Saving wood

[Tony Pisano]

Back when I was a machinist, there was a pattern making shop upstairs in our building. They would throw all of their scrap wood into cardboard barrels and place them in the hallway outside the door for anyone to take. It was probably early eighties when I grabbed the cutouts pictured. There were about 40 of them, 8 inch diameter, 1/2" thick. I used some and glued them up to make parts for a hand drum. The rest got stored. This week, I've been going through my very crowded shop trying to make space. These discs were stacked up in a cabinet, so I took them out and have been cutting useable rectangles out of most of them. I figure I can put my new incra joint jig to use making some small drawers or boxes. The problem is the small curved left over pcs. Most are going into scrap bucket to add to the fire for boiling sap, but I look at some and think, maybe I should cut some little 1/2" × 3/4" or 1/2" square strips out of these. Does a piece of wood have to be thinner than the tablesaw blade before we can part with it? I guess it's the "someday" syndrome.

[Roger Feeley]

My dad saved every useful looking scrap and pretty much drowned in them. He wasn't a total hoarder but he would see a broken maple clothes hanger and see a potentially useful piece of wood. When he passed, my mother spent 3 months cleaning out all that crap with the help of me and my two brothers and her brother and various nieces and nephews.

When I built my present shop, I resolved to limit my wood storage. then the guy down the street gave me some nice mahogany... Sigh.

[Ron Citerone]

We all have the disease.............What limits me is lack of storage. Anything longer than 20" gets glued up into 3" strips for cutting boards. It really minimizes the waste and the guilt that goes with it. Plus having a few cutting boards around for gifts makes good friends out of casual friends. :)

[Greg Parrish]

Not sure how flat those are or what type of wood by my first though on quick look is they would make a cool glue up for bowl/vessel turning. :)

[Bill Dufour]

When my wife taught Head Start she always took a lot of small scraps like under 2" for the kids to glue together and make towers. Growing up my toy blocks were offcuts from a furniture factory.
Bill

[Jacob Reverb]

You sound like someone I'd have to watch like a hawk in my shop.

GET AWAY FROM MY STASH!!! :p I'm SAVING that stuff!

[scott vroom]

Unless I have an immediate need, all of my shorts/narrows end up in the wood stove, backyard fire ring, or campfire.

[Phil Mueller]

Good timing on this thread. Last week I said enough was enough. The finished side of our basement was looking like a lumber yard. I decided to make a 4’ wide by 6’ tall by 10” deep lumber rack. What wouldn’t fit on it, goes. Completed it on Sunday, stacked and wedged all I could in to it.

I now have the twisted, warped, checked pieces of garbage and boxes full of tiny little cut offs I’ve been saving for years ready for the fireplace. The good news is I can now easily see what I have, and my wife really enjoys a nice warm fire.

It pained me knowing right after I burn it, I’ll need one of those pieces. But, I’m dealing with it.

[John K Jordan]

Tony, I keep bins of pieces too small or oddly sized for me to use. I periodically offer them to local art teachers who let students express their creativity in new ways.

JKJ

[Andrew Joiner]

I store a red bin of scraps in one corner of the shop. After a shop tour once a buddy said " what's that in the red bin". I said those are scraps too small to save:)

[Nick Lazz]

I keep them in a bin which turns into a pile. I use some of it, but when the pile gets too big, I use it for kindling or just burn it.
Funny story, kind of... my dad used to have these big bins of nuts and bolts and we always dug in there to find parts when we needed them...when he passed I was going to keep those bins, but when I thought about it those bins never got any smaller for the 40 years I been messing with them.,,so I recycled them. Haven’t regretted it once.

[Tony Pisano]

The drum was basically just that, to make a tapered top section.

[Tony Pisano]

I've started trying to think along the lines of being practical. Last year I went through my screw drawers and pared things down and gave a bunch of boxes away. This year I'm trying to expand the idea. I don't do as much handyman work for others, so some drop cloths and roller handle were given away. I recently gave my son a spare woodworking vise, a bench vise and an extra drill press and vise I've had hanging around. I culled out all of tge mismatched, odd sockets and wrenches, and parted with some scrap steel and wire. It's starting to actually feel good to thin things out some.

[Andrew Seemann]

I found that it is easier to burn scrap if it is for boiling sap as well. That said, I had to fire up the wood stove in the shop this weekend, because I was drowning in offcuts. And sure enough I could have used a couple of them later in the day, meaning I was forced to take a couple cuts of the 500 odd board feet I have on the wood rack.

[Jacob Reverb]

If you find you're accumulating too many pieces of nice wood that are too small for anything, there's only one answer:

Get a lathe and glue up those pieces to make bowls! :D

[kent wardecke]

I know I'm going to need it but i try to clean out scraps regularly.
I keep nearly everything from a specific project. i use scraps for test cuts and setups. When the project is done i purge

[Jim Becker]

I keep stuff around and have actually benefitted from it. But I do need to cull some of the "small stuff" from time to time just to not have over-flowing bins. I also need to relocate the scraps and shorts bin upstairs to free up some more space. In my copious free time, of course.

