Dust?

Timber_Framer · November 22, 2004, 10:16:20 AM

OK sawyers
What do you guys do with all that sawdust?
In the timber department I am a part time timber framer who's just started cutting my own timbers. I had a Sthil 051 with a 36" bar w/ripping chain mounted on an Alaskan III chainsaw mill. My friends call it the wood waster. :

Anyway it works great fro cutting beams, but I'm just wondering what you guys that saw lumber for a living or full time hobby ;D do with all that saw dust?

Brad_S. · November 22, 2004, 10:25:38 AM

Horse people call all the time looking for planer chips. I give some of my sawdust (sawpowder, really) to one of my clients with a machine shop for oil absorbtion. The rest gets spread on the back 40 to compost.

Timber_Framer · November 22, 2004, 10:31:50 AM

I hadn't thought of horse people, thanks

Bibbyman · November 22, 2004, 11:27:38 AM

Don't give any walnut sawdust to horse people. For some reason, it's bad for them. (The horses, that is.) ;)

Timber_Framer · November 22, 2004, 12:21:40 PM

Yeah Bibby I've heard walnut dust isn't good for critters, however there's little chance of me finding any up here. Not that I wouldn't mind finding some, it just ain;t too likely.

woodmills1 · November 22, 2004, 02:33:30 PM

The horse people around here wont take my sawdust, it is too fine. When it dries the horses will inhale the dust. I mix mine in with my topsoil piles and a year later you can't tell.

Timber_Framer · November 23, 2004, 09:51:53 AM

Hmm the "dust" fromt eh cahinsaw mill is more like planner shavings. The ripping cahin leaves these long stringy sahvings instead of a short sqaure one like a chisel chain does.

customsawyer · November 23, 2004, 10:07:53 AM

Don't know if you have any up there or not but you don't want to mix any black cherry saw dust in with the horses as it will kill them if they eat any.

Brad_S. · November 23, 2004, 03:34:35 PM

I have had horse people ask 2 or 3 times whether there was walnut in shavings before loading them, but never said a word about cherry. ???
Are sure sure you mean black cherry, or black walnut?

Engineer · November 23, 2004, 04:27:03 PM

I gotta big pile of sawdust and chips, I add planer shavings and bark chips that I run through my 3 pt chipper, and mix it with horse poo and lime. After a couple years, that is the best stuff you can spread on the garden. I'm tempted to plant grade stakes in it to see if I kin get trees... :D

TN_man · November 24, 2004, 03:07:30 AM

In the winter we use it for bedding for the cows while they are in the barn. We mix oates and corn in with it. Come spring, we turn the pigs loose in the cattle stall and they will turn it upside down trying to get to that fermented corn. After about 8 weeks it will be a nice rich compost that we spread on our fields like fertilizer. It really turns the fields a dark green and adds topsoil at the same time. 8)
During the summer, we spread it with the spreader real thin like on the fields.

Timber_Framer · November 24, 2004, 08:20:18 AM

Thanks for the advice guys

Ron Wenrich · November 24, 2004, 01:27:35 PM

Cherry has arsenic in it. But, I believe it is mainly concentrated in the leaves. Wilted cherry leaves are the suppossed culprit. Not so much the dust.

My goats wouldn't touch cherry leaves. Maybe they knew something. :D

customsawyer · November 24, 2004, 02:19:52 PM

I don't know all the facts on the black cherry. Had a friend that mowed his pasture and there was some black cherry in the edges and he had some of his cows die. Vet said it was from the cherry so I don't mix my cherry saw dust with the rest.

gmmills · November 24, 2004, 06:45:36 PM

customsawyer,

All of our sawdust goes into one pile including cherry. The only exception is walnut. The walnut dust is mixed in with the bark mulch.
I'm with Ron on the cherry leaves. I've always been told it's the wilted green leaf that is the problem.

Cedarman · November 25, 2004, 05:38:32 AM

When black cherry leaves wilt, prussic acid forms. It is deadly. When Johson grass gets a frost, it also is very unhealthy for animals.

pappy · November 25, 2004, 08:38:31 AM

In the winter months I haul my sawdust/planer shaving dump trailer from the wood shop over to a local beef farmer, he uses it in his feeding stall. Every so often he cleans the stall, dumps it in a confined concrete storage area then out to his fields in the spring. Chicken and hog farmers also like our shavings.

During the summer months I dump it outback on the tree farm.

As far as some of the sawdust from the band mill, I mix it with some kero and use as fire starter in one of our six wood stoves around this place. Saves on the kindling, if my firewood is dry enough I don't need any kindling.

I mix about two cups of kero to a five gallon metal or plastic pail of the fine sawdust. I should say use this mixture to start fires only, don't use on an existing fire or hot coals.

Gilman · November 25, 2004, 09:47:20 AM

Just pretend trees didn't exist and some brilliant geneticist poked at a DNA strand until he made a tree. Could you imagine getting these toxin generating plants approved through the EPA?

trouter · November 26, 2004, 06:13:33 AM

All of our dust goes to chicken houses and for cattle bedding. Never had any problems with cherry/walnut for the dairy side, but I know the horse owners dont want it. I do have one horse owner who gets a load once a month and never had any trouble.

Danny_S · November 28, 2004, 05:02:14 AM

Ever watch the movie Shawshank Redemption? You could put it in your pockets and walk around the yard and sprinkle it down the inside of your pantleg onto the ground and no-one will ever realize...... :D :D :D