When do you consider a scrap to be useless?

[James Baker SD]

We all must end up with lots of scraps as we make projects. Today I am making a tea rack for the wife. After ripping a piece of Ash into 3-1/4" boards I have a long strip about 1/2" x 3/4" by 5'. After cutting the 3-1/4" boards into individual shelves, I have a piece about 6"x3/4"x3-1/4".

Obviously I would save a piece 3'x7" for later use, but for the small stuff, how do you decide what might be really useful for a later project, and what should go into the fire wood box?

James

[Michael Peet]

Man, I wish I knew. My scrap pile is totally out of control.

Mike

[Mark Engel]

That is a really good question. It is so hard to discard any piece of 'scrap' that may be usefull for something. But, to keep them all would require at least double the size of my shop for storage. At some point you just have to let go.

[Harold Burrell]

Man, I wish I knew. My scrap pile is totally out of control.

Mike

Hey, Mike...I see you are only a couple of hours from me. How about I come by and relieve you with that pile.

I just want to be a help...

:D

[Roger Feeley]

My dad used to save scrap and it overwhelmed him. He would look at a broken maple clothes hanger and say, "That's some good wood. It might be useful some day." When he died in '89, my mother got 5 of those plastic rolling dumpsters from the trash company. Her goal was to fill them every week and that was her way of pacing herself. This went on for 3 months. My two brothers and I helped when we could but all of us lived far away. After the 'scrap' was out of the way, she called us all in to take anything we wanted and there was a lot. Then she called an estate sale company. They spent two weeks marking items and the sale (after a 20% commission) netted my mom over 11K. Then she called Goodwill and they hauled off the rest.

All of that is a long winded way to say that I have no intention of leaving my wife with the mess that my mom dealt with. My dad was not a hoarder. He lived through the depression and saw a use for everything. It just went against the grain to throw things away. But in the end, he left his 75 year old wife with a herculean cleanup. For her, getting out of that house was a liberation. She moved to a small apartment in a retirement community and loved it.

[Sid Matheny]

As long as I have a place to store it I keep almost all my scraps. When I start tripping over them I may discard some until I find a new hiding place.

Sid

[Van Huskey]

I have the same problem many do, to me it isn't worthless until it looks more like dust than wood...

[Mark Engel]

I have the same problem many do, to me it isn't worthless until it looks more like dust than wood...

Dust + glue = MDF (well, almost)

[Myk Rian]

My real small pieces get in a grocery bag under the drill press. When that is full, out it goes.
Larger ones are sorted every few months, cut up, and tossed in the grocery bag.

[anthony wall]

as i use almost entirely reclaimed wood i don't consider anything as scrap until it gets in the way that is and as it is usually hardwood i give it to people in the village who cook on wood fires

[John A langley]

I use the 3 move rule. 4th move it goes in the dumpster.

[Bill Huber]

When I can pick it up with the shop vac....

[tim young]

I don't keep anything shorter than 12". It is more of a safety concern for me. I was taught, if it's shorter than 12", you should not run it through a planer. However, the wife has taken up making pens and now she is questioning some of what I burn or recycle. If I can make it into a pen blank, I'll do that. But I do it right away.

[Curt Putnam]

Plane shavings are scrap. So is dust from the saw. Cutoff from my last failed attempt at hand cut dovetails become smoker chips. If I have too many smoker chips I either sell them or give them away. Solid wood dust & shavings go into the green barrel which the town turns into mulch. Anything larger I save - might need some smaller shims. If I'm forced to chuck stuff that I would otherwise save, it goes into the green barrel

[Ira Matheny]

I generate several 4' x 4' x 2'-6" totes of firewood each year. Most is 12" scraps. My employees, friends, and neighbors know where I live, and come each fall to visit.

[frank shic]

i swear i'll recut, glue up and otherwise salvage all those pieces of poplar that i butchered while building my vanity cabinets one of these days...

[Steve Griffin]

"IF in doubt, throw it out"

(by "throw it out" I mean send it to the woodstove--nothing bigger than a thimble goes in the trash)

[Kyle Iwamoto]

What's scrap?

