If you are a woodworking expert or an enthusiast, then you are aware that cutting, drilling, sanding, screw, and similar carpentry activities produce an immense amount of sawdust.
The dust produced can be very messy in your workshop, especially if you do not know what to do with it.
However, there are various beneficial things that you could with the sawdust produced.
Useful Things to do with saw dust
1. Use Sawdust for Mulching Purposes
You could mulch your gardening soil with sawdust. This helps improve the soil acidity and makes it ideal for the growth of various plantations.
For instance, cranberries, raspberries, blueberries, and huckleberries do perfectly well on soil mulched with sawdust.
The sawdust also helps to prevent the strawberry from dirt as well getting rotten against the bare soil.
Mulch also protects the soil and offers a buffer from cold and hot temperatures.
Water is also retained in the soil with the help of the sawdust mulch, thus keeping the roots moist.
2. Sawdust Serves as Anti-Slip Surface During Winter
To help reduce the slippery effect of the snow, sawdust from woodworking projects could be used on top of the snowy surface to prevent people from falling.
Sprinkling sawdust over icy or snowy surfaces brings about enhanced ground traction.
Ideally, you could also add sawdust to pathways during the rainy season so that those walking on it may have better traction to avoid sliding and hurting themselves.
3. Add Sawdust to Plant Fertilizer
Sawdust could be added to plant fertilizer to boost and encourage growth.
Thus, you should add some sawdust to compost and mix it well, especially if you are growing mushrooms.
Sawdust works perfectly well and could help boost their growth and make them more nutritious.
Additionally, mushroom loves damp and old woodpiles; thus it will be ideal to add a certain amount of sawdust to boost growth.
4. Woodworking Sawdust Could Serve as Animal Bedding
Sawdust could serve as perfect bedding for your animals and poultry at home. It could help to keep them warm and to improve their productivity.
The sawdust tends to bring much warmth and thus keep your animals active and, therefore, make them grow faster, especially chicken and other poultries.
Sawdust is also ideal for dog bedding, primarily wood chips from cedar and pine. This is because they serve as a repellant against bedbugs and fleas. Your dogs will be protected from these pests, and thus, their health will improve.
If you a pet lover, sawdust could also help. This is because you can use it on your cat litter.
It will enable it to be clean and tidy, and also, it’s much easy to dispose of as it’s compostable and biodegradable.
However, you should avoid sawdust from wood that is contaminated as it could be hazardous.
5. Use Sawdust to Sip Up Spills
While working on your workshop, you could spill paints, gasoline, grease, oil, and other liquid substances to make your working station messy.
However, with sawdust, you could be able to clear up this mess.
This is because sawdust is very absorbent; thus, it could quickly soak up the spills.
All you need to do is sprinkle sawdust on the mess and wait for the liquid to be absorbed, then use a broom to sweep it away.
It would be best if you repeatedly did this till you get the desired effect.
6. Use Sawdust to Fill Cracks in Wood
Instead of disposing of sawdust produced as they work in the workshop, most finishers and woodworking experts opt to make use of it and use it to fill cracks, gouges, and holes in wood.
However, the sawdust should be ground into a flour-like and fine consistency.
The sawdust powder should then be mixed with wood glue to make a putty.
It would be best if you then used the putty to fill one of the cracks and gouges.
The impressive aspect about this filler is that it may perfectly match the color of the wood.
7. Use Sawdust to Heat your Home
Most homes could get cold; thus, it could be ideal for heating your homes to keep yourself warm.
Most homeowners use pellet stoves, fireplaces, and wood stoves as a supplemental source of heat.
You could use sawdust to keep the fire burning.
You should remember that sawdust burns at a fast rate; thus, it may require an immense amount of it to feed a fire.
You could also use sawdust from woodworking projects to start fires, especially bonfires.
8. Sawdust is Ideal for Landscaping
Sawdust is much absorbent and decomposes slower; thus, it may be ideal for mulching various areas of your landscape.
Ideally, you may use wood shavings and sawdust as a temporary remedy for maintaining pathways around your household in an attempt to eradicate muddy areas.
Sawdust could also be used to curb soil erosion. When mixed with soil, they tend to improve its quality and to make it of better quality.
9. Sawdust is excellent for Storage of Root Vegetables
Before the innovation of refrigerators and freezers, people used to store and food cold under the ice houses, insulated with sawdust.
The icehouses comprised ice cuts from freshwater lakes and rivers and then positioned in underground rooms or cellars cloistered with sawdust.
Root crops, including parsnips, carrots, potatoes, root vegetables, and many others, can be stored in wood shavings and sawdust. This method of preservation can protect your root crops from going bad for a considerable amount of time.
Using a wooden box or cardboard, place sawdust at the bottom, followed by a single root crop layer.
You should ensure that the root crops do not touch each other.
Add another layer of sawdust on top of the root crops. It would be best to place the box in a dry and cool place in the basement or garage.
Bottom Line
If you are not sure of what to do with the sawdust produced in your workshop, the above ideas will be of much help. Please don’t dispose of the sawdust; instead, make use of it and even earn extra income.
