First I am rusty on compost piles, because I sheet compost.
I Have coffee waste in very large bags, that compost over 6 months with out turning.
1) Yes, only green wood can heat up some,brown should be about 1/3 of your CP.
2)1/3 grass clippings, if you have manure to add. Green Weeds(before they have seeds) can be added to.Greens can be 50% to 60%, you can use blood meal,bone meal,cotton seed meal or manure also. SSSSh, you are not going organic, then you could use 10-10-10 fertilizer also, but it could leach out if you have a heavy rain. It is best to use organic greens, because they will not leach out as bad.
3)You should have a temperature of 150 degrees, the intensity of the temperature depends on the amount of Urea & blood meal. You can add the urea daily & add the blood meal when you want to raise the temperature.
4)Every three days or so. To often will cause it to cool & you want to give the nitrogen time to break the browns, you have turned in, down.
5)The key word is break down, coffee grounds will turn to humus before saw dust, sawdust will turn before large shaving.Whole leave take longer then shredded leaves do.The smaller the parts, the faster the break down.
You need to keep the pile damp, but not wet.
You can have humus in 30 days or 6 months. A cold compost pile can take from a year to two years to completely break down. But with urea, blood meal, & grass clippings you will have a hot pile. You can mix unfinished compost into the future garden plot, if you are not planting seeds or harvesting for 4 months.
6)Check this site daily, read everything on page 1-3.
Ask questions. Tell what you did & how it worked for you.
We all can learn, no one knows everything. Even if we tend to sound as if we think we do. So tell us everything you do & what happen.
Teak & some other woods will not brake down for some time, but to my limited knowledge, are not harmful to you or your garden.
P.S. do you have a web site so I can see your finished work?

I am a newbis but here are my thoughts....

Found a list of Greens:

Algae
Bone meal
Coffee grounds -Starbucks gives away for free...
Egg shells
Feathers
Flowers
Fruit and fruit peels
Grass clippings (fresh)
Hair
Manure
Seaweed
Tea leaves
Vegetables & peelings

So, there are a lot of things that you can add for greens... but will be hard to get ahold of them cheaply.... maybe a restaurant can give you coffee grounds and vegtables peels....

Mike

Aged sawdust and wood chips can have a C:N ratio of 500 to 1 meaning that you would need a lot of some Nitrogen source. Your grass clippings could be some of that, blood meal (about 7 percent N) could be some more of that, Urea (About 45 percent N) could also be part of that but may make that pile too hot which might cause it to spontaneously combust. (I know there are skeptics about this here).
One problem with sawdust piles I have seen is they tend to cake, compact, and air cannot then get into the pile so the bacteria that should be digesting the material do not work. Think of a compost pile made of mostly sawdust as clay soil with little organic matter in it. I'd look for other, coarser materials to add to that sawdust and wood chips mixture to aid in preventing this compaction and to add a larger variety of nutrients to that pile.

"I'm a guitar maker by trade..."

If you're using mahogany and certain cedars, not only do you have a high C ratio but also inherent rot resistance.

All the above suggestions for nitrogenous materials are good...urine is very well suited. Kimmsr's advice about compaction should be heeded.

Instead of/ in addition to composting you might want to think about mushroom production with your wood waste.

If you have the room, simply piling the sawdust, wetting and occasional turning will yield a soil amendment in X years time- "X" being dependent on climate and specie.

Here in the northeast, most hardwood chips/sawdust are well broken down in two years. Mahogany can take up to five, in chip form. Teak up to ten.

Wood shavings/sawdust are my primary carbon ingredient mainly because they're readily available and free. I can get a pick-up load whenever I feel like shoveling it. It requires large amounts of nitrogen material to break down the wood tho which is why I use mine as mulch and rarely mix it with the soil.

My 'mix' is usually grass clippings, sometimes shredded leaves, alfalfa pellets, my small amount of 'real' compost from kitchen trimmings, and whatever other soil amendment I may have such as soy meal, along with the shavings. I no longer use bone meal or blood meal as I try to avoid animal by-products. Depending on the pH of your soil you may need to add lime if you use seed or blood meals. My soil is alkaline so I haven't thus far. I also occasionally use a very small amount of wood ash. I often mix all this stuff up in my cement mixer with water to make a damp mulch material and pile it until I'm ready to use it as mulch. Don't need to turn it and it heats a bit but I don't wait for it to fully decompose - it does that in the garden over a few months. I usually apply it twice a year, spring and fall. The worms seem to thrive on it.

If you aren't concerned about being organic you could buy straight nitrogen fertilizer to mix with it - keep it moist and mix a rough organic material in to keep it from compacting. I've sometimes picked yarrow and layered that as well as weeds and plant trimmings. The greater the variety of ingredients in compost the more likely it is that there will be many plant nutrients.

Since I live in a dry area a pile of straight sawdust will take decades, or longer, to break down. There are large piles in some areas in the back woods on old lumber mill sites that are still there, a bit discolored, but not decomposed. Nitrogen and moisture are required.

Here are some links on the subject:

http://www.ehow.com/how_4486379_recycle-sawdust-compost-pile.html

http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting-basics/using-sawdust-in-your-compost-pile.htm

The link below may help you figure out what to use and how much you will need to make compost using sawdust/shavings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost Mix Calculator

1) Can sawdust/shavings be used as the primary browns ingredient in the compost?

Yes.

3) From the research i've done it apears I will have to add nitrogen to the pile. ... Is this correct?

Yes.

"Since I live in a dry area a pile of straight sawdust will take decades, or longer, to break down. There are large piles in some areas in the back woods on old lumber mill sites that are still there, a bit discolored, but not decomposed. Nitrogen and moisture are required."

No argument that moisture is required...but I have a pile of thuja plicata that has been sitting five years untouched by me, looking like the day I chipped it. Under the surface is a different story. Lots of fungal activity.

Wood is hygroscopic and even in arid environs can't give up more than ~80% inherent moisture.

So have a look under the "skin" of those piles. True, lacking N there won't be the conversion to humus we desire in composting but an amendment none the less.

I use a lot of shavings in my compost, and as a result I must use more "greens" than usual. The larger the shavings, the longer they take to break down, and the more nitrogen/greens are needed to get the job done. I also have to keep my piles quite moist. I still end up sifting my compost to separate the finished stuff (all kitchen waste completely gone) from the only partially composted wood shavings. I use them as mulch. I probably need an even higher ratio of green to brown. Most books say 3/4 brown (carbon) to 1/4 green (nitrogen), but not with wood shavings as your brown. I probably need to go 50/50.

Used coffee grounds are a great green that you can usually find in large quantities for free. Try any local restaurant or market that sells brewed coffee. You could also hit up the local cafe for fruit and veggie waste. I hope you try that before buying a nitrogen source.

Good luck!

--Maureen

A University of Missouri site says to mix sawdust with poultry manure for composting. This is consistent with what I learned as a high school kid in FFA. Later as a graduate student I learned that for composting ammonium nitrate might be as good or better than poultry manure.

"...for composting ammonium nitrate might be as good or better than poultry manure."

Better. Raises issues about usage, carbon footprint, blah blah woof woof (to gardeners anyway).

Nobody thinks you're a potential terrorist using chicken $hit.