What "Dust" do with it?

[HeliGav]

Hi guys, we all produce so much sawdust, but what do you do with yours? Ive been throwing it in the recycling bin! I know alot of people would just throw it on the fire.

Was thinking, ive seen something awhile ago that basically turns wet newspaper into bricks for the fire, some type of press.

Does anyone know of a technique, mixture or product that can be used?

I know that alot of people might say just burn it, but was looking for a way to store it in like bricks for winter? Without the dusty mess of shoveling it onto a fire inside?

Thanks

Ps. Merry Christmas :ho2

 

[heimlaga]

Sawdust and planer dust all goes into the same dust collector. When the bags get full I store them in a little barn which is also my wood storage. When there are too many full bags in the barn I sell the dust to a local horse owner. It does not pay off to drive back and forth to her stable with one bag at a time. I get 10 euros per cubic metre delivered at her stable.

Small wood chips and plane shavings and bark have for 15 years been used to fill some holes in the ground behind the fire wood stacks but now the holes are full so I am starting to dump them in an old gravel pit nearby (with the landowner's concent). Offcuts and bigger chips and useless wood are burned in the wood fired central heating boiler.

 

[MMUK]

Funny you should mention sawdust. I'm looking at prototyping a fuel injection heating system using saw dust. The idea came to me after working at the old British Steel plant, now SSI, for Siemens earlier this year up in Redcar.

Basically, the new install up there is a conveyor that carries coal up to the top of a big grinder which then powders the coal into dust. The coal dust then gets forced through an injection system and burns 68% more efficiently than stoking coal in the normal way. This is something that, if it had been done back in the 80's, British Steel would still be around today. They had the money to do it but obviously preferred holidays and Jags.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I thought to do the wet paper bricks, just wrapping the dust/shavings/chippings in the paper. The main problem is that you can really only make them in the summer - they take weeks to dry properly.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

There are commercially available machines that press the particles together and produce "bricks" but they're designed for factory use and cost a great deal. I looked into this a few years back and recall there was nothing off the shelf for a domestic setting. Time for the inventive to get cracking I reckon.

 

[Myfordman]

I recycle mine via the local recycling website. People seem to want it mainly for pet bedding and drying out areas that get muddy when chickens have their runs.
If I have any waste from exotic woods that might possibly be toxic to animals it goes in the dustbin.

 

[adzeman]

A few of my neighbours have wood burning stoves and I should get round to installing one There is one problem with using my waste sawdust and that is when its mixed up with pressure treated material. You have to keep this separate which means emptying the camvac each time I use pressure treated material and changing the bag. I learnt the hard way, my grandchildren were taking my sawdust and in particular the planer chippings for their rabbit which suddenly died on them not an old rabbit no sudden shocks. The vet said it died from poisoning which came from the rabbit eating the chippings. Also if you burn the pressurised wood it gives off toxic fumes, it stinks as well. I take the pressurised waste to the local recycling tip. A bit of a bind but there you go.

 

[marcus]

If you want to burn it then the cheapest and most practical way (i.e. without investing in a briquetting or pelleting rig) is in one of these:

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Steel-workshop-stove.html

Trying to burn it in a normal stove does not really work (in my experience anyway).

I advertised mine on free-cycle and now have a few people's numbers who I ring when I have a good number of bags full, and they come and take it away. I don't charge for, it, not sure people would pay, I'm just glad to be shot of it.

And yes, if doing this, make sure there is no pressure treated stuff in there is important, as killing people's horses doesn't improve ones popularity in the community.....

 

[yetloh]

I take mine, including planer chips, to the local green waste recycling tip. I have also tried leaving it in open topped plastic sacks outdoors. Over a couple of years it rots down to make quite a nice mulch material not unlike leafmould. However, this is not a good idea for walnut dust or shavings because it is poisonous to plants.

Jim

 

[Tony Spear]

I thought to do the wet paper bricks, just wrapping the dust/shavings/chippings in the paper. The main problem is that you can really only make them in the summer - they take weeks to dry properly.

My friend Richard Boston, who used to run an "EcoMag", called I believe "Vole" told me that he'd aquired one of those waste paper into bricks thingies. Trouble was he spent ages making the bricks and spending time scrounging around the village for sufficient old newspapers to make just a few "briquettes" was even worse!

So, as an experiment, on a trip to the States I brought home a Sunday edition of the New York Times and after a week of struggle, he produced about enough fuel to keep him going for about 2 days!!!

We worked out in the end that without digging around in dustbins etc. his newspaper bill would have to incease by a factor of about 128!

 

[Berncarpenter]

I used to take mine to the local tip but this year i have bought a sawdust burner by Tecknic

I havent got it up and running yet as the quote for a stainless flue came in at £1800 plus fitting.So trying to work out the most cost affective way and installing the flue myself.

Cheers Bern.

 

[MMUK]

A few of my neighbours have wood burning stoves and I should get round to installing one There is one problem with using my waste sawdust and that is when its mixed up with pressure treated material. You have to keep this separate which means emptying the camvac each time I use pressure treated material and changing the bag. I learnt the hard way, my grandchildren were taking my sawdust and in particular the planer chippings for their rabbit which suddenly died on them not an old rabbit no sudden shocks. The vet said it died from poisoning which came from the rabbit eating the chippings. Also if you burn the pressurised wood it gives off toxic fumes, it stinks as well. I take the pressurised waste to the local recycling tip. A bit of a bind but there you go.

You shouldn't keep rabbits on wood shavings anyway regardless of whether pressure treated or not

 

[Paddywack]

Hi Bern,
Do you have a website for that stove, I googled it and got nothing like it.
Thanks

 

[nathandavies]

Hi Bern,
Do you have a website for that stove, I googled it and got nothing like it.
Thanks

They are on Ebay

 

[siggy_7]

I'm planning to make a compound lever press from these plans and burn briquettes on my stove: http://home.fuse.net/engineering/ewb_project.htm. There's quite a lot of info on there for making fuel briquettes. You have to mix in with a fibrous material (paper) and press wet though; you can press dry sawdust into briquettes as done commercially but you need several thousand PSI to make it work which is beyond the realms of easy to make equipment.

 

[Berncarpenter]

Hi Bern,
Do you have a website for that stove, I googled it and got nothing like it.
Thanks

Here are the details for you .Its a small company with about six or so workers from what i saw .The guy i delt with was Nick I think he owns the business .
Nick
Tecnick Engineering Ltd
Unit 15
Rockfeild Rd
Hereford
HR1 2UA
01432 341555

Hope this helps Cheers Bern

 

[kenf]

I once read on an american site that the woodworker loaded his sawdust loose into the back of his pick up and then went for a drive out of town. When he got home it was all gone!

kenf