Thread: Shaving Dilemma: Where do yours go?

I pile mine into the back of the pickup and go about my business. By the end of the day they've usually disappeared!

Curt, ive posted this at a couple of other websites and this is the best idea so far!
nice pieces shown at your website.
tm

Not a terrible idea, but I would not want your shavings clogging up my air filter, and starving my turbo.
You sure do not look like yourself.

Gardeners love shavings
are there any gardening or senior citizen clubs close to you

Compost them, or use them as garden mulch.

Being in California, do you have need for shed heaters in winter?

Al

Al, its 12 c. or 53 f here in s. cal tonight, not freezing but cold enough. I wanted to go make some dust but my legs are cold to the touch.
A shop heater would be the ticket for me.
I worked outside all day ... tonight i'm gonna plug in a Del Stubbs
bowl turning dvd and meditate on the Raffin upside down endgrain cut
he demonstrates...
play...
pause...
rewind...
play....
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So why not burn your shavings to keep warm in the shed??
Or arent you allowed too.:eek:

Al

Somewhere, on some gardening or woodworking discussion, someone said that the shavings/sawdust use all the nitrogen in the soil if you just mulch the garden with the stuff - which is why the plants go brown

Basically you have to mix it in with grass clippings, veg & food scraps etc & let it compost away until it looks like dirt, then put that on the garden.

Some potters use sawdust & shavings to fire their wares in bins, so you might ask around the local crafty people & see if anyone is doing bin firing - I think it is one of the techniques used for Raku pottery as a first firing as well.

Originally Posted by ozwinner

So why not burn your shavings to keep warm in the shed??
Or arent you allowed too.:eek:

Al

Al, you're not just a pretty face after all, are you? Come to think of it, there's not much to write home about your avartar... Good to have a chat on skype though...

Seriously though, I compost most of my shavings. Some I use on the little "road" at the bottom of my shed - just to make it a bit less bumpy on the rider mower (yea Greenfield - 13hp Kawasaki twin cylinder). If you were going to use them as a fuel, perhaps a warm/hot water circulation system would be the go? Wouldn't be too hard to plumb thru your shed. Use the new poly stuff that's resistant to hot water?

Cheers,
Keith

you could try and find a butcher who cures bacon, he would need shavings to smoke the bacon over, mostly they would use oak, but it's just an idear, or maybe a pet shop, for use as litter for the pets in there hutches?????????????????

I pile mine into the back of the pickup and go about my business. By the end of the day they've usually disappeared!

best idear so far

This has all been done before. Bsrlee is quite right about nitrogen leaching. Simple solution - Scatter Dynamic Lifter, about a handful per square metre, every 3 or 4 weeks and watch your plants thrive. Natives don't like it much though! (Thats native plants Gumby, not Aborigines.)
If all else fails, do a search!

There are a thousand different uses for the shavings, but if you want to get rid of them fast you should try getting some sort of clay oven. Stick it outside of your shed/workshop and just shovel the shavings in.

It always seems more fun to just let it pile up though, gives the room its character.

The nitrogen leaching is a temporary thing. Once the shaving are fully composted the nitrogen is released again.

If you have a garden path that gets a bit muddy, chuck your shavings and wood dust on it and no more mud. Once it has fully broken down chuck it on your garden. The plants will love it.