Show us how you deal with cut offs

[Bob Glenn]

I am just finishing my new wood shop, and have most of the wall racks complete to store and display my tools. I have built a wood storage rack along side of the stairs coming up from the garage with four stantcions with protruding arms to house my longer stock. Other than stacking the ever increasing supply of short cut offs in the corner, I haven't come up with a good storage method where I can readily see what left overs I have to work with.

I remember in a school wood shop a two sided cabinet with shelves that had a diagonal divider thus providing shelving of various depths on both sides. However, the layout of my shop doesn't have room for another bench sized piece sitting in the middle of the floor.

Any ideas out there?

[Richard Kee]

I made one of these - fills up quickly but a great organizer.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/vv152/lilrichard2/ScrapSorter.jpg (http://s679.photobucket.com/user/lilrichard2/media/ScrapSorter.jpg.html)

Richard

[Don Buck]

Think you have cut offs? We fill a bin with cut offs several time a day, assign a couple of workers to hand stack into bundles and ship them in containers over to Asia for parquet flooring. Just couldn't resist...

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[Jim Koepke]

Usually when they start to get too deep winter rolls around and I have to decide which to keep and which to turn into firewood.

This year we bought two truckloads of alder mill ends for firewood. We pulled out a few good pieces to burn last if they do not get turned into something else.

jtk

[Adam Cruea]

Right now, they're in a pile in the corner of my basement like a horrific memory.

A huge pile of hickory horror.

[Jim Neeley]

Right now, they're in a pile in the corner of my basement like a horrific memory.

A huge pile of hickory horror.

Adam,

Ever consider a wood stove? <j/k> I know they're good scraps but there's something to be said for the satisfaction of getting even, isn't there? :-)

[glenn bradley]

I go vertical for cutoffs:

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Bins for shorts:

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Cubbies for "chunks":

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Sectioned bin for panels:

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[Jim Matthews]

Anything less than 10" long goes into my wood stove.

There's a semi-annual purge of stuff I save "just in case".
Oddly enough, I hate to throw out plywood.

Plywood is crazy expensive.

[george wilson]

You guys are so much ahead of my non efforts to deal with scraps. Fortunately,instrument makers have far less of it!

[Matthew N. Masail]

I have a deep wide drawer where all my small pieces go... the drawer has a gap on top so I don't need to open it to go through it. not organized but keeps them out of the way. still haven't build anything for real size scraps...

Now how about a wood room....? mmmmm:)

[Adam Cruea]

Adam,

Ever consider a wood stove? <j/k> I know they're good scraps but there's something to be said for the satisfaction of getting even, isn't there? :-)

There's a reason I keep pushing my wife to get our fireplace checked out and functional. ;)

[Chuck Nickerson]

Oddly enough, I hate to throw out plywood.


I hate throwing out plywood cut-offs because it is no fun to break a 6"x12" piece out of a 4'x8' sheet.

[David Weaver]

I keep mine in a trash bucket. It's less civilized than most of you guys, but I realized that after a while, I was keeping a lot of things that I never really was going to use and spending too much time thinking about the stuff. When it gets too full, then I just throw a whole bunch of it away, or use it to mix epoxy on, etc.

[Mel Fulks]

Well, I know that roll around thing works because in first grade we had one for our building blocks. I have some quality scraps that I bought long ago at sales held by families of deceased woodworkers ,they will probably be resold when I'm
gone. Some wood is too good to be used for anything, ordinary stuff can be used or tossed.

[Matt Meiser]

I've to a smallish (18x24-ish) tiered bin for wood and a huge (pallet sized bin on wheels) for plywood. I almost never actually use the small stuff I've got saved. On hardwoods, my new thinking is if its too small for the lumber rack, unless its something special, it goes. There's stuff in my cutoff bin that I move here 10 years ago--seriously. Sheet goods are a little more useful when small for shop projects I don't necessarily care about appearance on but under say 18x18 they aren't worth saving a lot of the time. When I'm done with my current project I plan to seriously reduce the amount of cutoffs I have. I want to put together a small sheet goods rack under my outfeed table (could hold maybe up to 2x3 pieces) and maybe get down to just the small bin. I've also got 2 55 gallon plastic drums. All the scrap goes in those. When they get full I burn them, give them to a neighbor to burn, or put a vague ad on CL offering them for free. More and more of my cutoffs are going directly there.

[Joe A Faulkner]

My shorts bin is similar in design to Glenn's "sectioned" bin. I have to confess to being a scrap hoarder. Every couple of years, in a moment of temporary sanity, I'll purge some of the lesser stuff. I have to admit, my shorts bin is not nearly as organized as Glenns and I have stuff overflowing in various spots - under the planer, behind the SCMS station - a small pile in a window sill. I think I'm due for a purge.

[Lornie McCullough]

I admit I am a hoarder. But I am trying to get better (grin!!) My cut-offs go into milk crates.... one crate for oak scraps, one for pine, one for alder, one for mahogany, one for cherry, etc.

I am trying very hard not to keep more scraps than will fit in the crates.

I need to clean my shop tomorrow!!!

Lornie

[Bob Glenn]

When I retired, I thought I would make only projects that would use up all my existing wood and cut offs. Unfortunately, like eating brussel sprouts, the more I chew, the more I have.

[Judson Green]

I save the tasty ones (cherry, apple/ crabapple, white oak, hickory, maple) for use in the grill. Cherry smoked brats... yummy.

Adam, that pipe of hickory could also be turned into deliciously smoked chicken.

[Jeff Duncan]

Some wood is too good to be used for anything, ordinary stuff can be used or tossed.


How true! I have a boards in the rack that've been there for years and have no expected use in the near future.....figured Bubinga, a 16"+ wide x 10'+ piece of purple heart, and on and on.

But to the question, I try to keep my scrap to a minimum. I used to keep just about anything big enough to be usable. Then I moved shops....I ended up filling a dumpster with scrap wood, sheet goods, plastics and metal! Now I have several places for stashing stuff that should be kept, most everything else gets tossed out. The stuff in my stash racks just never seems to move though. I have scraps of stuff that have moved with me for close to 2 decades now. But maybe someday I'll find a use for them:o

JeffD

[Gary Herrmann]

That's what lathes are for.

[Bruce Page]

I use a 5 step system.
Step 1. Place in/on wood rack for 12/18 months.
Step 2. Place in shop corner or 5gal buckets for 8/10 months.
Step 3. Place in fireplace until cold weather.
Step 4. Light fireplace.
Step 5. Repeat step 1.

[Bob Glenn]

I use a 5 step system.
Step 1. Place in/on wood rack for 12/18 months.
Step 2. Place in shop corner or 5gal buckets for 8/10 months.
Step 3. Place in fireplace until cold weather.
Step 4. Light fireplace.
Step 5. Repeat step 1.

Good one Bruce. I might add a step in there somewhere to go back when you really run low other fire wood.