Shopsmith Forums

Well having made a lot of sawdust the past week orso and while cleaning up the garage this evening the thought occurred to me that there has to be some kind of use for all this damn sawdust other than to just throw it in the garbage can??? Man does it accumulate fast! I used my jointer a lot for my Expanding Worktable project I am working on as the plans call for mostly 3" widths so I had to use my jointer mainly to shave the 2X stock down to the 3" dimension. I did use my bandsaw as well but the jointer was so much easier to use and made the boards perfect. Boy that tool really makes some shavings.......... I had a mountain of shavings all around the leg of my Mark V where the jointer is mounted............. I really love this tool now that I have it adjusted properly it just works. Anyhow I was just wondering if there were other ways to utilize the waste from these types of operations????

I don't know about a mountain of shavings, but when I have a pile of sawdust/shavings from my lathe, I gather them into a bag and use it as oil dry with working on the cars or mowers. You can also put it in the garden. If you don't have a garden, you should consider putting one in as we all should because $4 a gallon gas is going to drive groceries straight thru the roof.

Planer and jointer stuff is used in nest boxes for my wife's rabbits. The finer dust usually goes into the compost with all the manure from the rabbits. It has to be well mixed or you get a big clump that is not very usable. After the nest boxes are cleaned, it all goes into compost. I sometimes keep some for oil dry as well. Not all wood is good to but on the yard, but most of the usual stuff I use is ok. All you need is about 80 rabbits and you never have to worry about saw dust again!

dlbristol wrote:Planer and jointer stuff is used in nest boxes for my wife's rabbits. The finer dust usually goes into the compost with all the manure from the rabbits. It has to be well mixed or you get a big clump that is not very usable. After the nest boxes are cleaned, it all goes into compost. I sometimes keep some for oil dry as well. Not all wood is good to but on the yard, but most of the usual stuff I use is ok. All you need is about 80 rabbits and you never have to worry about saw dust again!

I hazard a guess that Farmer uses straw for that purpose. I doubt sawdust would work any where near as well!:rolleyes: BTW what is rabbit muck called(other than fertilizer)?

dlbristol wrote:Planer and jointer stuff is used in nest boxes for my wife's rabbits. The finer dust usually goes into the compost with all the manure from the rabbits. It has to be well mixed or you get a big clump that is not very usable. After the nest boxes are cleaned, it all goes into compost. I sometimes keep some for oil dry as well. Not all wood is good to but on the yard, but most of the usual stuff I use is ok. All you need is about 80 rabbits and you never have to worry about saw dust again!

I'm just curious, after reading the above post, as to what breed of rabbits does your wife have? I raised rabbits a number of years ago and went to many a rabbit shows almost every weekend. I had mostly Californian and some New Zealand Whites. All had pedigree papers that I kept up-to-date.
I won a few times, at the rabbits shows, and sold some for breeding stock

Does your wife attend rabbit shows? I always loved to see what my rabbits could do against the better breeders.

I would love to hear more about this subject from you, as I don't have any rabbits now (too hot in Arizona) but still passionate about this animal.

Thanks for sharing.

Jim in Tucson, Arizona

JPG and Jim, Oh my gosh, what have I started? JPG, actually, in the west, we use a lot of wood chips for animal bedding, but you are right that my saw dust is to fine for Farmers needs. As far as I know rabbit crap is just rabbit crap!:D
It is great stuff for fertilizer, it will not burn like some stuff. And she can sell some of it, so I don't have to move it again!!!!

Jim, She raises Mini Lops mostly. There are a few other ones, like Polish? Satin and something else. ( All seem to have identical crap, but different looks). She does show and sell breeding stock, some pets and we eat some. She has all registered stock, except for a few that she has just for pets. Her big thing is the color genetics for the mini lops and she can tell you all you want to know about that. She has won some shows. She has cut back due to caring for her mom and some other family issues, but she still love it. I must say her hobby is self supporting, where mine is not. You can PM me if you want to know more. I will let her tell you more, I have exhausted my knowledge.

I save oak chips and put them around the base of the trees in my yard. My soil is highly alkaline, and the wood chips seem to moderate the PH a little and also help control weeds.

JPG40504 wrote: BTW what is rabbit muck called(other than fertilizer)?

I often call it by another name but I shouldn't post it here.


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In the winter I usually just bag it up and drop the bag in the woodstove. The rest of the time I just scatter it "someplace". There are a lot of advantages to living on a farm.
With the new DC setup it will mostly just blow out to a tiny wooded spot behind the shop.


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