Stupid Question From Newby

[plaindriver]

Hi, Im Tom. Im a pilot by trade, but about to retire within 6 mos. I am reloc to middle Tn, on 5 ac. Want to get a band saw and mill my own lumber. I know almost less than zero, but am wondering, what does everyone do with their sawdust?? Some of the more ambitious millers seem to generate a substantial ammt. Thanks, tom

[fishpharmer]

Welcome to Forestry Forum Tom! 

I put my sawdust in the garden.  But I don't make much.

[Bibbyman]

Welcome to the Forum.

Most of us are not nearly ambitious enough to produce a lot of sawdust with a bandmill.  We saw most days and do it for a living and haven't generated all that much sawdust.

Some of our sawdust goes to a pig farmer to compost dead pigs.  Another farmer gets some to put in his milking stalls.  A lady up the road gets some to put in her outdoor riding arena.





This picture was taken in July of '08.   We've been working on this pile since 93'.  I comes and goes.  Right now it's a little higher than pictured.

[woodman58]

Here is a site I came accross. It seems like a good way to get rid of saw dust. From to vidios, it doesn't look like it takes very much saw dust.


http://www.makeyourownpellets.com/diesel-pellet-mills/ss-120a-pellet-mill

A few vidios;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-JUsd_pHeU

[Bibbyman]

I'd think the amount a part-time sawyer would make could be worked well into compost for the garden or yard.  I wound't put any of it on anything in it's "green" state.  I'd avoid using cedar or walnut for compost too.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Here is a site I came accross. It seems like a good way to get rid of saw dust. From to vidios, it doesn't look like it takes very much saw dust.


http://www.makeyourownpellets.com/diesel-pellet-mills/ss-120a-pellet-mill

Anyone know if one can use fresh sawdust to make pellets, or does it have to be dried first.   And how to mix it with the binder?  I'm wondering if I could bring several barrels home each time from a portable job and make it into fuel pellets immediately if I had one of these pellet mills.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

and Welcome to The Forum  ;D ;D 8) 8) Like everyone's said with a small band mill you do not make much sawdust and what you will make will either disappear or be used by yourself plus you will have 5 acres to spread it out over too Mate  ;)

Dennis the sawdust / shavings would have to be at 8 to 18% mc to make pellets you can pick up a complete .5 to 1 ton per hour electric plant from China with grinder,drier ,pellet press and bagging setup for between $20 and $25k fob ex works just go to http://www.made-in-china.com and type in wood pellet plants and they will come up Mate

Regards Chris

[Dana]

I think that sawdust ties up the nitrogen in the soil. The nitrogen isn't available until the sawdust has decomposed.

[KyTreeFarmer]

Hello Tom, Welcome to the Forum. No questions here are stupid, the forum folks are pretty tolerant of us newbies. Don't know if its a great idea or not but I just dump mine in a holler or two where I pile brush. Keep us posted on your upcoming retirement plans and especially when you get ready for your sawmill. Lots of good advice here.
KTF

[laffs]

TT i think at $250 a ton youd be hauling home a lot of sawdust to make any money at it .

i  sell some of mine for animal bedding . i use some myself for the chickens and i trade most of it off for cow manure i have about a acre and a half garden.
Brent

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

OR You could just set the mill up at home  ;)

Regards Chris

[Banjo picker]

Welcome to the forum plaindriver....I like your handle...I don't renerate as much as I use to ...but I put it in the back of the rtv and dump it in a rut/gully...most will just wash away anyway unless you mix in some dirt or other material....Tim

[Doc Hickory]

I've done a bit of research on pellet making...turns out you don't need a binder to hold the bits of sawdust together because there is a natural substance in plant cells called lignum which acts as a binder when subjected to heat and pressure.  There are several small mills available to make pellets which would run a personal pellet stove. Just go on the trusty old internet and Google 'wood pellet making' and check out the info, also lots of interesting videos of the process. Turns out you can pelletize any plant material...grass, sawdust, chips, old hay, etc. because they are all plant material which contain lignum. Leaves, grass, and hay present an ash issue after burning.
If it was me, I'd just scatter them in a woodlot or use a layer of them for weed suppression if I had a marginal waste area I didn't want over run with weeds.

[KellyH]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.  I'm pretty new myself.  Also a pilot but it is my little brother that got the bigtime airline job, not me.  :D

Ooops, back to your question. 

Make a fire starter. Melt candle wax in a nonstick pot, add sawdust until the liquid thickens, pour into an empty egg carton, and let cool. Use the briquettes to help get a fire going.

