Vertical lumber storage guys, what do you do with your shorts?

[Jim Andrew]

I'm moving into my new storage room, have an area designated for the steel rack I use for flat plywood storage, and other area planned for vertical lumber storage area, I put up a rack at 9' high, and put my long lumber in it, and found a great many pieces shorter, so put an area of 6' storage, filled it, and found many left over, so put a rack at 5', filled it, and now am finding a great number of 2 to 4' pieces. Already finding my wall space limited. Have to have space for the cyclone, moving my air compressor in there, so need space for it, and the attic door is in there, as I have to have access to the dust piping, wiring etc, hate to build a rack for shorts and put it out in the center of the room as that will limit my access to everything else. This room finished off at 14'3" x 25'. Had great hopes for getting my clutter under control. What do you do with your shorts? There are many usable pieces, not just firewood.

[andy photenas]

well seems same problem i have in the end all i can do is try to put a priority on things as far as how much it costs me every day to have it in my way over the chance of using it. At -8 F this morning its looking like firewood to me!
There is no perfect answer to this one i think very hard problem for me tbh.

[Sam Murdoch]

Attach sections of sona tubes or pvc to the sides of the horizontal plywood rack. 3 or 4 or 6 of these in the 4" to 6" dia. range can hold a lot of cut offs without taking up too much more space. Another option is to build a box with sloped sides - say from 3" tall to 2' tall at the front. Divide this up with a criss cross frame at the top and middle with sections that favor the typical dimensions of your cut offs. This box can be on casters.

Having said that - this is a chronic problem in most shops. I myself am not so organized these days. I just have a 30" tall card board barrell that the cut offs go into and a metal bin next to the wood stove for the less desirable. Some of the cut offs that go to the wood stove bin sometimes get spared and make it into a piece but then other times...

Happy New Year!

[John TenEyck]

I try to wash them at least once a week.

Seriously, there's no good answer. Anyone who works much wood is constantly faced with beautiful cutoffs that are just too nice to burn, but at some point there are so many of them that something has to give. I've gotten a lot more ruthless about burning anything short that isn't "perfect" which, of course, is subjective and the definition of which is subject to change with my whims. I turn some of them into loose tenon stock, 1/4" and 1/2" thick as those are the two I use most. I've given really nice shorts away to some of my wood working friends who use them for craft projects. Maple and cherry shorts I often turn into simple cutting boards and other novelties that I give away to friends and customers as a thank you for their business. That is always well received and costs almost nothing. In the end, I still burn a lot of them.

John

[Ole Anderson]

Third drawer down in the dresser. OH, those shorts! Really short shorts go in the kindling pile, possible future use shorts go in a suspended vertical storage rack after I got tired of tripping over them stacked randomly against a wall. Oh, and some really old shorts go in an old bookcase under my MS station.

[Doug Herzberg]

Jim, I did a room like yours and had a similar problem. I started putting the shorts in plywood and cardboard boxes in various unused spots (on top of my refrigerator kiln, under a tool) and even on mover's dollies to wheel out of the way. I have more shorts in and on top of used kitchen cabinets in the barn, next to my rough sawn lumber. They're taking over. I'm going to go through and sort by species and size, cull the obvious firewood and otherwise get organized. Maybe next week.

I'm really responding because I was warned by Harry Robinette not to put my compressor in the same room as the DC. The fine dust gets into the pump and causes excessive wear. I took it to heart and didn't bother moving the DC into that room. I put my lathe there instead so the shavings it generates don't clutter up the rest of the shop. Of course the noise of the compressor drives me nuts when I'm turning on the lathe. I am planning to build separate rooms for the compressor and the DC with noise insulation and cooling vents as necessary and otherwise get organized. Maybe next week.

[glenn bradley]

I have long and heavy lumber stored vertically. Lighter stuff that I can handle safely goes on the horizontal rack. Shorts are stored much as Ole shows. Mine are in a stepped bin, here:

278700

Stackable modules, here:

278702

and bins under the outfeed, here:

278701

[Jay Rasmussen]

Sorry to say but somewhere around the 15 year mark of my 25 years of home just for fun wood working and furniture building my countless attempts to save, store & use shorts I decided the best place for most of these is the fire place.

[John Downey]

I lucked into a niche where I use them up :D

Before that though, I rarely saved them unless they were of an unusual species or nicely figured. A couple years in a production shop convinced me that most projects make shorts far faster than they can get used up.

