So what do you do with your planer chips?

[Frank Boettcher]

Had a few pieces of furniture to make, so went by the sawmill and bought 70 bdft of cherry. Saw mill (also a friend) gives me two prices, $1.50 if I take it as it comes off the stack, and he'll decide later if I pick and choose. So I take it as it comes off the stack, knowing my yield will be about 50-60%

Why do I always do that?

So I spend two days cutting to rough length, edge jointing, ripping to get most of the cup out, face jointing, planing, then rejointing to square it up, then ripping it true getting ready to glue up my panels, working around knots, splits, sapwood, and thin spots where my buddy got a little off with his portable sawmill.

I end up with my good wood, two five gallon buckets of fireplace kindling, a bucket full of smoker chunks, a pile of shorts that will be mixed with other species to become multi-color cutting boards, and about a hundred gallons of chips from the machines, most of it planer shavings, which make the most volume.

So what do you do with your chips?

Frank

[henry]

Back where they came from. Fill a hole in the woods, or mulch your garden, drop them off to a community garden they will love them.

[Patriarch]

Frank Boettcher wrote in news: [e-mail]:

There's this big compost pile behind the shed in the back corner of the property. That's where the hardwood chips go. Softwood goes onto the parts of the garden that need mulching, and can be easily fertilized.

Patriarch

[Doug Miller]

SWMBO uses them to mulch the veggie and flower gardens. Every now and again, I wind up with more than she can use. When that happens, I offer them on Freecycle, and they're usually gone within hours, and I have to turn many people away emptyhanded. Some folks use them for animal bedding, some for garden mulch. Some people stuff dolls. One of my customers is a seamstress; she used the planer shavings from the sewing tables I made for her to stuff a dressmaker's ham. I use them from time to time to soak up oil spills in the garage if we don't have any kitty litter handy. The uses are almost endless. :-)

[efgh]

Recycling and composting is mandatory here so my planer shavings are donated to the municipality for their composting program.

[Gordon Parks]

I have a big bag of them that I use to "scrub" the finish remover off of pieces that I am refinishing. I saw this on "The Furniture Guys" TV show. I use biodegradable orange stripper so the used chips go to the local landfill to use between trash layers. I also use them to clean up oil spills. Those I use with a little paraffin wax and cupcake holders to make firestarters.

[Lew Hodgett]

Dumpster.

Lew

[B A R R Y]

My neighbor is a Boy Scout leader. He takes then to make fire starters as a group project.

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[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Some I use with egg cartons and wax to make fire starters. Most ends up in the landfill unfortunately. I'd like to use them as mulch or compost but they suck the nitrogen right out of the ground so then you're stuck fertilizing more. Seems like a catch 22 to me. I had 6 black trash bags full of sawdust/shavings that I recently had to pitch. Didn't like doing it but didn't see too many other alternatives here. Cheers, cc

[BillinDetroit]

Patience, patience. If you can wait until the decomposition is done, the nitrogen is (largely) returned to the soil.

I use them in my paths and move them onto the beds after they decompose. Voila .. 'instant compost'.

Bill

[Phisherman]

Chips are used for muddy walkways or added to the compost. A 50/50 mix of grass clippings and wood chips will quickly decompose.

[EXT]

I give mine, including sawdust from the table saw and trim saw, to my neighbour by tossing them over the fence into his chicken run. It keeps the mud down and gives the chickens something to scratch through. It disappears into the dirt in a couple of weeks.

[Scott Lurndal]

If you compost them first, they won't "suck nitrogen right out of the ground".

Compost them with grass, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds/filters, teabags, fruit peels, etc. in a proper compost pile or composting container. Once composted apply to lawns, gardens, etc.

scott

[B A R R Y]

I would love to give mine to my brother-in-law for his chickens, or use them in the wife's guinea pig cage, but I worry about MDF and plywood dust and chips that get mixed in.

Do you guys who use chips for animals do much with composites?

Am I worrying too much?

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[Bill]

As someone who gets (bad) allergic reactions from the dust from MDF and plywood, it seems inhumane to me to directly expose any animals to the glue dust. I think your "worrying" here is right on the mark.

Peace, Bill

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

I haven't tried composting it first but I understand it takes an awfully long time to compost? I may give that a go on the next project if it's relatively quick. Composting here takes forever only for the fact that we're very dry and I hate using our precious water to keep the pile moist. Cheers, cc

[BillinDetroit]

Where ya at? There's more than one way to defur this particular feline.

Bill

[Scott Lurndal]

Keep the pile enclosed. Home Depot, Lowes, OSH, etc. all carry composing bins of various forms. Doesn't take much water, and works best in warmer climes. I don't get rain from May through November. Use about 1/2 brown (i.e. dry: leaves, sawdust, chips) to 1/2 green (grass, kitchen scraps (not meat or fats), coffee grounds, teabags, etc). Mix weekly. Keep as moist as a squeezed out sponge, only add water if the moisture level drops below this, however you get a lot of moisture fom green grass and kitchen scraps. If the worms find the pile (or you add them), things will work even faster.

scott

[Ralph E Lindberg]

I have a friend that is a potter and uses them in a wood fired pit kiln

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

New Mexico.