Sawdust?

[retoid]

I've been milling lots of NW red cedar and have a huge pile of sawdust building up. A lot of it has gone into my compost but I am left with a lot more.
I am curious what you millers choose to do with your sawdust. Wondering what your creative ways of usage may be.

P.S. Will cedar sawdust slow down my compost pile drastically due to the rot resistance of cedar?
I started my pile in layers.
Layer 1 - Organic materials (cedar dust)
Layer 2 - 12-12-12 fertilizer
Layer 3 - Top soil
and repeated the process 2 more times.

 

[Metals406]

I know a few fellas that take their chips, and sawdust, and make fire-starter out of it. Take a steel can or barrel, and mix up 75% chips/dust... To 25% diesel fuel. Mix it up good, and let it sit out'a the weather in a well ventilated spot.

One cup on top of kindling, and off your fire goes.

 

[retoid]

Thats not a bad idea. Diesel is expensive though and fire's arent very hard to start around here. There is plenty of dry wood and if that doesn't cut it I use birch bark.

 

[Metals406]

I guess the point isn't that fires are hard to start... It makes a use for you waste, and you aren't sitting at the stove crumpling newspapers to start your fire.

If you have a small shed, or shop you want insulated... Sawdust/chips work excellent for that too. Many an old balloon-framed home here--have sawdust insulated walls.

It also works good to silence the transmission on that :censored: car you've been trying to sell. LOL

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I used the dust from milling some cedar on my wife's Hostas and Coral Bells and she said they loved it. Basically chips from any conifer can be used on plants that like acidic soil.

Ian

 

[harrygrey382]

sell it to pet shops/butchers? Hot smoke fish with it?

 

[retoid]

sell it to pet shops/butchers? Hot smoke fish with it?

Best use yet. Smoker.

Unfortunately most rodents should not be kept in cedar sawdust. Once their urine hits it, I guess the fumes will cause respiratory problems and kill them.
However, using them in a smoker is a fantastic idea.
Got me a Big Chief

 

[RPM]

[QUOTEBest use yet. Smoker.QUOTE]

I've been told that you shouldn't use cedar to smoke fish or meat with - this link gives some explanation. The only thing I 've used cedar for cooking wise is cedar plank Salmon. If you are in the Seattle area - Puget Sound find some Red Alder and mill that up and use the saw dust / chips from that - way better.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/pnw/pnw238.pdf

 

[buzz sawyer]

It also works good to silence the transmission on that :censored: car you've been trying to sell. LOL

I've heard that sawdust needs a lot more nitrogen to breakdown in a compost pile.

Anyone remember sawdust snowtires? They would mix some sawdust into the rubber mix for better traction. Don't know if it worked or not.

 

[DRB]

Best use yet. Smoker.QUOTE]

I've been told that you shouldn't use cedar to smoke fish or meat with - this link gives some explanation. The only thing I 've used cedar for cooking wise is cedar plank Salmon. If you are in the Seattle area - Puget Sound find some Red Alder and mill that up and use the saw dust / chips from that - way better.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/pdf/pnw/pnw238.pdf

I agree with this. Cedar plank salmon Red alder chips for smoked salmon Cooking a hotdog over a cedar fire tastes funny

 

[artie__bc]

I tilled a bunch of maple sawdust into my garden, and nothing wanted to grow anymore.....

 

[almondgt]

I've heard that sawdust needs a lot more nitrogen to breakdown in a compost pile.

Anyone remember sawdust snowtires? They would mix some sawdust into the rubber mix for better traction. Don't know if it worked or not.

I drove my friends 1978 Z28 camaro with 4 remanufactured saw dust tires in my younger days. That car HANDLED EXTREMELY WELL on icy roads and with no slip that I can remember and I'm still here. If they reproduced that tire I'd be on it without hesitation.

 

[aquan8tor]

I've heard that sawdust needs a lot more nitrogen to breakdown in a compost pile.

Anyone remember sawdust snowtires? They would mix some sawdust into the rubber mix for better traction. Don't know if it worked or not.

It does soak up all the nitrogen in the soil if it isn't composted already. I've been turning a lot of bowls in the last several months, and gotten a few pickup truck loads worth of shavings out of them; I composted them all winter, and tilled them in, but also added a lot of composted chicken manure and an organic nitrogen fertilizer-I think it was plant tone, which is like 5-3-3, but we didn't want to use a non-organic fertilizer on the garden. I'm going to have to find a better way soon. I've read a little about mushroom farms using urine-soaked horse stall bedding---which is usually straw & sawdust, mixed up, with horse manure and extra urea added, which speeds up the composting process a LOT!! I think they also have to keep the piles wetted, as they get very hot.