This is an idea that I have not tried but have been told it works, so there you go.  Maybe a second income in there somewhere if it is marketed correctly. 8)

Good Luck and again "Welcome"!

[TimRB]

Make a fire starter. Melt candle wax in a nonstick pot, add sawdust until the liquid thickens, pour into an empty egg carton, and let cool. Use the briquettes to help get a fire going.

This is an idea that I have not tried but have been told it works, so there you go.  Maybe a second income in there somewhere if it is marketed correctly.

I have experimented with those things and I recommend a third ingredient: gunpowder.  I'm not kidding.  Modern smokeless firearm propellants don't explode, but burn vigorously and supply their own oxygen.  Make wax/sawdust/gunpowder fire starters and you can literally store them in a bucket of water and light a fire in a rainstorm.   Start with a sawdust/powder ratio of about 2/1.

Tim

[backwoods sawyer]

All though my little sawmill is rather ambitious. Sawdust piles of this size take a considerable amount of time to generate.

[weisyboy]

we generate a lot of sawdust,  pile the size of biblys would take about a week to build up.

we give it away, sell it, mix it with chook [I have typed a profane word that is automatically changed by the forum censored words program I should know better] and make it inot topsoil to sell/use, its a big probelm to get rid of for us.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

I give the course sawdust of the Lucas to a couple of local vineyards they come and pick it up  I dontget paid but have got some bloody nice cases of wine out of it but the funny part there is that I don't drink bloody wine but it dose make some nice gifts for family  ;) :D ;D ;D

Regards Chris

[Ianab]

Although the swingblade and other circle mills make more sawdust, it's a heavier grade, more like chips or shavings. Makes it more useful as animal bedding, garden mulch etc.  Heck if it's the right species you can bag it and sell it.

Bandsaws create less sawdust, but it's finer, and not as useful.

But on a hobby sawing scale, you can just use it as compost or mulch. Remember if anyone asks, it's a "Compost Heap", not a "Sawdust Dump". Likewise, use words like "Mulch" and "bio-remediation", not "dumping it in the woods out back".

To the untrained eye, it looks the same, but we know different.  ;)

Ian

[weisyboy]

tell em you want bundy next time chris, none of that panzy stuff.

hardwood sawdust has been declared a noxious waste in aus now and has to be stored in depressions/ containment bays to stop the runoff of tannin contaminated watter.

aparentyl it takes the oxigen out of the watter and kills fish. :D

anything to make our likes a bit harder.

the problem with the lucas/ swing blade saws is the sawdust is dischrged onto the ground, where bark/ wood chips/splinters and dirt mix with it. if you sell it as animal bedding you have to ge these out, if someone prize horse gets a splinter in its side your a goner.

its a lot easier with bench mills where blowers are used to move the dust.

[subpilot]

Hi Tom,
I'm also a newbie and a pilot (submarine) in Tn.  No submarines in Tennessee so I travel for work.  I use a bandsaw mill and between that and the sawdust from my woodshop I don't produce enough sawdust to do anything useful although I do like the pellet idea.  At the moment I just spread the sawdust around the yard and it seems to break down pretty quick.

Paul

[fishpharmer]

Hi Subpilot, welcome to the FF!

What kind of bandmill are you running?

[subpilot]

I'm using a Cooksaw MP32..  I bought it with my father in law but he recently passed away.  He had a 50 acre farm so we had been cutting down Oak, Black Walnut, Hickory and Pine for the last couple years.  I'm looking to do a bit of traveling with the saw to get a few new trees to the collection of wood to supply my woodshop.

Paul

[fishpharmer]

You have yourself a good sawdust maker.

[r.man]

Weisy, 30 years ago my father allowed the local veneer mill to truck hundreds of tandem loads of bark/sawdust to his hobby farm because of the fire hazard it posed being stockpiled at their plant. They literally couldn't give it away. The same plant supplied me with free hardwood debarked slabs for my stove for the same reason. Now however all waste at every mill I know of gets sold with the exception of softwood slabs. Sawdust does have to be separated by species, some of the hardwoods can be mixed and here there are certain standards for contamination of bark etc depending on where it is being sold. Value added milling at its best. Nothing is waste, everything has value and the things you had to pay to get rid of before now make you money. A real advantage when times are lean. I like to think that small operations could do the same thing in an innovative way like bagging sawdust for a client with a horse or saving shavings in smaller amounts for pet stores. I think sawdust should be treated like a product rather than a waste and more people will be ok with paying for it.