What do you do with your chippings/ sawdust?

[Pond]

Hello,

I am generating a LOT of chippings and sawdust from my woodworking (three big bin liners full already and only just started on my kitchen project). I don't want to throw it as it's all oak.

It is starting to clutter up the place and even though i have woodburning stoves in the house, I haven't got room to store it all until winter!!

I was thinking of starting my own fish/ meat smoking business!

What do you peeps who generate chippings constantly do with them?

PS. I am between Peterborough and Spalding if anyone can use them!!

 

[9fingers]

Providing the are non-irritant wood, I put them on freecycle and people collect them for pet bedding/litter

If it is mixed mdf/floor sweepings/iroko etc they go in the bottom of domestic waste wheely bins with a few bags of kitchen waste on top.

Bob

 

[DTR]

SWMBO digs them into the flower beds to improve drainage

 

[Karl]

I mainly put mine in the green recycling bin for composting. Unless i've had a really big run, in which case I take them to the tip and put them in the green skip there.

Cheers

Karl

 

[Harbo]

I mix it up with my garden compost but if there's too much it's off to the recycling centre.

Rod

 

[kirkpoore1]

I mix it up with my garden compost but if there's too much it's off to the recycling centre.

Rod

According to my wife, who knows a little more about this than me (but still is no expert), you have to watch out when you do this. Depending upon the species, sawdust can change the soil acidity and level of other nutrients. I think pine is generally ok, but oak is (IIRC) fairly acidic and black walnut actually can act as a mild herbicide. The yard waste pickup in my area won't take sawdust or shavings, so I have to put it in with my regular garbage.

Kirk

 

[grandads_shed]

45 gallon drum in bk garden behind hedges, light some paper and start to fill with shavings

 

[woodbloke]

Mine go into a black bin liner and thence into the wheely bin for normal collection...no problems thus far. Shavings can be mixed though but lately mainly oak - Rob

 

[Harbo]

On my chalk and flint soil a bit of acidity can only help?
I don't overdo it though.

Rod

 

[Dodge]

I don't know what happens to mine - I usually generate two or three large extractor bags per week - some weeks more.

I stand the full bags at the end of my workshop and usually within a day or two they disappear - I don't have to take them anywhere or dispose of them. I think its the fairies!!!!

The sign on the end of my building just says "FREE SAWDUST HELP YOURSELF" :lol: :lol:

 

[Pond]

I can't believe most of you throw it!

I am going to ring around the local butchers and ask if anyone has a smokery! If so, I'm sure they will want pure oak chips, hopefully for a few beer tokens!

I'm wondering if there would be a problem with oak for horses, as there are a LOT of riding schools with menages (is that right??).

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Same here really. If its not bad stuff and not mainly dust, I give it to family/friends or anyone for bedding. If its the bad stuff, Black bag and in the bin. I have offered to give the MIL some for her gardening after reading about it on here somewhere.

I asked this question elsewhere and someone did say stables may take some!

 

[Froggy]

A bit of all of the above: some to animal bedding, some (mainly pine) in the compost bins and some gets burned in the 45 gallon drum. I have also tried (rather unsucessfully) smoking salmon over a fire pit using oak shaving, which I believe are used when smoking certain foods.

 

[SurreyHills]

Seems to be a pattern. I give mine to the wife for composting or as we have alkaline soil she uses some as a mulch for the plants that need more acidic soil conditions - blueberries and hydrangeas. The rubbish stuff ends up down the tip.

 

[Chataigner]

My woodworking (hobby, but quite intensive) keeps two horses on mainly oak chip bedding, and a smoker.

A few points to watch :

Horses cant cope with true saw dust, it is simply too dusty. Chips from the planer or a spindle moulder are fine, hand plane shavings are even better, but fine dust causes respiratory problems in horses just as in us people.

The smoker on the other hand loves fine saw dust, BUT it must not contain MDF or chipboard or other products that include resins. VERY toxic.

If it is all truly oak, then the only problem is to keep the dust and the chips separate. Just a question of taking the time to change bags on the extractor etc.

If you are interested, I'll post pics of our smoker set up , I smoke anything from big hams to small fish.

 

[Dibs-h]

I put an ad in Guntree and some chap turned up and paid me £20 for 6 bin liners full of shavings and sawdust. :lol:

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

My woodworking (hobby, but quite intensive) keeps two horses on mainly oak chip bedding, and a smoker.

If you are interested, I'll post pics of our smoker set up , I smoke anything from big hams to small fish.

Yes please, I plan to build a rather large BBQ shortly, after the mention of smoker on here that light above my head started to emit (if only dimly :lol: ). A small one for pieces of fish and steak.

 

[Chataigner]

OK, here it is. The setup is an old woodburning stove, feeding a wooden smoke chamber via long inclined pipe. The idea is to lose heat, the pipe loses a lot, then the box is thin walled to lose even more. Smoke exits via tube at the top which goes under the eaves. It is important to keep the smoke cool or the food cooks instead of smoking.

This is all in an mainy unused outbuilding, but a shed would do fine.

I light a fire with small wood offcuts, get it good and hot, then smother it with sawdust, say a bucket full and shut down the air to the stove. After about 10mins thing have cooled down and you can put food in to the smoke box. A bucket of sawdust smoulders perhaps 4-6hrs, then needs topping up.

VERY important note, smoking does not preserve food on its own, you have to salt it first. Between 5 and 10% of the weight of the food in salt, cover and leave for a couple of days in a cool place, then rinse to get rid of surplus salt and put in the smoker.

Good luck!

 

[Jeff Gorman]

Try http://tinyurl.com/3jva56x and maybe have a bit of a laught as well.

Jeff
http://www.amgron.clara.net

 

[softtop]

Pond,

I use all my chippings/shavings in our boimass boiler, and am not a million miles away from you (I'm near Spalding) so would be delighted to take some away if you wish, but totally understand if you would rather smoke them!

Regards,

Henry