[John Coloccia]

I toss everything in my kindling bin. When I need a piece of "scrap" for something, I trudge through the bin, but I consider nearly everything scrap. Life's just too short to be wasting time chasing after little pieces of wood. If I salvage it before I burn it, great, but I just assume it's all scrap and worry about it later. It would probably make some people sick if they saw some of the wood I burn, including some incredibly figured pieces.

[Steve knight]

I only keep larger pieces of material and if it is cheap plywood it goes out.
My more interesting scrap I put against the building and people take it as art.
I go to toss and and people say can I have it? sure. I say. I don't have a lot of solid wood anymore I keep sign material scrap till it is not useful. Most of my scrap is from what is left of material customers provide.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/knighttoolworks/posting/58a7cce2.jpg

[Brian Jarnell]

What I do know, is that when I get rid of it, I always need, bugger.

[Michael Peet]

Hey, Mike...I see you are only a couple of hours from me. How about I come by and relieve you with that pile.

I just want to be a help...

:D

Haha, careful what you wish for...

229590

Mike

[Jim Matthews]

I was trained to pitch anything less than 10" in length.

In practice, I get rid of the skinny stuff, and keep the wide stuff. (I'll keep something 3/4 5x5 but ditch something 3/4 2x10.)
When the scrap is no longer square, it goes in the stove.

This has kept me from cutting myself, trying to manipulate smaller stock.

[Dave Lehnert]

I have a stack of wooden bins for scrap storage. Each bin is about 12"x12"x18" deep. ( A lot like wallpaper bins at the store) Each bin for the most part is dedicated to a species, MDF or Plywood etc... When that bin gets full, That is all I keep. If I have a good piece that wont fit, I will toss a less quality piece in the bin. Anything bigger than will fit in the bin goes to the lumber rack.
Not a perfect system but works well for me.

[scott spencer]

...When do you consider a scrap to be useless?....

When it has more appeal in the garbage can than in my workshop....

[phil harold]

Come spring when I only need a little wood to heat up the shop shorts are the fuel source

[scott vroom]

My shop is too small to keep any more than a few pieces for jigs/test setups, etc. All plywood scrap goes to the dump on a regular basis, all hardwood scrap goes to a couple of friends with wood stoves. I build cabinets primarily so any leftover pieces too small for cabinet making is scrap. If I'm building paint grade cabs I sometimes glue up narrows to make doors/drawer fronts.

[glenn bradley]

When it has more appeal in the garbage can than in my workshop....

Exactly. This is a recurring cycle, embrace it, don't agonize over it. Even "good" pieces of scrap have to go when they are in the way of me getting some work done. Anyone with a fire pit will appreciate your contributions.

[Neil Brooks]

I consider an offcut to be useless, when and if I've thrown it away.

To date, I don't remember that ever happening, though ;)

[scott spencer]

Exactly. This is a recurring cycle, embrace it, don't agonize over it. Even "good" pieces of scrap have to go when they are in the way of me getting some work done. Anyone with a fire pit will appreciate your contributions.


...but, with Murphy's Law fully implemented, the only scraps that I ever need to use are those I threw out!

[ray hampton]

...but, with Murphy's Law fully implemented, the only scraps that I ever need to use are those I threw out!
you threw out that special piece of wood that you cut to fit a certain project and now it's is in the garbage truck, [been there and done it ]

[Bruce Page]

I save most of to burn in the fireplace for our annual Christmas Day fire. I will save unusual stuff but eventually most of it gets burned.

[Leo Graywacz]

We all must end up with lots of scraps as we make projects. Today I am making a tea rack for the wife. After ripping a piece of Ash into 3-1/4" boards I have a long strip about 1/2" x 3/4" by 5'. After cutting the 3-1/4" boards into individual shelves, I have a piece about 6"x3/4"x3-1/4".

Obviously I would save a piece 3'x7" for later use, but for the small stuff, how do you decide what might be really useful for a later project, and what should go into the fire wood box?

James

The wood that I throw out would astound you. I don't have the space to hold onto it. I keep a lot of scrap (drop) on the side of my TS. But eventually that gets thrown away. I always miss that pile, but soon it grows out of control again.