Uses for wood shavings and sawdust?

What do you do with your wood shavings and sawdust? Following are a few ideas and practices to get started. This could've been posted in another section but I make the most shavings turning wood so the question is offered up for discussion here.

• Add to compost pile
• Pack green turnings in cardboard box to slow drying process - Idea that came from another woodturner on YouTube
• Packing material for shipping
• Chicken litter - Add the droppings and you have some great fertilizer to fortify the compost pile. I would use it for cat litter but my wife thinks her precious toilet lickin', fleabag cat is too good for anything but expensive, scented litter at the pet boutique.
• Rub a combination of sawdust and shavings into partially dried finish oils before buffing

I hope no one throws their wood scraps in the trash. It's a shame to let it go to waste.

A surprising use for it is to salvage earth which has been poisoned by excessive fertilizer application --- till sawdust and wood shavings / chips into the ground and it will absorb the excess fertilizer, then release it gradually as it decomposes.

It is good for mulch around trees and mulch for pathways. The mulch helps to retain moisture and also retards weed growth. Weeds that do pop up can usually be pulled easily. Most of mine ends up being used for agricultural uses.

I have added a little motor oil to some shavings and used it as a shop or garage sweeping compound. After I add the oil, I seal the can and wait several months until the oil is uniformly absorbed. For those of you who would be concerned about spontaneous combustion, I think that it doesn't apply to motor oil as it doesn't oxidize easily (unlike BLO, etc.).

I wouldn't use it for a cat litter box though because it would probably be tracked all over the house.

I've read that some commercial companies take sawdust and compress it to make pellets and briquettes for stoves and fireplaces - - but that isn't too practical for hobby turners due to the big upfront investment.

I've looked briefly at wood pellet mills, but I don't make enough sawdust or shavings to justify the investment in time and equipment for a new hobby. I believe the investment would pay off quickly, but I'm buried under all the projects I can handle already I just spread mine out along the trails I have cleared through my woods. Makes for a nicer walking trail and easier to sneak up on deer in the winter.

I fill gopher holes. There is an endless supply of both sawdust and gopher holes.

I throw it in the woods. Most of my blanks come from the woods, so there's a circle of life thing going on here.

Originally Posted by Brian Kent

I fill gopher holes. There is an endless supply of both sawdust and gopher holes.

Brings back not so fond memories of the never ending struggle to crush our gopher epidemic in San Diego. Not long after planting something the gophers would snip it off just below the surface of the soil. Sometimes you could actually see the plants quivering from being chomped on underneath. The cats would spend hours upon hours hovering over the holes. The only time I had much affection for the cats was when they left the gopher guts on our doorstep. Actually I never could decide whether there was another reason to dislike the cats for making the mess or like them for our mutual desire to kill gophers. The only thing I didn't try to control our gopher population was install some owl nests. I heard that can be very effective.

The vast majority of mine go into an outside box my FIL built, and from there to anywhere that is useful (mostly as mulch around trees and plants). I do use them with rough-turned bowls to slow the drying process sometimes as well.

Oh... another good use... wood shavings make excellent fire-starter material.

Good ideas Steve.

In Seattle, by law, we have three city supplied "garbage" cans. One for recyclables, paper, plastics, glass, metal, etc, etc. Another for garbage, basically anything not recyclable or compostable. The last is yard waste which also includes food waste, all things that can be composted. Clean wood shavings and sawdust go into the the yard waste can if not used in our garden or as floor sweep (by clean they mean from unpainted or untreated wood).

The contents of the yard waste can goes to for-profit facilities with composting equipment. The result of the composting is, after proper treatment, returned to us in the form of "organic" soil amendments for $4 per 40 pound bag at Home Depot and related gardening outfits.

The interesting to ponder thing about Seattle's system is for many years we got by with weekly pickup of a single user-supplied can for garbage that included all the above categories. Now we sometimes will fill all three of the various cans. The recycling can is the biggest problem because it's only picked every other week.

Steve, I will sell you mine for much more than you are paying for the cat litter. That way your wife will be happy for the precious little one and I get rid my shavings and saw dust.

Brian, when you fill gopher holes with shavings, does it cause them to move out ? Or are you just irritating them?

My shop is in the country, on a 2 acre property. This year we've seen record rainfall, so low areas are swampy.
So i just take the shaving and dump them into any low area with standing water.

They soak up water like crazy, eventually rot and form compost.
After about 5 years, some of the holes are filling in.

Animal bedding, except not for horses if it contains walnut. Animal rescue organizations make good use of shavings.

Also, not the best for alpaca and llama since the wood is difficult to get out of their fiber (if saving the fiber for spinning).

JKJ