Need to move some sawdust?

[Ianab]

Long time friend called in today to refill is his water bottle and a quick catch-up. 

He was hauling sawdust out to a local farmer for his calf rearing operation.  That's a truck and trailer load there. 





One of the last trips with the old truck. New one is at the dealers now getting the signwriting and hydraulics finished. ~$400K later and it should be on the road. 

There's money to made in "waste product" if you have enough of it. 

[bandmiller2]

Seems like a waist of tires and axles if he just hauls sawdust, unless he crosses a lot of iffy bridges.  Ian I can close my eyes and still taste that marmite stuff I've chewed tar balls that were more pleasant. Take care mate. Frank C.

[PAmizerman]

I've got a waiting list for people that want sawdust. And a list of people that didn't want to wait for sawdust :D. I don't even advertise it anymore.

[mike_belben]

You know whats done with sawdust herein middle TN?  

Burn pile. 

[nativewolf]

You know whats done with sawdust herein middle TN?  

Burn pile.

Not my fault you didn't settle down in Virginia, I have no less than 2 people a week asking.  We sell all we have from the edger but the fine sawdust from the WM is not useful, so it goes to blueberries and grapes.

[mike_belben]

Me personally i compost it, but the pallet mills here always seem to have a big pile smoldering.  

Back in massachusetts i shared a space with a cabinet shop.  I mixed the sloppy bottoms of my waste veggie operation into it and fed the stove.  Worked excellent. 

[Brad_bb]

Be careful what you let go for animal bedding.  Many woods not safe for animals.  

[YellowHammer]

I can't even give my sawdust away.  

[Ianab]

Be careful what you let go for animal bedding.  Many woods not safe for animals.  

Commercial mills here are all pine.
But basically everything gets used for something. Sawdust, planer shavings, firewood, bark is all sold. 
The biggest mills do run co-gen plants and burn their "waste" to run the kilns and generate power. 

[Sixacresand]

Most gets dumped in the woods along with slabs.  The state of Georgia does not encourage burning sawmill waste, but so far no one has said anything.

[tmbrcruiser]

The mill I work for has a horizontal grinder in one of the contract logging crews. They are often within 10/15 miles of my mill. So I purchased a 16' dump trailer and haul sawdust and slabs to the grinder and within 5 minutes the load is headed to the mill to be made into mulch. 

[mike_belben]

I guess dust and mold are the chief concerns with animals.  

I can tell you that KD sander dust will sop up 3x more oil than speedy dry.  Just dont throw your cigarettes in it after.

[brianJ]

Be careful what you let go for animal bedding.  Many woods not safe for animals.  

Absolutely not 

[mike_belben]

Figured this info may help one or two people out some day so i will share it.  

I had well over a hundred loads of clay based fill dirt dropped off from a nearby project.  There is no cap on it yet, neither grass nor rock, and wont be for quite a while.  Clay is great when its just right and terrible when it isnt.  Too wet, you cant even walk across it, will swallow your boots. too dry and its a dust storm.  Then at next rain the dry powder washes down the hill and youre back to too wet again.  You really need a cap for clay fill to behave itself.

The last 5 or so truckloads were some "can we please please dump this" trash piles that consisted of sawdust, chipped wood shards, rebar and block.  Much of the brick and block was broken down into 3 minus which is great for roadbase tho i didnt get enough of that component to make it driveable.

 I sorted out the rebar and full size demo then spread the remaining mixture of sawdust, chips and block rubble out about 3inch thick or less as a cap over the pure clay fill.  Ive had enough weather cycles now to say it has cured the primary clay issues.  The wood layer has began to mulch and is retaining enough moisture, acting as a sun screen to block the clay from getting dried into powder.  Dust is solved.  Then when it rains, the wood material prevents the rain from hammering the clay powder away so ive got no real runoff issue. The creation of an organic layer will as it decomposes will further bind the soil particles together and reduce runoff losses.  I can also walk all over this region in pouring rain without any clay sticking to my shoes.  Its like a slash mat or something.  Granted leaves and grass would accomplish the same.  And either would help build up a nutrient layer thatll speed up the spread of native weeds/ grass over the filled portions.

So if you have a boatload of wood chips and sawdust that needs to go, look for someone filling a big hill and tell them this'll help.  If you have a big yucky ongoing fill project thats giving you grief, look for someone with a sawdust or chip problem they want removed. 

[Southside]

~$400K later and it should be on the road.  There's money to made in "waste product" if you have enough of it

Ianab - Based on that description I would say the money is in selling trucks to guys who transport waste products.  

[SawyerTed]

And sawmills, and edgers and blades .....

[Brucer]

There are fleets of trucks on the roads in these parts, all hauling wood "waste" in special bulk trailers. Hog fuel for co-generation plants, chips, sawdust, shavings, you name it. Use in particle board, OSB, chipboard, pressboard, etc.

The trailers have open tops with canvas covers that can be rolled back for fast loading. The plants that buy the material can tip an entire loaded trailer up on end to empty it.

There's lots of $ involved but the material has to be segregated. Can't mix different species in one load, price goes way down as the percentage of foreign matter increases. It's not much help for the little guy.

Burning is a no-no.

[Ianab]

New truck has arrived. 



Like Brucer says, if you can produce a consistent "byproduct" in truck load amounts, then someone will find a use for it. All the larger sawmills here saw pine only, other species are the small mobile guys, and then you can just leave the random sawdust to compost in it's own good time. 

[longtime lurker]

Mate of mine bought one of those Isuzu's (same model) not long back - nice truck for local work... at about 2/3rds the price of a Kenworth or Mack. They've built a pretty good reputation for toughness and reliability on the short haul jobs here, and if it'll handle Australian roads it'll handle anything.

I missed this post at the time because I've been hiding out in the weeds working for a month but... related... export chip prices hit a new high here last month, and demand is strong.



$200 AUD bdmt would work out at $145 USD per 2205lb bone dry weight. Export chip is sold in bdmt ((bone dry metric tons)) not volume regardless of where it comes from FWIW: kinda like oil being sold in barrels its just the standard international unit of measurement for wood fibre. I got no idea how many bdmt to the average cubic yard... but i guess that would be highly species dependant anyway.

[nativewolf]

Wow that price for pine chips is crazy high.  Wonder if China has put tarrifs on US chips?  

[mike_belben]

Charcoal plants also buy sawdust.  As do "liquid smoke" manufacturers.  Its where your BBQ sauce hickory flavor comes from.  I will try to find out how many ton in a 48ft trailer of sawdust next time i see the guy.  

I can still pick up a 55gallon drum packed tight with KD sawdust.. I bet that a scoop loaded dryvan isnt all that heavy.  

[Southside]

When I had my 53' tri axle Manac possum belley trailer we would get around 15 ton of KD spruce/fir shavings into it loaded from an overhead bin and packed down. SYP I bet would be 25 ton, green sawdust I would not want to guess, it would be a whole lot more. 

I would venture that you could easily be overweight by bucket loading sawdust into a 48' live bottom. 

[mike_belben]

I dont even need a load to be overweight.  Just hitch up, deadhead to coxy's area and wham..OOS.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200.