Sawdust?

[GeeVee]

Composting quickly is all the band millers want. They have a tough product compared to the CSM shavings.

Either would work in a Tumbler Composter. Well, for likely the least work.

I will see if I can find a link.

 

[aquan8tor]

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

Sounds good. I'm using chicken manure, which is what is available here. I have to agree about the dry shavings. Wet ones will mold, which can cause lung infections.......

Also, I've not seen ANY CSM's that produce large enough shavings in dry or wet logs, when comparable to any planer shavings, with any wood. When you're sawing straight through the end of a log, it simply won't happen if you're cutting straight with the grain. If you're using it diagonally to the cut, maybe. However, the point is, most people who use CSM's will produce DUST, just like a bandsaw mill. Not to start another BULL$H!T PI$$ING contest, but why the HELL wouldn't you want to have more boards??!!!!! Unless they're really wide slabs you can't get with a PROPERLY utilized bandsaw, i.e. enough tension, wide band, and someone who knows what they're doing enough to cut slow & not let the blade wander......

Composting quickly is all the band millers want. They have a tough product compared to the CSM shavings.

Either would work in a Tumbler Composter. Well, for likely the least work.

I will see if I can find a link.

A tumbler isn't a very practical solution if you have a large amount of sawdust, from any source. I don't understand what you mean by "tough product" in regards to composting???? I find that the finer the sawdust, the faster the decomposition; more surface area.

 

[acer saccharum]

If you save up enough it can make for a pretty nice artificial sand dune.
This pile is in Stratton VT. It covers at least an acre. The mill that made it operated from the 1880's into the first decade of the 1900's. It is proof that saw dust alone will pretty much never decompose and nothing can grow in it.

 

[retoid]

Wow thats a huge sawdust pile!

Great ideas here guys. I will try and make sure my compost pile gets enough nitrogen.

Btw how do you check the pH of a compost pile?

 

[MJR]

Wow, that is some saw dust pile. My pile has ice till mid May. That thing must hold ice all year!

 

[Backwoods]

Use it in the flowerbeds Azaleas and rhododendrons love the stuff, Put down a weed barrier and sped it out thick.
Put it in the pigpen for bedding then shelve it out with the manure turn the pile a few times and sped it out on the garden the following spring. = “ORGANIC GARDENING”
Put down a layer in the chicken house, and pigeon house. Use around the peppers.
Fill the dog houses up with it. IT helps to keep fleas away.
I run an LT-70 full time and have never been over run with sawdust. I have a back log of projects to use the sawdust on. Insulation in the kiln walls, multiple flowerbeds.
The blower in my wood shop dumps straight into the bed area of the pigpen. This saves a step in handling it. I have a panel that opens up so I can add sawdust from the mill by the front-end loader full.

 

[woodshop]

...I run an LT-70 full time and have never been over run with sawdust... The blower in my wood shop dumps straight into the bed area of the pigpen. This saves a step in handling it...

Hey now.. I like that, strait into the pigpen. Sounds like you have quite an operation there backwoods. Got any pics of your operation or that LT-70?

 

[Backwoods]

I broke the dad burn camera yesterday taking pictures of Myrtlewood. However, this is my mill cutting black oak for flooring. It is the very first LT-70 that Woodmizer built. They worked a lot of bugs out of the mill since this one.
I am running the new Accuset 2 for the set works, that was a good up grade as the old accuset was designed to fail in 3 different ways. These things are still 10 years behind the curve when it comes to the computer set works. You should see what the big fully computerized production mills are doing now like complete log scan, auto rotate, pre set milling options. Load the log and watch it mill.
Now if Woodmizer would just figure out that they need another arm on the debarker so that it will follow the log rather then push it down the log. And put a hydraulic bang cylinder on the front to make set up and tear down faster and easier then they would be just 10 years behind the curve on the mechanical part.
follow this link for more photos.
Sawmill

 

[Brmorgan]

Regarding that sawdust pile never decomposing, was it hardwood or softwood dust? Maybe I'm wrong (feel free to let me know) but don't most hardwoods have some nasty compounds in them that softwoods usually don't? For example, oak and similar woods contain a lot of tannin. This might also explain:

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

Around my area I've run across a few old sawmill sites while exploring, dating mostly from the late Thirties up to the early '60s. A few have massive sawdust heaps, all pine - D Fir - spruce, and while they definitely still stand out trees will grow in them, mostly poplar. I have a theory on why they don't decompose well - they sit so densely that oxygen can't penetrate them very far, so bacteria can't break them down. On the other hand, I've seen small piles of planer shavings and chainsaw chips (same wood) completely disappear in two years.

