What to do with cutoffs, etc

[Dave Sharpe]

I suspect this is a common problem, but the pictures of your shops posted here never seem to be overflowing with short pieces of wood left over from prior projects. I seem to always have piles of short cutoffs laying around the shop, stacked on shelves, etc. I have one area of the shop set aside for sheet goods, and can't seem to get rid of anything smaller than 12" square. As for lumber, I seem to be constitutionally unable to get rid of anything less than 2' long, or even shorter if it's a nice hardwood. I still have little 3" x 5" pieces of exotics like ebony laying around.
Maybe it's just that I'm a packrat, but how do you folks decide what to save for future use, and what to throw away or burn. (I do have a woodstove in the shop which helps with erasing mistakes:rolleyes: ) I don't do a lot of intarsia or marguetry so I don't really need all the little pieces but you never know.

Anyone have a "system" for making these tough choices?


Dave Sharpe
Whidbey Island, Washington

[Warren Clemans]

I seem to remember various threads on this topic, but it's a good one that bears repeating. My current uses mostly have to do with my kids:

-bird houses to build with the kids
-things for the kids to play with -- egg-beater drill, hammer, a few nails and a pile of off-cuts equals about 2 hours of entertainment.

I have a few small-ish pieces that I'm planning to make into small shop cabinets to hang chisels, files, screwdrives, etc.

In the meantime, it just piles up.

[Montgomery Scott]

I have a few boxes of small pieces of various species. Stuff like maple and birch usually get thrown into the fire in the winter, but the exotics tend to get used for box handles, trim, pens or given away to others who can use them.

[Cary Swoveland]

My only advice is to do a rough sort when you discard, by having different containers for different types of discards (e.g., exotic hardwoods, other hardwoods, softwood, plywood, etc.)

Cary

[Gary Herrmann]

Give them to turners - we can always make pens, knobs and other things from cutoffs. Thats where mine go. If you don't want to give them away, make up a box full and try selling it on the classified forum.

[Matt Meiser]

I periodically clean them out and use them for bon fires. Small pieces of exotics (which I rarely use) go in a box. Anything under 2" wide I pretty much throw away anymore. Usually each project generates more small stuff than I can use on that project by the time I break stuff down.

[Bill Huber]

I have 4 boxes, one for hardwood, softwood and plywood, one for exotics and the last one is for really little stuff.

When one gets full I go though and clean it out and only keep the best stuff. I don't worry about the width as much as the length, I can always you long skinny ones for inlays and things like that.

[Rick Gibson]

Being basically cheap I mean frugal I'll use the real small cut offs for earings like these. The grand daughters love them.

[Michael Pfau]

Dave last year I soo many cutoffs, I made about a dozen cutting boards for Christmas gifts, and the scrap I could not use I use to start fires in the fireplace. Try that!!

[Larry Fox]

Fireplace mostly with some pieces of exotics making it to a "gonna use it someday" box. Some pieces I just can't throw away or burn but the chance of my using them are almost 0%.

[Bill Wyko]

Segmented turning will get rid of a bunch of it but then you'll end up with more scrapps that are really small.:D

[Martin Shupe]

Slice them up into 3/4 by 3/4 by 6" pieces and offer them to someone helping out with the Freedom Pens Project.

Use the really small ones for starting fires on Boy Scout campouts.

[John Buzzurro]

I like to do these:

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejbuzzurr/woodworking/projects/miniclocks/miniclocks.jpg

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

My system is very sophisticated. I employ an archaeologically based filing system that used recursive energy flow back.

It works like this. There is this space off the right rear of my saw. Things tend to fall there. I let them pile up and gravity keeps the pieces of wood from floating off into space. Eventually, I can't stand it any more and then it's kindling.

An awful lot of the pieces get used in jugs fixtures and on little projects and bits.

[Rick Mellin]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/ramellin/a6310d8c.jpg?t=1191572345

Here is what I do with some of mine.

[Jim Kountz]

I have a box on wheels that I built for cutoffs. Its 3'x2'x2' w/a hinged lid. If it doesnt fit in the box it goes on the lumber rack. If it does fit in the box it stays there till I use it or the box becomes full. When the box is full I give the scraps to a disabled vet who lives near me and he burns it for his heat in the winter.

