Samill residue.

Silverfoxfintry · January 17, 2021, 05:51:45 AM

Good morning all.

Our Forestor "Jacko " mill sawdust is piped into an extraction system.
It works very well and dust buildup around the mill is kept to a minimum.
We seem to be producing about 5 or 6 Builders (1ton) bags a week of sawdust at the moment.
We are starting to look at Pellet Mills to utilise this sawdust.
Has anyone tried this? We are looking for advice.

Thanks

Silverfox.

Mike W · January 17, 2021, 09:05:43 AM

There is actually several threads on the FF regarding this exact topic. Cant speak much to it other then all, I do mean all, of the discussion leads to the only ones making any money at pellets on anything smaller then a 1/2 city block size operation, is the manufacturer selling the pellet equipment. That seems pretty consistent from the small "mom and pop" to the entry level commercial operational plan.

Look to farm off the stuff to farmers, ranchers, animal bedding, or just garden mulch or bedding, or hell, bottle the stuff and sell it for big bucks as "man glitter". Everyone loves to make sawdust in the process of seeking boards, now what to do with all this dust?

Southside · January 17, 2021, 09:33:03 AM

Yup - find a farm that wants it cheap, gardening has really taken off over the last year - compost it and sell it as a soil amendment. Most folks who are getting into it have poor soil and will need all the help they can get. Quality compost sells for a premium. Those Chinese, make it at home, pellet mills are complete junk. It was a tad over $1MM per line for a system that actually works when we looked into it back in '07 - and that is just the equipment, never mind dust suppression, drying input stock, building, loaders, etc.

Go super big, get lots of grants, or go home is that game.

WV Sawmiller · January 17, 2021, 10:12:42 AM

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=97859.msg1511139#msg1511139

I asked this question 3 years ago and decided you put more into making pellets than you get out of them. Seems they have to be something like a government subsidized project where people are not worried about making a profit.

mike_belben · January 17, 2021, 08:45:26 PM

During summer, i turn sawdust into soil every 2 or 3 weeks by just dumping grass in and flipping it over.

Saw logs. Grow tomatoes. Live happily ever after.

sumpnz · January 20, 2021, 11:44:17 PM

Seems like if you had a chicken or other poultry farm nearby you could sell them the saw dust (or buy their manure) and get a compost garden soil operation going. The manure needs carbon and the saw dust needs nitrogen to make good compost.

WV Sawmiller · January 21, 2021, 10:31:19 AM

Any hippies or other big time tree huggers in the areas who are using composting toilets? Not to get too political but there may be a big market for them over the next 4 years or so. :

:D Just a thought - I'm bagging and storing my sawdust in anticipation. ;)

chep · January 21, 2021, 10:55:44 AM

@WV Sawmiller um, I have a compost toilet system. I'm a logger and Sawyer and tree guy and a hunter and a grower. So prob stop lumping compost toilets in with hippies/ tree huggers please. It makes you sound wildly ignorant.
So for the record composting toilets are remarkably sensible. Why would you put the most resource/nutrient rich material into an underground tank, and then pay to have it hauled off? So stupid. Turn that s$*t into compost and feed plants! Complete the cycle! We have become so far removed from the cycle that we think poop and sawdust is gross!
Consider one for yourself. Stop paying fertilizer for your plants and also paying to have your own fertilizer removed!!! Break the cycle. Just my 2 cents

WV Sawmiller · January 21, 2021, 11:53:09 AM

Chep,

I looked into one yesterday at our local Lowes for a customer who is interested in one. Lowes wanted from $1,800 up for one and you'd have to order it as it was not something they stocked. I had offered to make an old style outhouse with a plastic tote under the bench for the sawdust and offerings. From what I have read on line they looked simple enough to make and use but the customer seems to want a fancy one instead. I suggested I will build the structure and she can provide the toilet. We will see what comes to pass.

I am not being critical of people who use them. I lived and worked enough overseas in Africa and Asia and such where "Night Soil" was used for fertilizer to be very familiar with it. I did not say I was a fan of it. That may be where I learned about Immodium and I am sure lots of what they used locally was not properly composted.

I sold 5 bags of sawdust to a couple a month ago for use in their composting travel toilet - a 5 gallon bucket with a toilet ring. I am looking for more such customers as a continuing market. If I am wrong about Hippies and Tree Huggers being fans of composting toilets and other environmentally friendly systems I apologize. If there are other groups out there I should be targeting as potential customers I'd love to know who they are. Rednecks and Yuppies don't seem to be filling the bill so who am I missing? Any other suggested customers you have will be very welcome to lots of us.