[Brian W Smith]

Grew up in the biz.....we had two identical shops.Both right at 2k sq ftg.They each had loading docks,shotgun style.One was strictly equip(cabinet/millshop),the other was for materials.Nowadays,I just don't want the inventory.So have made real progress in having products that utilize "drops".It took maybe 5 or so years to get fully entrenched,but does pay off.Get on your drawing bd(we're still using a small drafting table)and come up with some quick/fast/easy "items".Then either sell them or give them away.......

Our "shorts" would make maybe,one big wheelbarrow load.

[Keith Hankins]

I simply lean them against the wall of the shop. Real short pieces go into barrels. I heat with wood so I tap those for kindling but don't use nearly all. I tell ya though, I don't know how many times, I've went to the wall or the barrel to get a small piece that was needed to finish a piece or project without needing to get a full board to cut down.

[joe myer]

Arranging a storage space which can accommodate all our storage needs which incorporates safety and security features is one great task. Storage space is so very important inn any shop which can make their working smooth and steady. I had this problem of storing some of my expensive shop belongings and On temporary basics I preferred to store my items with storage units in Toronto till I managed to arrange a self storage facility of my own. Climate control along with theft and fire monitoring system would be best if we intend to go for availing help of self storage services. Arranging a storage space which can accommodate all our storage needs which incorporates safety and security features is one great task. Storage space is so very important inn any shop which can make their working smooth and steady. I had this problem of storing some of my expensive shop belongings and On temporary basics I preferred to store my items with storage units in Toronto (http://www.securitystorage.ca/services/) till I managed to arrange a self storage facility of my own. Climate control along with theft and fire monitoring system would be best if we intend to go for availing help of self storage services. ll

[scott vroom]

I'm moving into my new storage room, have an area designated for the steel rack I use for flat plywood storage, and other area planned for vertical lumber storage area, I put up a rack at 9' high, and put my long lumber in it, and found a great many pieces shorter, so put an area of 6' storage, filled it, and found many left over, so put a rack at 5', filled it, and now am finding a great number of 2 to 4' pieces. Already finding my wall space limited. Have to have space for the cyclone, moving my air compressor in there, so need space for it, and the attic door is in there, as I have to have access to the dust piping, wiring etc, hate to build a rack for shorts and put it out in the center of the room as that will limit my access to everything else. This room finished off at 14'3" x 25'. Had great hopes for getting my clutter under control. What do you do with your shorts? There are many usable pieces, not just firewood.

My shorts are piled in a large box on the floor....when it starts to overflow I begin burning it.

[Frank Drew]

Anyone who works much wood is constantly faced with beautiful cutoffs that are just too nice to burn, but at some point there are so many of them that something has to give.

What John said; some smaller pieces of wood are just so nice, and would make that perfect drawer front, or whatever, but if that project never comes up the resulting offcut clutter from all those other jobs can seriously impede your working conditions. DAMHIK.

I couldn't even give the stuff away to a local high school shop teacher, and I'm talking nice stuff, walnut, mahogany, ash, etc..

[Mel Fulks]

Brian has the solution. Used to be standard practice to think of a way to use the stuff . Now most save it until there is no space to work ....then throw it all away. I have also seen management demand it all be kept then hire a "manager" who on his first day demands "that mess be thrown out",and is immediately declared a genius of organization by owner.

[Mark Blatter]

I find that flat stock shorts are the ones that pile up the most and fastest. I hate throwing away a 7" x 18" piece of BB or a nice ply. I also don't burn any sheet goods as I worry about the glues and other chemical add-ins from when they are fabricated. And yes, at some point you just start yelling and throw it all away. I used to have a customer that generated off cuts that were 48" x 42" of 3/4" maple melamine. I tried for a long time to come up with a way to use it, but just couldn't. I was throwing away a full dumpster 1 - 2 times a week with the off cuts.

[Prashun Patel]

After collecting too many shorts, I now rough mill them into something before storage:

cuttingboard blanks
table legs
tool handles (I have too many of these now...)
drawer fronts or internal drawer parts.

Keeping them to uniform size/purpose makes them easier to store.

With a heavy heart, I now toss all other cut offs or mulch them with the bandsaw for my smoker or fire pit.

Ironically, I now keep more maple and poplar cutoffs than anything more exotic.

[Kelby Van Patten]

I have a great use for all those shorts. I use them to clutter up my shop until I get so sick of the lack of usable space in my shop that I throw them all away, and then I start all over.