Every wood project results in some amount of saw dust. What to do with it? When I first started my hobby I would through it out in my trash. I knew I could do something better with it than put it in a land fill somewhere.
My father-in-law had built a small mulch bin in his back yard where he put all of his grass clippings and leaves. He built it out of expanded metal scraps. He gave me enough material that I built a 36” x 48” x 30” mulch bin.
I have been putting into it grass clippings, leaves, and saw dust. For the past five years the bin never got over 1/2 capacity, until I started planning the wood for my daughter’s dresser bed. It is amazing that amount of wood shavings that a planer will produce! About half way through the planning the material for the bed the mulch bin reached, no exceeded capacity. I ended up throwing away the rest of the shavings. I don’t like doing that, but I had no where else to put the shavings to decompose them.
I have been actively working the mulch bin this summer to help speed the decomposition of the material. Come next summer I should have a nice amount of compost material for the flower beds.
