Sawdust...

[Tanglefoot20]

Nasty dusty mdf... real wood is much better....no glues or additives..

 

[doctor Bob]

Nasty dusty mdf... real wood is much better....no glues or additives..

I use loads of real wood and loads of MDF, each has their purpose, and each does certain jobs way better than the other. Not sure how you can be so dismissive, however I'm not here to change your mind.

 

[doctor Bob]

These are impressive MDF outdoor sculpture / art pieces. It is amazingly versatile. Notmy work (I wish it was).

 

[TRITON]

I see there are a number of YT vids on making paper/sawdust briquettes. Made it seems from mulched down newspaper then mixed with the sawdust, then pressed and allowed to dry.

 

[Cabinetman]

I see there are a number of YT vids on making paper/sawdust briquettes. Made it seems from mulched down newspaper then mixed with the sawdust, then pressed and allowed to dry.

I looked into it and realised just how much time it was going to take me to get rid of my dust and shavings that way, and also it seemed totally counterintuitive to get it all wet so that I could dry it again, I have a wood burner and was really keen to use my waste for a good purpose but to do it correctly you need huge pressure which fuses the particles together using the natural oils from the wood. Ian

 

[Jameshow]

We have little coil fire lighters made if softwood with a paraffin wax? Coating?

Perhaps you could do that? Use medical paraffin wax emmolient?

Cheers t

 

[TheTiddles]

Have you got a commercial quantity or a domestic quantity?

If the first, pay a licensed disposal
company to take it from you.

If the second, take it to the tip who will tell
you to put it in a different place every time (based on the Salisbury experience). Or put it in your household waste bin a bag at a time

Aidan

 

[TheTiddles]

Nasty dusty mdf... real wood is much better....no glues or additives..

For what?! Seems like a very narrow minded view

 

[julianf]

Ours goes on our rayburn. I dont use mdf, so its no different to chucking on logs, it just burns much quicker.

I generally mix it up with a very small amount of used cooking oil before hand, as it binds it / makes it less dusty. I believe the pellet mills sometimes add a bit of vegetable oil as a binder (im aware the main binder is lignin), or possibly as a lubricant - either way, i dont think its uncommon.

If you have enough of most waste types, and its not been mixed (ie is a single stream) then most have positive market values.

Enough clean sawdust and someone would take it as a fuel source.
Go up one level, and its time to buy a pellet mill.

If i had more than i could be bothered to burn on our rayburn, id knock up a dedicated burner for it. If need be id just burn it (i mean, properly, not a bonfire) and pipe the heat to surrounding buildings.

 

[julianf]

Waste management costs me a fortune, roughly £300 - £350 a week (14yard skip weekly)
If your generating a lot then your options reduce dramatically, only so many mushroom growers and waste bins.

If you were doing a skip a week of non contaminated sawdust then your figures, im almost certain, would be a positive on the balance sheet, rather than a negative.

Im not jumping on the "mdf is bad" cart, but, if everything else were entirely equal, then decontaminating your waste stream would be economically beneficial!

 

[Wayside2020]

Just a little factoid, my great grandfather was a Saw dust whole seller, supplied pubs in the centre of Birmingham.

As most have said here, pet shops of gardener.

 

[Nigel Taylor]

is there a way of making a wood pellet making machine?

 

[Ollie78]

Some woods are toxic to certain animals.
I used to give mine to a large joinery shop where they put it into their huge heater system.
They didn't mind because they were getting some kind of tax relief because it was a green recycling initiative or something.
They had heaters on all year !
They moved though so now I compost some, some goes in the skip.

Ollie

 

[Andy]

I give mine away on Freecycle. It gets snapped up in no time - you just need to make sure you separate out anything like yew or walnut as most people want it for either animals or gardens and those species are not good for either. (when I say separate out, I mean just change the bag on your extractor - just thought I'd pre-empt that one!). The other advantage of freecycle is that they come to collect - you can usually just leave it outside bagged up for folks to take.

 

[JAW911]

Don’t rush to throw it all over your garden. Sawdust has a much higher surface area than bark etc (a great mulch and weed preventer) and will certainly affect the availability of nitrogen to your plants. Composting it is fine but takes years.

 

[BEE13]

Most of mine goes on the garden as a mulch. I also have a very large bag of shredded paper every couple of weeks (disposing of papers from my former business) which goes in the waste bin. You can do that with wood shavings too. Much of the waste throughout the country goes to incinerators in which case, it just becomes fuel and therefore contributes towards energy generation. It needs to be in a bag in the bin not loose.

 

[rich.h]

Cat litter, I keep all my sawdust and just mix all types/grades in one bag. I don't generate enough to have constant free litter but I buy the big bales of bedding sawdust too. It works out as a fraction of the cost of dedicated litter and works just as well. Issues around what wood etc are a non go as the cat uses it once quick and doesn't lie in it.

If you don't have one yourself just throw it up on FB or gumtree, worst case you end up giving it away but still saves you a trip to the council tip where you said they refuse it anyway.

 

[Cabinetman]

Just a little factoid, my great grandfather was a Saw dust whole seller, supplied pubs in the centre of Birmingham.

As most have said here, pet shops of gardener.

I can just about remember sawdust on the floor, sawdust wholesalers are still in business though, the annoying thing for me was the business next to my workshop was a smokehouse and he had pallet loads of sawdust delivered, he couldn’t use mine as it had shavings mixed in with it and also it wasn’t certified, he burnt down in December and nearly bloody well took me with me with it, (Damaged a corner of my roof and joist ends and loads of water damage from the Fire Brigade pumping thousands of gallons in) Just about got my workshop back to where it should be. He was back in business the next day somewhere else. Nobody knows what caused it, the process had been in use for over 150 years, I suspect that one of the rails on the sides of the chimney that he used to climb up and down every day came off and fell in the smouldering sawdust fire. Ian

 

[TheUnicorn]

These are impressive MDF outdoor sculpture / art pieces. It is amazingly versatile.

Are these your work? they are very impressive, what are they sealed with that they can last outside?

 

[doctor Bob]

Are these your work? they are very impressive, what are they sealed with that they can last outside?

Not my work, they are made of tricoya MDF. Totally waterproof.