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What do yall do with sawdust

Started by Taylortractornut, February 23, 2012, 08:46:31 PM

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Taylortractornut

At work we get tons of kiln  dried shavings and sawdus from the cabinet shop.       Does anyone sell theirs?    We sell ours to poultry barns and horse stables.    Im just curiuos what it goes for per  yard.  We are getting100  right now for  30 to 40 yard loads.   It starts out as 40 loose but settles in transit.    We stockpile some for  rainy day  road coverings. 

We are getting a stock pile and are thinking of selling it by the pick up or trailer load.    Im not sure on what to charge of it.   Im supplying the  backhoe to load with.
My overload permit starts after sunset

POSTON WIDEHEAD

I store some in my truck. The rest of it goes in the house.  :D :D :D

Seriously, After just over a year of milling, I just keep it in a stock pile for bragging rights....I guess. I've had people stop by wanting to buy it. But I don't sell....I don't know why, but I just pile it and pile it!  :)
The older I get I wish my body could Re-Gen.

Taylortractornut

We were composting it but  DEQ   changed its grandfather clause on us composting it at the landfill.       I have been donating alot of it to 4 H kids with chickens and horses.      I bring some  home for  chicken bedding an d composting.
My overload permit starts after sunset

WDH

I am trying to sell a pile on Craigslist, but no takers  :).  It is probably going to get dumped in a gulley. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

hackberry jake

I put it in the woods to feed the next generation of boards  :)
https://www.facebook.com/TripleTreeWoodworks

EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

Okrafarmer

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

Ron Wenrich

We sell it by the trailerload.  Delivered for about $450.  Loose around the mill we let people take away.  Maybe a few pickups per week.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Okrafarmer

Quote from: Ron Wenrich on February 23, 2012, 10:33:29 PM
We sell it by the trailerload.  Delivered for about $450.

A lot of people probably don't realize how much goes into that. The price is reasonable. When you deliver, someone at your place has to take time off from something else to haul that load somewhere, plus you have the fuel and especially depreciation on the truck and trailer to consider.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

SwampDonkey

The fine stuff I take out to the sawdust pile in the old garden and most of the curled shavings I burn in the stove. Just shovel a bunch in, throw a couple sticks of hardwood on top. Light her up. Warm shop all day.  8) 8) 8) 8)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Ron Wenrich

Quote from: Okrafarmer on February 23, 2012, 10:37:06 PM

A lot of people probably don't realize how much goes into that. The price is reasonable. When you deliver, someone at your place has to take time off from something else to haul that load somewhere, plus you have the fuel and especially depreciation on the truck and trailer to consider.

We have our own trucks and truck drivers.  We're not taking someone away from one job to do another.  We could actually sell it for more if we sold to the pellet plants.  We blow ours directly into trailers.  We used to have farmers put a trailer on site and they would take away when it was full. 
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Ianab

My buddy has a full time job basically carrying sawmill "waste". Sawdust, woodchips, bark etc. Pick it up from sawmills, take it back to the depot to be made into compost or potting mix, or to farmers for calf or horse bedding etc.

Not much of a log is actually "wasted", pretty much everything except the smell is sold and used for something else. This of course is on commercial scale mills dealing with truckloads of logs every day.

On a smaller scale, composting, spreading back into the forest, animal bedding etc works. Being portable, just walking away and leaving it to compost where it lays works for me  :D

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

SwampDonkey

The local mill here makes pellets from some and a lot hauled for pulp. I'm not sure if some hog is used for the kilns or not. Years ago when I was a kid everything was burned in a tall tent shaped sawdust burner. And that only ended maybe 30 years ago when the government said all the wood had to be used, no waste.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

FeltzE

Sawdust and shavings are getting delivered to local horse farms for bedding.   We werent generating enough on the Woodmizer, so I bought a shavings mill. See how that goes.

Bert

Ours goes to beef cattle farmers as bedding. They pick it up. I just got a new neighbor though and they thought it would be useful as a sidewalk. I told them to get what they wanted and they did a nice job cleaning out under the mill and trim saw. I thought they just wanted a little to put in some muddy spot but its now hard to look at their house now. The whole yard/ driveway is orange from sawdust. I can only imaging how much gets tracked into the house and vehicles. Seems like a terrible idea to me, but they are tickled to be out of the mud. My opinion is the sawdust is goind to hold onto the moisture and likely never dry out. It takes all kinds.
Saw you tomorrow!

thecfarm

I use to buy it $7 for a truck load,they would load it. Get rid of the horses and needed some shavings last year. Seems like $20 a load is the norm now. I noticed they are selling bark mulch now too. Seem like that was almost 20-25 a yard.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Cedarman

Feltz, what kind of shaver did you get?  How is it doing?
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

bandmiller2

A local kiddie day camp will take all I make, they use it under their "adventure area" for a soft landing.Sawdust is usefull on wood roads to bind up mud holes.Really theirs two types of sawdust circular mill chunks and bandmill fine dust.Limit the amount you put in soil as when it decays it sucks up and ties up  the nitrogen in  the soil. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

WDH

You cannot use it in a garden because the carbon/nitrogen ratio is so heavy to carbon that the bugs in the soil suck up all the nitrogen in the soil to break down the sawdust, and your plants turn yellow and do poorly.  Very, very poorly.