[Brian Weick]

As someone stated earlier - you can glue them together and do a segmented turning-:D
Brian

[Richard M. Wolfe]

I toss 'em......or at least try to make myself toss them. They pile up and get in the way. Well, I sez, I can use that. By the time I need "that" one of several things happens. The wood has aged and discolored enough or is different enough to start with that it can't be used, I can't find it, or I forget I have it and cut another piece, or the cutoff I find is a half inch too short or a quarter inch too narrow. Etc, etc.

I have a friend who got a brilliant idea to buy some large plastic tubs at Wal-Mart and organize by size or species so he'd know what was where. He did that three or four years ago and the tubs are taking up shop space and haven't been opened yet (his admission).

[John Ricci]

I try to use up even the smallest bits by taking the time every now and then to have a drillpress/bandsaw session and make tapered plugs for screw holes out of as many different species as I have on hand. I end up with a ready made stock of plugs and the sad little bits that are left find their way into the woodstove.

J.R.

[Keith Beck]

I like to do these:

http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejbuzzurr/woodworking/projects/miniclocks/miniclocks.jpg

John,

Those are a great idea! Can I ask where you get your clock insets?

Keith

[Mike Vermeil]

Being basically cheap I mean frugal I'll use the real small cut offs for earings like these. The grand daughters love them.

How do you get those things so smooth without sanding your fingernails off?

[Lee Schierer]

I make sets of blocks. http://www.home.earthlink.net/~us71na/blocks.jpg You can use Maple, cherry and walnut. Oak tends to splinter. You can also use scraps to make toys: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~us71na/helicopter1.jpg

My grandkids all love them. If you really want to drive someone crazy make whistles for the kids. Kids love em, parents hate em.:D

[Rick Gibson]

How do you get those things so smooth without sanding your fingernails off?

Belt sander with 220 grit, hot melt glue and a piece of dowel. The glue comes off pretty easily using my knife like a scraper, then a small touchup with some 220 grit by hand where the glue was. I hang a bunch of them on a wire and then a spray can of lacquer works great.

[Bill Wyko]

Now we all know that the minute you toss it, you're gonna need it.:(

[Al Killian]

My tiny timbers get used for scroll saw projects. What ever is left after that goes to my freinds house for feeding his wood stove.

[Rick Gibson]

My grandkids all love them. If you really want to drive someone crazy make whistles for the kids. Kids love em, parents hate em.

I could really use some whistle plans. I'll just tell my son it's payback time.:D

Be nice to your kids they get to choose your retirement home:)

[Jack Lemons]

Get yourself a good size plastic tub or trash can, 35-45 gallon preferably.
Place it near where you do all your cutting and toss your cutoffs in it. Later, when you need to build a small jig, need pads for your clamps or need to make a miriad of small parts for projects, the cutoff can should yield just what you need. Once a year I clean out my can but I rarely throw any of it away. Here in Texas it rarely gets cold enough for a woodstove so I don't burn it. Shame to have to burn good, expensive wood.

[Steve Clardy]

I keep what I think are usuable scraps, wood and ply, on several different shelves in different areas.

But after a while, those shelves overflow.
So I will stop once in a while and sort them again.
Those pieces go into plastic 55 gallon barrels, along with my already pitched cutoffs from the scms, radial arm saw, etc.
Winter time, I bring them in and use them to start my woodstove with.

There is no one around that I know of that I can give them too.
This area is real sparse on woodworkers.

[Jack Briggs]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/ramellin/a6310d8c.jpg?t=1191572345



Very nice, Rick!

[John Buzzurro]

John,

Those are a great idea! Can I ask where you get your clock insets?

Keith

Keith, I bought them from Klockit (http://www.klockit.com).

[Jim Becker]

I used to keep almost everything over a few inches. No longer...there is just too much. Solid stock that I don't feel to be particularly valuable for the future goes in the kindling bin (my original 33 gallon Oneida drum) and scrap manufactured material goes in the trash. The "size limit" is arbitrary and depends on the specifics of the stuff, but it's kept things workable for me.

[Jim Heffner]

Keith, I bought them from Klockit (http://www.klockit.com).

John, you might want to try this idea for clock parts ( especially for the free/ giveaway ones. Take a couple of 2AA batteries with you to the next yard sale/ flea market or thrift store. You can test any potential clocks you find and they sell them cheap there. You make up the wood base yourself and install a cheap clock in it and save some money to boot!

[Mickey Finn]

The clocks are a great idea. Rockler and Woodcraft have a boatload of insets in various styles to choose from.

