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Thread: Disposing of Wood Turning Shavings / Chainsaw Chips ?

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2014
    Location
    North West Arkansas
    Posts
    7
    I keep a stainless steel trash can with a lid outside of my shop. I dump my shavings/dust in the can, when it fills up I light it up. I can keep an eye on it from my shop, if I need to leave I put the lid on the can and it will snuff it out. If I'm in the shop on the weekend, I'm usually burning something. The neighbors have never said a word about it.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Cowtown, Texas
    Posts
    8
    Grilling/smoking over wood is another way to use these good by-products.

    Woods that leach colour—Osage orange is a good example—can be used for dye-making.

    Pave your own pathways with wood shavings.

    Finally, compost piles need lots of carbon additions. That's where are leftovers go for me.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Schenectady, NY
    Posts
    1,500
    I save my clean domestic hardwood chips for our pottery friends for their Raku firings and pit fires. Other stuff goes on a rubbish pile down behind the pond or on a path to the neighbors fields. I sure don't generate several bags a week like some of the other responders though. I don't have that much shop time.
    Happy and Safe Turning, Don


    Woodturners make the world go ROUND!

  4. #19

    mulch1

    I give all my shaving to my neighbor, who makes mulch by mixing them with dirt. She's growing good vegetables in there!

  5. well, I lost my horse guy.

    so I put out a message to some friends and found one that wants some mulch. I imagine after a few months that she'll have more than she knows what to do with.

    Also going to try my local FFA to see if they can use them for the kids project animals.

  6. #21
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Kansas City, MO
    Posts
    151
    If my trash guys see a single leaf, or a handful of shavings in my trash bags, they reject them as yard waste and will NOT take them.

    I tried to explain to a couple of them that the shavings were from woodworking, not yard waste, but with 3 30 gallon trash bags full of shavings, they would not believe me.
    Quando Omni Flunkus - Moritatem!

  7. Quote Originally Posted by Chris Colman View Post
    If my trash guys see a single leaf, or a handful of shavings in my trash bags, they reject them as yard waste and will NOT take them.

    I tried to explain to a couple of them that the shavings were from woodworking, not yard waste, but with 3 30 gallon trash bags full of shavings, they would not believe me.

    I could do that - but the City of Houston requires us to use specially marked biodegradable bags for "yard waste" - they go to be mulched instead of to the landfill. The bags are outrageously expensive - something like $10 for 10 bags - and the bags are small (33 gallon or so) and they rip very easily.

    the lady that says she needs mulch lives on 5 acres, has a mulch pile - and her property back up to a creek. she mentioned she might even have some trees that need to be removed...then she says "have you seen the inside of a box elder?"

    "why yes, yes I have"

    so I'll make my first run out to her place on Sunday to survey the situation and take her a few bags full.
    Last edited by Shawn Pachlhofer; 10-20-2014 at 9:55 PM.

  8. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by Shawn Pachlhofer View Post
    I could do that - but the City of Houston requires us to use specially marked biodegradable bags for "yard waste" - they go to be mulched instead of to the landfill. The bags are outrageously expensive - something like $10 for 10 bags - and the bags are small (33 gallon or so) and they rip very easily.
    Our local government provides a wheeled bin that holds 15-20(?) bushels for 'yard waste'. I can use that for shavings -- no comments yet. For additional yard waste we are supposed to use very large paper (biodegradable) bags, which have a capacity greater than the black plastic garbage bags, and are quite strong. Although they are sold in local stores for $2.50-$3.50 for five, the local government provides coupons to every household once or twice a year so that up to 50-60 bags can be gotten for free with each set of coupons.

  9. #24
    We live on 55 acres and have an intermittent creek bed about 100 yards behind the house. I put the shavings in the creek, 2 or 3 time a year we get enough rain that the creek gets about 150 ft wide and the shavings disappear. I assume that they decompose naturally on their trip to the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles away.

  10. #25
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    Toronto, CA
    Posts
    320
    My stuff goes into large biodegradable bags which get dumped at the end of the driveway in large batches.
    I put a post on Kijiji (CDN version of Craigslist), advertising them as "FREE GARDEN MATERIAL!! Come an Get em'"

    They are usually gone by morning.


    Olaf
    <sometimes I like scavengers>

  11. Quote Originally Posted by Wayne Lovell View Post
    We live on 55 acres and have an intermittent creek bed about 100 yards behind the house. I put the shavings in the creek, 2 or 3 time a year we get enough rain that the creek gets about 150 ft wide and the shavings disappear. I assume that they decompose naturally on their trip to the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles away.
    They don't decompose as fast as you think - they end up washing downstream and clogging the creekbed along the way, causing flooding when they clog up. That's why "2 or 3 times a year" the creek gets wide. Too much rain - and too much debris in the creek.

    if you live on 55 acres - surely you have a burn pile or compost area - please consider using that instead of dumping them in the creek.

  12. #27
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Cowtown, Texas
    Posts
    8

    Same issue with neighbours thoughtfully blowing yard debris into the street . . . from where it would wash into drainage systems . . . if/when rained.

    "have you seen the inside of a box elder?"

    "why yes, yes I have"
    Good, green karma.

  13. so I went by today and dropped off 2 bags of shavings for the mulch pile, and 4 large bins of off-cuts from processing logs for the burn pile - she give me tour of her 5 acres.

    really cool place next to a creek and she grows & grafts many many varieties of citrus fruits. The box elder she wants taken down is near the creek and gives too much shade to the citrus she's growing and her pecans.

    that one will be coming down very soon.

  14. #29
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Louisville, KY
    Posts
    512
    Shawn,
    Have chainsaw and will travel. I highly suggest you don't try this job on your own. Let me be a second set of eyes........for safety reasons of course.

    Quote Originally Posted by Shawn Pachlhofer View Post
    so I went by today and dropped off 2 bags of shavings for the mulch pile, and 4 large bins of off-cuts from processing logs for the burn pile - she give me tour of her 5 acres.

    really cool place next to a creek and she grows & grafts many many varieties of citrus fruits. The box elder she wants taken down is near the creek and gives too much shade to the citrus she's growing and her pecans.

    that one will be coming down very soon.

  15. that's a long way to come for one tree.

    I have plenty of "supervisors" that volunteer to help.

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