Replies

1. 
   Dave45 | Nov 16, 2006 02:34am | #1

   My hardwood scraps get burned in the fireplace and the dust/shavings/etc from my dust collector are going into the ground in a landscaping project I just started.

2. 
   jazzdogg | Nov 16, 2006 03:53am | #2

   I've heard that there's equipment you can use to compress sawdust into pellets suitable for a woodstove, but have no personal experience with them.

    

   -Jazzdogg-

   "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Gil Bailie

3. 
   Kipperdave | Nov 16, 2006 04:23am | #3

   I read somewhere that the author compressed them into empty milk cartons and burned them like firelogs - haven't tried it yet though - good luck

1. 
   maderamax | Nov 16, 2006 05:38am | #4

   Compressing them in milk cartons sounds like a good idea.

   Do you remember where you read that, or how it was done?

   Thanks,

   Max

4. 
   Floss | Nov 16, 2006 06:29am | #5

   Max,

   Are you talking about shavings from a dust collector or hand plane shavings?

   I like to use my hand plane shavings instead of newspaper as tinder to get the kindling going. Several bunched up piles works well for me but my stove has a relatively small fire box.

   Scraps wont last for long unless they are relatively good sized. Too much air gets around them and they burn fast. Which can be good if you want a fast hot fire. Get some good dry cord wood and save some of the scraps so that when you want a small fire or are re kindling you can get the stove heated up fast.

   J.P.

   http://www.jpkfinefurniture.com
5. 
   pzaxtl | Nov 16, 2006 08:19am | #6

   There's cabinet shop/lumber dealer up the road that I believe uses a secondary heating system such as you've described. Perhaps you could contact him for more information. the link is:
   http://www.saranachollow.com/woodworking.htm

   Regards,
   Michael

1. 
   user-227506 | Nov 16, 2006 09:19am | #7

   No matter what you do, just don't go shoveling loose powdery dust into that stove. Maybe not the first time, but at some point, it more likely than not will explode in your face. On a small scale, it isn't as bad as a gasoline explosion, but it'll still burn off your eyebrows and could hurt you. I there's a lot of dust in the air, bad juju.The milk carton thing does work, but is time consuming to fill the cartons up. You can also make a composite log from wax & sawdust using a piece of 3+
   " PVC pipe as a form, but the cost would be prohibitive and depending on the composition of your stove, may lead to bad things like overheating and giant puddles of hot flammable wax on the floor.

6. 
   dukeone | Nov 16, 2006 11:42am | #8

   Max: Felder makes a dust collector that spits out compressed "bricks" of the dust and chips. I think it is a very large one and probably not practical. 

   RL 300 Clean Air Dust Extractor with Wood Chip Briketting Press       http://usa.felder-gruppe.at/?page=maschinen_details&xat_code=eaefb1585bdcce360c6c&parent=37bd7666a4c8f3bb595f

   Duke

   "... if people did not die so untidily, most men, and all women, would commit at least one murder in their lives." R. Kipling

7. 
   user-52008 | Nov 16, 2006 05:19pm | #9

   I used to have a commercial shop in a barn in New England that was heated primarily by an oil burner/forced hot air system. But just to take advantage of all the hardwood scraps that would accumulate, I added a large woodstove to one corner of the shop as an auxiliary heat source. When the time came to empty the dust collector of jointer and planer shavings, I would pack them tightly into paper grocery bags filled about half-full and place those into the stove once it was fired up with a good bed of hot coals. Each bag of sawdust would burn slowly (for about 2 hours), and the heat it kicked out was not as good as what you get with solid wood, but it was free.