I'm a noob, but since I've started (about three months ago) I've been working solely with exotics or otherwise non-big-box type of stuff... "in for a penny, in for a pound", right? (yeah, right, until you realize that template was on backwards... LOL)

What I've been doing is taking a 3x5 piece out of the scrap and finishing it on one side the same way I finished the piece that it was part of. On the other side of the piece, I use a fine point pen with indelible ink to jot down what the project was, the sanding protocol, the method of finishing (for that particular look) and any other curveballs to look out for that I ran into along the way while creating the piece.

Again, I'm a noob... Haven't yet had to refer to my massive library of THREE samples for guidance... :), but in the future, I think it'll be a good reference point to not only avoid issues, but to also replicate a finish... as well as to provide a base-point to think about how to tweak it so it's even better.

Whatever scrap is left beyond that, I'm currently stacking up and will probably sell as penblanks.

(note for you pen-makers out there... there may be some absolutely killer Birds-Eye Maple on your radar sometime soon. :D)

[Ron Hildreth]

I bought an electric branding iron from Rockler, that I burn my logo into scrap pieces, add a small chain, and I now have a key fob to give my prospective customers, or give along with any project I've finished for a customer. This works well as a finishing touch if the project has a door that locks!

Ron in Iowa

[Keith Beck]

Keith, I bought them from Klockit (http://www.klockit.com).

John,

Thanks for the info. Looks like their prices are much better than what I paid at Woodcraft.

keith

[glenn bradley]

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y105/ramellin/a6310d8c.jpg?t=1191572345

Here is what I do with some of mine.

Rick,

That is a really cool "basket/vase" piece.

[glenn bradley]

I have 4 boxes, one for hardwood, softwood and plywood, one for exotics and the last one is for really little stuff.

When one gets full I go though and clean it out and only keep the best stuff. I don't worry about the width as much as the length, I can always you long skinny ones for inlays and things like that.

I too built 4 stacking bins out of some discarded T1-11 ply and keep small pieces by catagory. Larger pieces go in "the bin". The bin can be built from one sheet of 3/4" MDF and I realize I don't have a picture handy. . . I'll post that later, sorry.

[Bill Keehn]

Waste not want not.

I use scrap plywood or MDF for fixtures and story sticks.

I use the long thin strips of hardwood that I rip off my boards when dimensioning my lumber as stiring sticks. I save the choice pieces for inlay trim.

If I have cutoffs with a fairly square cross section across the end, I put it on my turning stock shelf. I visualize what I'd like to do with them. Wide and short pieces are probably going to become bowls. Longer and narrower pieces, fancy tool handles. Short and Narrow pieces are destined to become pen blanks. Some pieces are destined to simply become sawdust as I practice turning.

I save short planks for making test cuts on the router and saw. I also like to use them to test out various finishes before I try it out on the finished work.

The other day my daughter's kindergarden teacher asked if I could make a flag holder for her classroom to hold a dozen or so little flags of the world she bought for the class. I took a piece of scrap mahogany that was 1"x2"x24" and drilled a series of evenly spaced holes. I beveled the edges and finished it with a little tung oil.

When I gave it to her that afternoon, I got as much satisfaction and as many kudos for that simple thing as for anything else I've done. My daughter was beaming proudly. I was very glad I saved that piece.

I routinely go through and pare down my scraps to what I think are the best pieces. Sometimes I square the ends and true up the faces. I limit myself to what fits in my scrap bin. So far its working.

[Lee Schierer]

I could really use some whistle plans.


Whistles are easy. I cut stock 3/4 square and bore a 1/2" hole down one end so it is 2-3" deep. The deeper the hole the lower the pitch. Then cut a notch in one side about 3/4-1" from the open end, 1/4-3/8" deep and then angled 45 degrees toward the closed end. Leave teh angled edge sharp. Then cut a length of dowel that is just long enough to go to the front edge of the notch to plug the hole. Plane off one side of the plug so there is a narrow flat area that aligns with the notch for air to go through. You can do some testing to see how much flat area to make on the side of the dowel to get the best sound. Once you have the sound you want glue the plug in place.

I've found that moisture will tend to dull the tone so a bit of shellac on the air passage surfaces might help. Whistles work again when they dry out.

P.S. For maximum effect, give them to your grand kids about 5 minutes before they pile in the car to go home.:D

[Paul O'Halloran]

I make toys for needy kids from cut-offs. See this site
Paul

http://pohallor.fp.execulink.com/toys1.htm

[Cary Swoveland]

That's incredible, Paul. Over the years you must have made thousands. That's a lot of happy kids. Good work.

Cary