BTW - I don't pay to have my nutrient rich resource hauled off. I have a great invention called a septic tank where natural bacteria break it down and process it and the treated water off the system naturally flows into a field line feeding my lawn grass and wayward trees that get too close so does that qualify?

chep · January 21, 2021, 12:43:14 PM

howard. I guess you got my hackles uup a bit. Here is my compost toilet. Pretty cheap... so you are saying you have never had your septic tank pumped? What's the secret to that? I have heard adding packets of brewers yeast quarterly will keep it in good shape?
I think as a society we are to grossed out by the idea of composting and growing things with poop and that is unfortunate. But if more people become aware of how easy it is and how we are literally throwing nutrients down the drain , and not to gross then I think our world would be a better place. Here is our toilet. Literally pulled the toilet and replaced it with this haha.
I just wanted to point out that hippies and tree huggers are the wrong words and targets for your sawdust. Forward thinking growers and scavengers and people who can buck the norms of society are your huckleberry. Permaculturists, homesteaders, and regular humans are your target audience.

Southside · January 21, 2021, 12:55:57 PM

Wow - WV gone and got himself labeled as an elitist... What is the world coming to? Next thing we know he will be teaching mountain climbing with your ATV classes. :D

mike_belben · January 21, 2021, 01:12:12 PM

Chep, its okay to say youve got a thunder bucket and arent a hippie. But its also pretty okay for WV to say hippies like em because im pretty sure its mother earth news who made the world aware of them and they seem fine with being hippies. Permies, etc. Semantics. Nothing we need to fight each other about. Youre both right.

chep · January 21, 2021, 01:55:19 PM

I'm a tree cuttin, deer shootin hippie and I guess it's ok! Love you guys!!

Woodpecker52 · January 21, 2021, 03:53:01 PM

Don't have a compost toilet but I do take a leak every morning in the woods with my dog Rufus does this count as environmentally correct? Once took a dump but Rufus wanted to eat it. My bad, sorry TMI. to much info.

Mike W · January 21, 2021, 04:14:50 PM

Um, might want to consider a new diet or new dog :D ;D.

WV Sawmiller · January 21, 2021, 04:25:51 PM

Chep,

Pretty neat looking system you have there. I confess I don't understand the two seater concept but I never understood a 2 seater outhouse either. I never wanted company when I was there. My wife grew up even poorer than me and they had an outhouse in her youth and I fear she would not accept the idea of a composting toilet without a lot off high pressure sales talk.

I was thinking of a bench seat like an old fashioned outhouse with a couple of hinged doors underneath it to hold a square or rectangular plastic tote. I was thinking a regular plastic or wood toilet seat and ring over the cutout. Do you toss in a cup full of sawdust after every use?

In the 30+ years we have lived here we have never had to have our septic tanks (We have 3) pumped. I did have to install a new field line one time when the old one got broken but a properly balanced septic tank should perpetually operate without any other maintenance required. Stuff goes in, treated effluent comes out and if the field lines are properly designed (Level correct with good gravel around them) the rate of flow of the discharge will not overwhelm the system. Pouring some buttermilk or dry enzymes in occasionally can't hurt.) The main thing is being careful nothing else goes in except wastes an proper toilet paper. I've seen people dump cat litter and floor sweepings in that will never dissolve and eventually fill up the tank.

Please understand I am not being derogatory about Hippies or or tree huggers any more than I am Amish or other cultures. It is their choice and their lifestyle does not adversely me so why do I care?

I have been a tree hugger all my life and am proud to admit it. I was climbing trees almost as soon as I could walk and climbing up catching birds in the nest, squirrels, possums and eventually I became a world class coon hunter/catcher. I can't remember how many vines and limbs broke out from under me and tree hugging the tree was the only way to keep from falling and to get down. Even as an old man I have kicked ladders out from under me and had to climb down nearby trees. And if you are a deer hunter have you never had your climbing stand fall out from under you leaving you hanging on the upper/climber section? The only way down is to hug the tree.

As to Hippies - I am a firm believer in Flour Power. You can't make good biscuits without it. (What - that was supposed be Flower Power? Ooops. :D Just showing my ignorance I guess. Sorry about the mix up.)

doc henderson · January 21, 2021, 06:04:38 PM

At Philmont scout ranch. told to not pee but only do the 2 in the latrines. never have to pump, and smells better. If they walk buy and hear a tinkle, they will pound on the wall from the outside. in the wilderness, just a seat over a hole, no walls. same deal, keep the urine and liquid volume to a minimum, and never have to call for a pump. as for the double, they have pilot to copilot, and pilot to bombardier style.

8)

:D

mike_belben · January 21, 2021, 06:41:50 PM

Quote from: chep on January 21, 2021, 01:55:19 PM
I'm a tree cuttin, deer shootin hippie and I guess it's ok! Love you guys!!

Xoxo

mike_belben · January 21, 2021, 06:46:38 PM

Quote from: Woodpecker52 on January 21, 2021, 03:53:01 PM
Don't have a compost toilet but I do take a leak every morning in the woods with my dog Rufus does this count as environmentally correct? Once took a dump but Rufus wanted to eat it. My bad, sorry TMI. to much info.