I have a guy coming Sunday to buy a 5 yard pile for $10  :).  Hardly worth the fuel to load it, but he will be happy to have it, and it will be gone.

Sawdust is hydrophyllic.  It will pick up and gain moisture from about 50% moisture green off the saw to about 65% moisture and hold on to that moisture level.  I have seen 70,000 tons in a pile that was 10 years old that was exposed to the elements, and it was 65% moisture content after all those years.  You could almost squeeze water out of it.  Never put in on a road because it will retain moisture and the road will not dry out.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Dave VH

I've been having the same question "what to do with all of this sawdust".  My inlaws raise a few head of cattle, I've already given them about all that they want.  The chips off of the chainsaw doesn't burn too bad as long as there is a nice hot coal base in the wood burner.  Now the fine bandsaw dust is starting to become an issue.  I put my mill in my driveway when I want to mill.  I have to recover all of my sawdust that I can, or it will kill my front yard and that is not okay with the Mrs.  I'm thinking about selling it a trash bag at a time, or at least trying to.  Maybe 3 or 4 bucks, maybe 2.  Ahh who am I kidding, it's just going to get wasted untill I can find a market.
I cut it twice and it's still too short

SwampDonkey

Yeah I never use sawdust in the garden. It's just on an abandoned garden. Had to toss it somewhere. People put in on raspberry canes, but I don't. The earth worms under raspberries is phenominal just under the litter. Don't even have to dig for'm. I know where there is a sawdust pile from a mill that shut down in the 60's. Looks like they just piled it yesterday, not even turned black.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Brucer

I used to spread it on the open field beside my log yard. The property owner is happy to let it sit and compost.

I used to spread wood shavings around the log yard in the summer to keep the dust down. Problem was, as soon as it rained the loader would drive the shavings into the mud and then I'd have a dust problem on top of the buried shavings. After a while the mix of mud and shavings got so deep a light rainfall would give me 16" of muck -- instantly. So I gave up on that idea.

Two years ago a local doctor, who is also a gardening fanatic, put on a workshop about his methods. Over the years he found that mixing sawdust, earth, and some ammonium nitrate fertilizer would break down in one season and give excellent compost.

Some folks said they didn't like the idea of using commercial fertilizer. He told them in that case they should just mix the compost with earth and leave it for two seasons before using it. The wood sucks up nitrogen as it breaks down, but after the decomposition is complete it gives the nitrogen right back the next season. A few folks tried it and found it works. Now I just pile the sawdust up near the entrance to my site where folks can pick it up without getting in the way of the operation. The stuff just disappears over the weekends ;D.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Okrafarmer

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

Brucer

Apparently not.

Sawdust contains a small amount of nitrogen and no phosphorus or potassium. It's main use in soil is to provide organic bulk that permits air and water to travel to the root systems. The people who pick it up from me tend to avoid adding manufactured chemicals.

One person mixes in grass clippings and gets results. Another person just digs up the top 6" of soil, puts down 2 or 3 " of sawdust, and piles the soil back on top. After 3 months the sawdust has the same consistency as the soil and he just digs the two layers together.

The proportions of fertilizer were 1 pound of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for 20 pounds of dry sawdust, or 1 pound of urea fertilizer for 25 pounds of dry sawdust. Personally if I were using the stuff I'd just bury a layer of it, leave it through the summer, then mix it with a tiller and apply it the following year. By then all the sequestered nitrogen will have been returned to the soil.

Barb keeps thinking we should go this route, but now I can't hang onto my sawdust :(.

EDIT: Just re-read an article by a local organic gardener. She uses sawdust as a mulch on her garden paths to keep weeds under control (she uses straw on the actual garden beds). Every couple of years she plans to shovel up the compacted and partly decomposed sawdust and dig it into a special compost bed where it will sit for a season before being put back into the soil.

ALSO: I'm producing Douglas-Fir sawdust, which is safe enough. Some types of wood may produce toxic chemicals when they decompose.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Okrafarmer

If the sawdust is too acidic (probably depends on species) then it could lower the ph of the soil. That may be part of the problem people have when they spread it on their garden. I have always heard that lime helps to raise the ph and also to break down sawdust in fields and garden. For instance, when you use that sawdust as animal bedding, and then scoop it out and dump it in the manure spreader, and then spread it on the field, you can make the field too acidic with the sawdust. (the manure also can be acidic).  :P
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Psalm 91:1

Operating a 2020 Woodmizer LT35 hydraulic for Upcountry Sawmill, Dacusville, SC

Now selling Logrite tools!

Writing fiction and nonfiction! Check my website.

Brucer

pH could well be a factor. I have two very serious organic gardeners using fairly large quantities of my sawdust. They measure the pH and mineral content of their soil routinely and make adjustments as needed.

This just started a year and a half ago so it will be interesting to hear what they discover. If I can give people reliable advice on how to compost the stuff, I can probably arrange with the local community garden to haul away the sawdust from beside the mill on weekends. Then I won't have to move it at all  :).
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

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