Woodworking Waste

[ScotF]

I have been building my new home office -- bookcases and desks out of solid Birdseye, Cherry and curly soft maple.  I fill up about 110 gallons of sawdust every week or so, not to mention all of the offcuts.  I am also blowing through a bag on my CT22 every week or two -- I know, maybe I should look into the Dust Deputy or perhaps the new CT48 will be out soon.  I am curious what everyone does with their wood-waste?  Also, for short cut-offs, when do you chuck the piece verses putting it in the "shorts" pile for a future project?  I feel like I am getting overwhelmed with sawdust and scrap material and I would be interested to hear how others combat their wood waste.  The wood I am using is expensive and I feel compelled to keep a lot of off-cuts that might otherwise be tossed, but this further compounds my problem as I am constantly shuffling material around my small shop to get at tools and my bench.

Thanks!

Scot

 

[mishle]

I used to put my off cuts on craigslist.org. Now I have someone that makes boxes and small things come and get my scrap when I call.

 

[robtonya]

I give my saw dust to a dog kennel. Scraps I usually hang onto. You might want to turn a segmented bowl, cutting board or something. If I produced more saw dust, I would consider a machine that compresses it into bricks that could be burned for heat in the winter, but I think those machines are expensive here is a link to one of them http://www.weimaamerica.com/

 

[jonny round boy]

I'm only a hobbyist now, so my waste has gone down quite a lot.

I tend to keep hold of anything longer than about 400mm. It's kept for when I need little bits for making jigs, test cuts on the router table, etc. Eventually it builds up to the point where I need to have a clearout, and then it gets cut up for either waste or firewood. We have a solid fuel fire in the living room, so any hard or softwood without a finish on can be burned; MDF/ply offcuts go to the tip, as does the sawdust.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Doesn't the super toilet seat have a button to dispose of all that sawdust?

 

[Sparktrician]

There's a company nearby that turns wood product waste into very clean-burning bricks for the woodstove.  Their web site appears to be down, but the vendor from which I buy them has a site with info on it here - http://americanchimneyva.com/biomass-fuels.  You might find a company near you that does something similar. 

[smile]

 

[spikfot]

I save all my "clean" planer shavings and spiral router exhaust for chickens and horse bedding. Sawdust goes to the recycling center to be collected for the town's co-gen plant for fuel. Wood scraps go in mine and my neighbor's wood stoves. No "waste" around these parts...

 

[LostInTheWood]

I also burn wood in the winter, so everything (clean) that I have laying around doesn't go to waste.    Don't nearly have as much sawdust as you, but over the years I've learned to keep some handy and not throw all of it away.

When I did theater work a paint spill on the stage or in the wings was never good.  To keep from pushing and spreading the paint all over the place using paper towels I would throw a pile of sawdust on it.  Wait a few seconds for it to soak, then get something thin and flat and keep folding the mess over itself till it was pasty or solid enough to scoop up.

Same goes for oil spills or other "syrup like" disasters.

Great for mixing into potting soil.

I have yet to try this, but I saw an episode of TOH where this guy threw down a little sawdust and some dry grout as a finishing pass to clean and dress the joints of freshly grouted tile.  He just pushed/rubbed it around and it cleaned up great and fast.  Can't remember if he went back over with a sponge or not.  It was pretty cool though.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

This won't consume a huge amount of waste, but the local trash authority suggests that when you toss latex paint or similar stuff, mix sawdust with it to form a paste.  I got lazy one time and just dumped a half can in the bin.  When the trash truck came and closed their compactor, I had a pool of Behr Seafoam latex on my driveway.  Yuck!  [embarassed]

 

[Ken Nagrod]

This won't consume a huge amount of waste, but the local trash authority suggests that when you toss latex paint or similar stuff, mix sawdust with it to form a paste.  I got lazy one time and just dumped a half can in the bin.  When the trash truck came and closed their compactor, I had a pool of Behr Seafoam latex on my driveway.  Yuck!  [embarassed]

I guess your town has a "custom" truck now.  Not the typical white garbage truck.  [cool]

Now if you can figure out how to have the town pay you for that custom work, you could use that to redo the driveway.  [wink]

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

When I empty my big DC, the shavings go to my parents for the horses.

Short or narrow scraps go into a container for burning in  the woodstove or the fire pit outside.

 

[RJNeal]

Be careful with walnut shavings and dust with livestock and compost piles.... Not good.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

Be careful with walnut shavings and dust with livestock and compost piles.... Not good.

Yeah, horses don't do so well with walnut shavings.

I doubt I will ever use too much walnut anyways.

 

[harry_]

Be careful with walnut shavings and dust with livestock and compost piles.... Not good.

Educate me, please

 

[peter halle]

Harry,

Black walnut and some of the hickories and butternuts contain a chemical called juglone.  Some plants and trees are sensitive to that chemical  That same chemical is known to cause allergic reactions if used in horse bedding material. 

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Harry,

Black walnut and some of the hickories and butternuts contain a chemical called juglone.  Some plants and trees are sensitive to that chemical  That same chemical is known to cause allergic reactions if used in horse bedding material.   

Peter's right.  AND it causes allergic reactions in some people too.  Found this out the hard way when I burned some in the fireplace, boy was the wife unhappy! [scared]

 

[spikfot]

Black walnut is my favorite California Native wood, it even smells good. Many woods are irritant, beech bugs me, but I'll take it any day over MDF. I'd rather work with teak than MDF, and I hate working with teak. Many strong smelling woods have a high content of allopathic resins, resins which inhibit the growth of other plants or trees- mostly released as the leaves decay and/or released in the root area.