no animals,I just spread on the area that I cut my firewood on. No help in that for you. Anyone have a horse or 2 close by? They might come get it for free. I bet they are buying sawdust. You or they,will want to know what species you are sawing too.

[Bill Gaiche]

As a hobby sawyer I burn most of mine in the wood stove in the shop in the winter. You may post a sign in your yard for free saw dust and see if there are any takers. DONT use walnut for bedding for horses. It will make them sick and even kill them. bg

[grweldon]

There is a gardening method that is gaining popularity called the Mittleider gardening method.  It uses a growing medium of 75% sawdust and 25% masonry sand (by volume).  Bandsaw dust is perfect for making this medium.  The raised beds they recommend are 18" wide by 30' long constructed with 2x8s.  If I've done my math correctly, one bed takes about 250 cubic feet of sawdust to prepare the mixture.

I am trying this method out and I'll tell you that plants really grow well in the mixture.  Chemical fertilizers are a requirement as the mixture has virtually no nutrients available to the plants.  I don't saw much wood, but I had a pile about a foot deep by 15 feet long by my mill.  I used ALL of it to set up my one 18" x 16' test bed.

If I didn't create my own sawdist, I would have to find a place to buy it or find somebody who would give it away.  Find somebody who is using this method and your sawdust will disappear.  The website it www.growfood.com and they may have a forum or something where you could post your sawdust availability.  Just a thought.  I am not associated in any way with the method mentioned.

[Peter Drouin]

I trade mine for cow manure. ;D

[Sixacresand]

We covered the area of the grand kids's swing set with saw dust, use it in the horse stables.  Most of it goes in road rills in the woods behind the house.  My goal is a collection system to drop it in a dedicated sawdust trailer.  One good thing about sawing on somebody else's place, I get to leave the sawdust and slabs there.   ;D

[highleadtimber16]

Burn it, burry it, mix it spread it. I would really like to have a blower setup and blow it right into the creek.... Environment Canada might have something to say about that though.

[VictorH]

A lot of places have a tree and leaf dump site.  That's where mine goes.  I recently hooked up a 1hp dust collector and run the suction through a drum which keeps most of it.  When it gets full swap out the drum and  fill that one etc. etc.  Get several full and make the trip to the tree dump.

Victor

[red oaks lumber]

i have 2 farmers that buy my sawdust, and 2 more that buy my shavings.

[Knute]

If you dry it, works real nice for kitty litter.

[yukon cornelius]

im leveling of spots on my mountainside for different things. I will take all you guys want to bring me.

[drobertson]

for urban settings not sure what to tell you, except find an outlet somewhere, it will hurt your lawn if too much more is put on it. depending on how much you saw, you could make some composting bens, but it really depends on how much you are getting.   Adding lime and organic waste to it can help in getting rid of it for garden use, but this is a tricky matter as well.  good topic for those who are starting out in sawing, slabs are another issue as well. Not to mention stickers that will or should come from the waste.

[reswire]

There is a gardening method that is gaining popularity called the Mittleider gardening method.  It uses a growing medium of 75% sawdust and 25% masonry sand (by volume).  Bandsaw dust is perfect for making this medium.  The raised beds they recommend are 18" wide by 30' long constructed with 2x8s.  If I've done my math correctly, one bed takes about 250 cubic feet of sawdust to prepare the mixture.

I am trying this method out and I'll tell you that plants really grow well in the mixture.  Chemical fertilizers are a requirement as the mixture has virtually no nutrients available to the plants.  I don't saw much wood, but I had a pile about a foot deep by 15 feet long by my mill.  I used ALL of it to set up my one 18" x 16' test bed.

If I didn't create my own sawdist, I would have to find a place to buy it or find somebody who would give it away.  Find somebody who is using this method and your sawdust will disappear.  The website it www.growfood.com and they may have a forum or something where you could post your sawdust availability.  Just a thought.  I am not associated in any way with the method mentioned.

Can't wait to hear the results.  My grandfather tried it in his garden, but claimed it "soured" the land, and left it barren for quite some time.  I'm sure he didn't have access to lime and fertilizer like we have today, probably a real problem.  Anyway, please let us know more!

[ST Ranch]

Fine sawdust from  WM or possibly other band mill is not great for horse bedding - it is to fine and can cause respiratory problems as well as itch, infection problems with gelding horses [sheath irritation]
Tom

[backwoods sawyer]

I have mixed sawdust with cow, horse, goat and pig manure with real good results in the garden and raised beds, biggest thing is it takes time to brake down, a 2 parts sawdust-1 ratio with pig manure stacked in bins seemed to produce the best compost.
Built several bins that the tractor could turn ever so often, add extra saw dust to get a good mix.

Place it in the land scape as mulch 3"- 6" deep makes for easy weed pulling and clean beds less then an acher and never seemed to have to much sawdust.
Had the mill set up on asphault so sawdust was always clean.

[Brucer]

If the pile gets too big, I spread it on the field next to my milling site. Usually it doesn't.

Gardeners take it away to spread on their paths to keep the weeds down. Other gardeners mix it with manure and leave it for a year to decompose.

The pipe fabricating shop across the street takes a couple of garbage cans full when they are working with stainless steel. They spread it around on the shop floor before sweeping up the stainless dust. The sawdust has just enough moisture to keep the dust from getting airborn.

Today the manager of the local gas station asked if I could drop off a couple of garbage cans full. It seems one of their recently-replaced diesel hoses is leaking. No problem.

Be creative!

[ozarkgem]

If it is dry makes great OIL DRY. I have a guy that takes my Cedar sawdust for that purpose.

[just_sawing]

Haul it to a pasture that has cows build a 30 ft ring two feet deep of the dust. Place a hay ring in the center and during the winter feed the cows hay on the dust. They will stand eat and do what they do best. They like the raised sawdust for bedding down and it keeps them warmer. In the spring scoop it up and pile it up. You will have great soil the next year. We did this for years and the black soil was in great demand.

[robedwards58]

There are recipes online that you can make fire starter logs out of sawdust. I'm gonna give that a try. In the meantime I have been taking the bucket fulls and throwing it over an old railroad track bridge and letting the wind take it away!

Sometimes for fun when we have a camp fire going I like to take a handful and slowly let it trinkle down into the fire. It will flare up like gasoline sometimes! Don't show that one to the kids but if you are an adult it is actually quite fun.  ;D

[mesquite buckeye]

Potting soil for cactus jugglers. ;D