Show Me Your Scrap Storage Solutions Please

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

I run a shop that builds and repairs large stringed instruments. We have loads of scrap wood all over the place--shorts, long and narrow pieces, wide pieces, sheet goods, etc. It's getting out of hand, and I'd love to see some pics of storage solutions before I set my helper loose on the problem. I should mention that I don't have a large area available for this--only about 4' wide, 2' deep and 6' high. Help!!!!

[Bob Riefer]

I don't have a pic right now, and it's really not very pretty anyways.. but effective... I had a bunch of carboard tubes of various width sitting around (the type used to pour concrete footers) and just banded them together and sat them behind my saw. I just group by length and drop scrap into one of the tubes.

[David Hostetler]

Can you rearrange things to squeeze an 8' storage rack in?
Check out The Wood Whisperer website for a good video / plans on a storage rack. You don't have to fully replicate his plan but it has some great ideas...

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/racking-my-brain/

[phil harold]

Wood stove works good for me!

[Tony Bilello]

194908194907

This is on 4 swivel wheels and is very light weight. The bottom is 1/4" MDF the sides and dividers are 1/4" Luan and the frame is 3/4" X 1 1/2" pine. The dividers are removable.
It was built from......well, scraps.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/misc/pencil.png

[Jim Beachler]

I have used several different solutions to solve the problem in my shop.
1. Differentiate by size, by keeping all boards above a minimum size. Anything smaller gets put into the pitch bin.
2. Differentiate by species, keeping higher value and moving out the common
3. Keep a certain size container. When it gets full and you want to save another, another has to leave.
4. Sell excess wood on Craigslist
5. Burn the rest or give to someone to burn.

[Phil Thien]

195023

Sometimes I even roast marshmallows.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Good responses, but perhaps I should elaborate. A lot of the pieces I need to save are small chunks. They need to be kept acclimated and dry. Anything I feel I can spare goes into the kindling box for the woodstove. I'm thinking of something like wire milk cartons for the chunks and a rack of some sort for the larger stuff. And a way to organize the whole thing.

[glenn bradley]

I have built three scrap bins. Each one was surely big enough :rolleyes:. Small chuncks go here:

195038

Larger here:

195036

And still larger here with sheet goods behind:

195037 195035

For smaller chunks I would consider drawers. I use small wooden trays that set in a large drawer for small bits of ebony, rosewood and other detail materials.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I have a shorts bin similar to Glenn's, mounted on casters. Very handy

[Jamie Buxton]

195048

The longer I work with wood, the more convinced I am that saving scraps only gets me overwhelmed with a glacier of useless scraps.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Yes this makes total sense. However, when patching stringed instruments, you always search for that piece with the most similar grain, figure and ring orientation, as well as color and luster. So even the most seemingly useless piece may be just what you need next month or next year. Glenn, I like what you posted above.

[Troy Turner]

:D for Phil's idea

[Brian Tymchak]

If I ever :( get around to building the MS bench, I'm going to have the base be open shelves on which I'll store plastic bins of small scrap. I bought the bins at the BORG (Sterilite brand IIRC). With the open shelves I'll be able to store different size bins for the volume of scrap I have. I have a lot of Ash since I finished the workbench, so I have 1 big bin and a smaller bin for that, and I have a little WO scrap so that gets a little bin stacked on top of another little bin for Walnut. Painters tape for labeling. Bins are movable, easy to pick up and take to the bench, etc. Nice and flexible for future needs... until I run out of shelf space...

[William Long]

I just designed the following for my shop. You could size as need. Casters are not shown but implied

[dave martini]

I built this little cart from scrap, the sides were an old solid core door I had laying around, cut it in half on the diagonal and sized the rest of the cart to fit the sides. The short slots are easy to reach into for the little stuff, the long slots are tall enough to hold an 8 foot board upright. I used really good casters so it's easy to push around and get out the way.
I'm trying to hold myself to this cart for everything but sheet goods, as my limit. Once the cart is full I throw away (burn) not so good scraps and replace them with better scraps.