I've had an idea to build something with a high-pressure hydraulic ram to press sawdust (with a binding agent) to make firelogs. Much like the pellets for pellet stoves, but on a much larger scale. Don't know if it would be practical, just an idea.

 

[Just_Sawing]

Sawdust Solutions

I take almost all my sawdust to my neighbor. He runs about 20 cow pairs and feeds round bales of hay. I put the dust down round the hay area and the cattle stand mill and do what cows do best make pies. They spend all winter mixing their pies and my dust together. By spring it is well on the way to the best garden soil money can buy.

 

[Backwoods]

Well so far, the common thread is livestock. It may be the urine that helps to brake down the acidity of the sawdust, thru the ammonia, nitrate, nitrite process or it could be the micro organisms in the manure that are feeding on the sawdust helping to brake it down. All the gardening “experts” seem to agree that when building a compost pile it should be a layer of green then a layer of brown; just keep alternating up thru the stack in order to get the best compost. Then turn this mix on a regular basis. By putting the sawdust (the brown) in the animals pen, the animals add there ingredient (the green) and then walk around turning the whole mix on a regular basis making for a balanced fertile mixture.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Regarding that sawdust pile never decomposing, was it hardwood or softwood dust? Maybe I'm wrong (feel free to let me know) but don't most hardwoods have some nasty compounds in them that softwoods usually don't? For example, oak and similar woods contain a lot of tannin. This might also explain:



Around my area I've run across a few old sawmill sites while exploring, dating mostly from the late Thirties up to the early '60s. A few have massive sawdust heaps, all pine - D Fir - spruce, and while they definitely still stand out trees will grow in them, mostly poplar. I have a theory on why they don't decompose well - they sit so densely that oxygen can't penetrate them very far, so bacteria can't break them down. On the other hand, I've seen small piles of planer shavings and chainsaw chips (same wood) completely disappear in two years.

Some woods have natural toxins in them that prevent decay and bug attack. Walnut is one but not all hardwoods are bad for soil.

I was told by the chief arborist / grounds keeper for a local (huge) school district that shavings, grindings, dust, etc. must be composted before using it as mulch or soil additives. Pile them up in the shade, keep them wet and turn the pile regularly for several months (depending on weather conditions) and you should be good to go.

I've had an idea to build something with a high-pressure hydraulic ram to press sawdust (with a binding agent) to make firelogs. Much like the pellets for pellet stoves, but on a much larger scale. Don't know if it would be practical, just an idea.

I read something about using paraffin wax for a binder.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

I just remembered something else that kinda fits here...

There is a company in the Austin area that grinds and hauls off the trees and brush from new construction sites (at no cost to the contractor) then processes it into mulch. If I remember I'll take a picture of their yard next time I pass it and I might have a picture or two of their tub grinder on one of our sites. They literally have mountains of tree grindings on a site I'd guess to be 100 acres or so.

 

[aggiewoodbutchr]

Found the grinder pics...

The grindings are hauled to their yard, pushed into piles with a track loader, kept wet with sprinklers for 6 months, then reground, bagged and sold to Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. or sold in bulk.

 

[Backwoods]

If you are being over ran with sawdust and have a steady supply and the quality is good. Get a hold of one of the large mills in your area. Depending on what there chip market is, they may buy it in bulk. Here locally seven large mills will buy “clean chips and fines”. They will expect it to be free of stuff like metal, paper ect. In addition, it will need to be separated by size, so no chunks. The chip market is a big enough market for them that it pays the bills during the times when the lumber prices are down, and may give put a little extra jingle in your pocket.

 

[porta mill]

saw dust

any one in northeast PA looikng to get rid any saw dust . i need some for a horse barn .i do no produce enough to supply what i need .

 

[boltonranger]

Boring but works...

I cut in the driveway sometimes - I'll sweep the chips and put them in a paper grocery bag. One night I was low on wood and for a lark put one of those bags on. (I had them sitting next to the trash can.)
Really worked well! Burned as long as a comparable log; not too fast, as long as I didn't poker it. In that case it burns faster and hotter.
Sort of satisfying to burn something that I was going to dispose of.
-br

 

[Backwoods]

Sawmill with ambition.

Now there is a day’s work. Well actually, that is less then 4 hours work for a large mill just down the road from me.

 

[retoid]

Wow

 

[Brmorgan]

The sawmill I work at can put out over 12 double-trailer chip truck loads each 10-hour shift if we're running big logs and it runs well.:jawdrop:
That doesn't count the hog fuel (bark and other junk that goes to the powerplant across the road) or the fines from the planer.