Anyone done anything like this??? I have a huge pile of shavings from turning, and its only going to get bigger. I even bought a coring device which lets you remove the inside of the bowl with a curved knife, to use for another bowl, so you cut down on the waste. I'm still going to have boatloads of shavings, though......

 

[Zodiac45]

I tilled a bunch of maple sawdust into my garden, and nothing wanted to grow anymore.....

Yep not a good idea. When I first was setting up my garden plot I got a load of very old stuff from a long gone sawmill that had operated on a river here. That stuff was at least 40yrs old and I wanted to get some organic materials into my new spot. They worked ok but increased acidy quite a bit still that long a time. Fresh dust is just too acidic. Two years ago, same plot I got a pickup load of horse manure that was mixed with sawdust. Again pretty acidic and took a large shot of lime/mag too get it into the proper range. If you can find a guy with grass fed cows that will sell you manure that's the stuff you want! Even if you need to keep it a year in a pile, it's really good for the garden as is. Around here I get quite a bit of seaweed washing up after a storm and that works awesome tilled into the veg plot. Chicken ####e is good too if it's 3 yrs old or better.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I tilled a bunch of maple sawdust into my garden, and nothing wanted to grow anymore.....

That spot will be fine if you add lime and nitrogen.

I add anything i can get my hands on into my gardens, leaves, grass, sawdust, wood chips, but i always add some kind of nitrogen so it will compost faster, and i add lime to keep the PH in the proper place.

Just don't lime your potato or blueberry patch... They like sour ground..

Rob

 

[Rowan]

Animal bedding.....

In our area the local farmers will pay money for sofwood shavings. They use it for animal bedding. I'm not sure if they'd take dust.... but it wouldn't hurt to take a sample to someone with horses, or other animals kept in stalls and ask.

Who knows you may even be able to get paid for your waste.

 

[slabmaster]

In our area the local farmers will pay money for sofwood shavings. They use it for animal bedding. I'm not sure if they'd take dust.... but it wouldn't hurt to take a sample to someone with horses, or other animals kept in stalls and ask.

Who knows you may even be able to get paid for your waste.

That's another advantage over a band mill.csm mills leave a courser shavings for resale to animal keepers.The way you sharpen the chain will determine the coursness of the shavings.Full chizel wound leave large shavings.I also get nice shavings from my plainer. Mark

 

[aquan8tor]

I agree with Rob. BTW, Rob, what kind of nitrogen source do you use???? I have a crapload of dust & shavings to use, and I don't have anyone I can give it away to as bedding....

That spot will be fine if you add lime and nitrogen.

I add anything i can get my hands on into my gardens, leaves, grass, sawdust, wood chips, but i always add some kind of nitrogen so it will compost faster, and i add lime to keep the PH in the proper place.

Just don't lime your potato or blueberry patch... They like sour ground..

Rob

 

[Woodie]

I'm an amateur woodworker myself, and use sawdust to improve my heavy clay soil all the time. However, and this is a big one, I agree completely with the others that it will suck all the nitrogen out of your soil in the short term.

What I do is use it to improve soil that hasn't yet been planted, and may not be for a year or so. Then I mix in green grass clippings with the sawdust. The sawdust eats nitrogen slowly, and the grass clippings release it slowly, so you get a decent balance. By the time the worms and microbes have worked their magic, the soil is close to normal, and things grow well. And much better since it helps to break-up the clay.

Think green stuff to add the nitrogen. Alternatively, you could use blood meal. It's on the expensive side, but it tends to break down very quickly...more quickly than you may want. It is definitely a sure-fire way to add back nitrogen, though!

 

[Sawyer Rob]

That's another advantage over a band mill.csm mills leave a courser shavings for resale to animal keepers.The way you sharpen the chain will determine the coursness of the shavings.Full chizel wound leave large shavings.I also get nice shavings from my plainer. Mark

I don't know about where you live, but any place i've been, that 5th board on the ground in shaveings is worth a LOT more forsale as a "board" than the shaveings it turns into with a CSM.

I add turkey poop bedding to my garden for a nitrogen source...

BTW, farmers here want "kiln dried" shaveings, not green shaveings off the mill...

Rob