[Steve Reich]

I wish there were some logic to this issue. Like most of you, I keep most stuff around---some is used for kindling (the really small or very thin), some is used for shims, some is used for test cuts, some is saved for some future unknown need, and some is pitched. Of course, the stuff that I need invariably falls into that last category. A few years ago, we had our bathroom redone, and I took off the solid ash drawer facing but threw out the very wide and flat drawers. And just yesterday I found myself looking for those drawers because I really was in need of a small piece of very flat, stable, and quality 1/2 inch plywood (which the drawers were made of). My wife (who saves everything) told me that I carelessly threw them out.

[Al Launier]

I have been telling myself for years that I have to clean out the small pieces of wood & bins of hardware. I keep telling myself that. Perhaps one day I'll listen to myself. In the meantime I'm happy.

[Jak Kelly]

Some small pieces can actually be beneficial here and there and can be challenging to get rid of! I recently grabbed a drop, about an 8" square with a split in it, cut off of the piece I was working on and used it as a backer to eliminate tear-out while routing the edges. So we all know the have their time, place and usefulness. Everyone is challenged with the task of what to save and what not to save. I try to keep mine minimal and be somewhat realistic about it and at times I might look at a piece that is boarder-line of actually being useful and realize that the piece has been boarder-line useful for over 6 months or longer, so I can it!!
The scrap lumber is just like anything else in your shop, including tools and fasteners; "If you cannot find it fast and effectively and put it to use, then it is not very useful"!
Years ago I placed shelving about 18" down from the ceiling in my garage, 2x10's, made a full perimeter ring around the shop. I use that to house old 5# coffee cans that are labeled, single stacked, so each can can be easily seen. I'm also a tall guy so the height is not a challenge for me usually. Items that require me to get a ladder to reach are items that are not used all that often. Which means putting the high use items in an easy to reach area. My experience is that deep shelves/shelving just allows you to pile and stack more crap up that cannot be seen or easily accessed, JMHO.

[christopher ding]

got a huge pile of scraps, cant bear to let any wood go lol

[Rick Potter]

Yesterday, I mentally slapped myself upside the head, when I realized I was reluctant to cut a 12" square of particle board into smaller pieces for a quickie one time use jig.

All hope for redemption is gone.

[Charles P. Wright]

I've come to the realization that space is more expensive than tools or wood. I have a 500 sq. ft. basement, it is not going to get bigger. For the last year and a half, I've had a pile of left over boards from my kitchen build just in the middle of the shop that I've had to work around. I spent the last few weeks cleaning up my scrap pile underneath the staircase (and building a rack in it's place); keeping what makes sense and cutting the rest down to burn or throw out [PT, MDF, stuff where I'm not confident that the fumes are safe]. Having enough space to actually complete a project without frustration is worth more than the replacement cost of scraps that (1) I don't know if I'll ever need, and (2) may never be able to find in an unorganized pile.

[Tony Pisano]

I did make this last week from some scrap hardwood flooring. One small step.

[Ben Zara]

When I find myself saying "I could use that one day for a drawer pull..." That's when I know it's time to start throwing the scrap out.

[Charles Lent]

I have 2 scroll saws and most of what I once called scrap now goes to projects made by the scroll saws. The scrap from them is collected by a friend to use as kindling for his fireplace. The pieces that he gets are small enough to pour. Construction grade plywood, particle board, and MDF are pretty much the only scrap that leaves my shop large enough that it can't be poured. All of the hardwood and cabinet grades of plywood become scroll saw projects before reaching the pouring stage.

Charley

[George Yetka]

When i'm between projects ill play in the scrap bin and let it tell me how to get rid of it. This method has kept me pretty limited on scrap pile size.

[Jerry Olexa]

I'm also a "pack rat" but periodically take the smaller stuff to the outdoor fire pit....A fire tends to cheer one up.:)

[John K Jordan]

... the outdoor fire pit....A fire tends to cheer one up.

I proces green logs and sections into turning blanks and dry them before use. This leaves me with a large quantity of leftovers - when I fill four 30 gallon metal cans I sacrifice the wood by fire to Hephaestus, the Greek god of woodturning. :) The sides of the stainless steel burn barrel behind the shop will glow orange when it's dark out, quite pleasant on a cool evening.

405311

I probably burned 300 lbs last week, cherry, walnut, oak, persimmon, holly, cedar, hard maple, osage orange, and anything else that grows around here. As space gets tight in my drying racks I tend to quit squaring and saving the smaller pieces, say under 1- 1/4" or so. If I knew someone who could use them I'd fill their car trunk with dry wood like this.

JKJ