[johnny means]

I've grown fond of my trash can also. Storing scraps is a terrible habit unless you really do use them, like a turner might. I liken scrap storage to shopping on credit. Invariably your debt grows faster than your ability to pay. Eventually all you can do is service the debt without shrinking it. Eventually, you find that scraps eat up more space and energy than actual project materials.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

I've grown fond of my trash can also. Storing scraps is a terrible habit unless you really do use them, like a turner might. I liken scrap storage to shopping on credit. Invariably your debt grows faster than your ability to pay. Eventually all you can do is service the debt without shrinking it. Eventually, you find that scraps eat up more space and energy than actual project materials.I guess you haven't read my follow-up post. :(

[Wayne Hendrix]

I guess you haven't read my follow-up post. :(

I think people rarely read anything other than the original post. How big are the scraps that you saving. If they are smaller you might try checking out penturners.org and searching for "storage". There are a lot of solutions there for storing and organizing lots of small pieces of wood.

[Jim Neeley]

Arnold,

I've "scavanged" a couple of old-style plastic milk crates for my smaller chunks of exotics. At about 16" a side they're fairly portable and, once mostly full, will hold boards up to about 2' long without dumping over. Taller than that will stand leaning.

It has the advantage that, when I'm looking for something specific, the crate is light enough to lift up atop a table rather than kneeling to search.

[johnny means]

I guess you haven't read my follow-up post. :(

Actually, I did read your follow up post, specifically the quote about "next month or next year". I would rather go buy that little piece next year than deal with it and a thousand others all year long. Also, odds are that, if its a species that I've worked in before, I still have a few boards in my racks.

One of my mentors once told me to think of it this way. On any given project you can expect about 20% waste. If you squirrel away just half of this as "usable" scraps after your first 1000 Bf you will have 100 bf of scraps. For me that would amount to over a thousand Bf of scraps in a year, which is obviously counter productive.

Now, I could say " I'll just keep the really good stuff". But come on now we're woodworkers, which by definition means we're all just one stressful event away from having our own episode of "Hoarders".

BTW, I wouldn't call most of what's in Glenn's photos scraps. Most of that I would call off-cuts, meaning the portion of a board I didn't use when I cut it down. Now storing off-cuts, now thats a different story:D

[Larry Fox]

195023

Sometimes I even roast marshmallows.

I either store them underfoot or piled up in a corner somewhere until it reaches critical mass and then I invoke the Phill Thien disposal method.

[Brian Kincaid]

LOL at Phil (fire) and Jamie (trashcan)!
I am with Jamie on the trashcan, but I admit I have at least 4 milkcrates of 'shorts'. Oak, walnut, cherry, BB ply.

-Brian

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

There are literally thousands of variations in grain and figure of woods used in stringed instruments. That is why patching scraps are saved. I've spent days looking for a small piece to patch a problem area of an instrument I'm working on. You can't go to a store and buy wood like this. It comes from Europe and various parts of North America, must be air-dried for years, and when you have a nice piece you don't need, you save it for future use. This is not like wood used in a cabinet shop. Anyway, lots of good storage solutions above, and I thank you guys for your input.

[Scott T Smith]

I often temporarily "store" scrap wood in this:

195806

About fifteen hours later, the scrapwood storage results in this:

195807

[Luc Vincent]

I have one 4ft. wall section of shop wall for plywood, siding, etc. Another 6ft. section has stick lumber, trim and pipe. Two barrels house the stick scraps that are between 2-4ft long. I have two heavy duty extra-large rubbermaid tote bins on roller dollies that house the 6 inch to 2ft scraps. Barrels and bins sit in front of the plywood and can be rolled out of the way for access. And finally a heavy cardboard box under my bench for any scraps under 6 inches.

[Anthony Oneli]

Burn them, or find someone else who could burn them. I agree, it becomes overwhelming to deal with too much scrap, almost to the point of taking away from my work. Too much clutter clouds the mind.