Yeah my dog is a ____ eater too. Daughter was on the pot, son tapdancing that hes gotta go. I jokingly said hank go out in the mulch bin.. And off he runs. Me and wife are giggling as we record it from the table. The giggles turn to screams of terror and window banging as the new dog runs up and chows down in delight while i scream 'noOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!'
She stayed out for a week. Nasty flippin dog. Ick. Dont touch me turd face.

WV Sawmiller · January 21, 2021, 08:09:45 PM

Quote from: doc henderson on January 21, 2021, 06:04:38 PMAt Philmont scout ranch. told to not pee but only do the 2 in the latrines. never have to pump, and smells better. If they walk buy and hear a tinkle, they will pound on the wall from the outside. in the wilderness, just a seat over a hole, no walls. same deal, keep the urine and liquid volume to a minimum, and never have to call for a pump. as for the double, they have pilot to copilot, and pilot to bombardier style. 8) :D

I will try to use that as an explanation the next time my wife catches me peeing off the front porch. :D

I had heard you were not supposed to pee in a composting toilet.

chep · January 21, 2021, 08:59:38 PM

Ah yes the 2 holer. . Well on the right is pee only left is #2 only. Pee bucket gets emptied every other day or so (mostly for odor) around garden perimeter to keep out the deer, around fruit and nut trees etc. and #2 goes out 1x a week to a special set of compost bins that get used for 1 year at a time. Then they set a year then are usable.
Use fine sawdust in the # 2 bucket and smell is no issue.
We also built am outhouse to keep the grubby hippies out of the house, and that is a bucket/sawdust system as well.
I run a Lucas mill so my sawdust gets separated into 2 uses. The fines from slabbing go for the compost bucket and the ribbon/shavings from circle mill etc go in the chicken coop for a deep litter system. Which we dress vegetable beds with in the fall to cool off in time for spring planting.
Big ol stinky hippy hugs haha

Joe Hillmann · January 22, 2021, 10:41:02 AM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 21, 2021, 11:53:09 AM

I looked into one yesterday at our local Lowes for a customer who is interested in one. Lowes wanted from $1,800 up for one and you'd have to order it as it was not something they stocked. I had offered to make an old style outhouse with a plastic tote under the bench for the sawdust and offerings. From what I have read on line they looked simple enough to make and use but the customer seems to want a fancy one instead. I suggested I will build the structure and she can provide the toilet. We will see what comes to pass.

In my area if you want to go off grid, by law you can't have a homemade toilet. You HAVE to have a certified factory made toilet system before you can get a sanitary permit. After that you can live in a hollow tree for all they care.
A bucket and sawdust doesn't count but a $1300 plastic toilet and sawdust does count because it is certified. For the cabin I am building I ended up buying a used composting toilet for $300. I have no intention to use it. I just have to prove I have it before I can build.

farmfromkansas · January 22, 2021, 11:37:58 AM

If your sawdust is dry, it makes great oil absorber for your mechanic shop. Another great use of sawdust is sweeping compound, after the oil is absorbed. Too dusty plain. The local sale barn sells bags of sawdust for 6$ each. Must be horse people that buy it, I use wheat straw or oat straw for cow bedding. Nice to have members from the old country on FF. There are a lot of us whose families came from Scotland.

Joe Hillmann · January 22, 2021, 01:33:28 PM

If it is clean hardwood sawdust(no diesel, antifreeze or other chemicals for blade lube) you could maybe sell it in "logs" for mushroom growing.

WV Sawmiller · January 22, 2021, 05:38:50 PM

Quote from: Joe Hillmann on January 22, 2021, 10:41:02 AM
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 21, 2021, 11:53:09 AM

I looked into one yesterday at our local Lowes for a customer who is interested in one. Lowes wanted from $1,800 up for one and you'd have to order it as it was not something they stocked. I had offered to make an old style outhouse with a plastic tote under the bench for the sawdust and offerings. From what I have read on line they looked simple enough to make and use but the customer seems to want a fancy one instead. I suggested I will build the structure and she can provide the toilet. We will see what comes to pass.

In my area if you want to go off grid, by law you can't have a homemade toilet. You HAVE to have a certified factory made toilet system before you can get a sanitary permit. After that you can live in a hollow tree for all they care.
A bucket and sawdust doesn't count but a $1300 plastic toilet and sawdust does count because it is certified. For the cabin I am building I ended up buying a used composting toilet for $300. I have no intention to use it. I just have to prove I have it before I can build.

Joe,

If you are not going to use it maybe you can rent your composting toilet out to other off-grid builders and they can rent it long enough to get their permit then return it to you. Of course the local inspector might get suspicious after seeing such a familiar toilet so many times. :D Just a thought.