Show Me Your Scrap Storage Solutions Please

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

I run a shop that builds and repairs large stringed instruments. We have loads of scrap wood all over the place--shorts, long and narrow pieces, wide pieces, sheet goods, etc. It's getting out of hand, and I'd love to see some pics of storage solutions before I set my helper loose on the problem. I should mention that I don't have a large area available for this--only about 4' wide, 2' deep and 6' high. Help!!!!

[Bob Riefer]

I don't have a pic right now, and it's really not very pretty anyways.. but effective... I had a bunch of carboard tubes of various width sitting around (the type used to pour concrete footers) and just banded them together and sat them behind my saw. I just group by length and drop scrap into one of the tubes.

[David Hostetler]

Can you rearrange things to squeeze an 8' storage rack in?
Check out The Wood Whisperer website for a good video / plans on a storage rack. You don't have to fully replicate his plan but it has some great ideas...

http://thewoodwhisperer.com/racking-my-brain/

[phil harold]

Wood stove works good for me!

[Tony Bilello]

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This is on 4 swivel wheels and is very light weight. The bottom is 1/4" MDF the sides and dividers are 1/4" Luan and the frame is 3/4" X 1 1/2" pine. The dividers are removable.
It was built from......well, scraps.

[Jim Beachler]

I have used several different solutions to solve the problem in my shop.
1. Differentiate by size, by keeping all boards above a minimum size. Anything smaller gets put into the pitch bin.
2. Differentiate by species, keeping higher value and moving out the common
3. Keep a certain size container. When it gets full and you want to save another, another has to leave.
4. Sell excess wood on Craigslist
5. Burn the rest or give to someone to burn.

[Phil Thien]

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Sometimes I even roast marshmallows.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Good responses, but perhaps I should elaborate. A lot of the pieces I need to save are small chunks. They need to be kept acclimated and dry. Anything I feel I can spare goes into the kindling box for the woodstove. I'm thinking of something like wire milk cartons for the chunks and a rack of some sort for the larger stuff. And a way to organize the whole thing.

[glenn bradley]

I have built three scrap bins. Each one was surely big enough . Small chuncks go here:

scrap storage 001.jpg

Larger here:

scrap storage 002.jpg

And still larger here with sheet goods behind:

scrap storage 003.jpg sheets-and-cutoffs-001.jpg

For smaller chunks I would consider drawers. I use small wooden trays that set in a large drawer for small bits of ebony, rosewood and other detail materials.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I have a shorts bin similar to Glenn's, mounted on casters. Very handy

[Jamie Buxton]

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The longer I work with wood, the more convinced I am that saving scraps only gets me overwhelmed with a glacier of useless scraps.

[Arnold E Schnitzer]

Yes this makes total sense. However, when patching stringed instruments, you always search for that piece with the most similar grain, figure and ring orientation, as well as color and luster. So even the most seemingly useless piece may be just what you need next month or next year. Glenn, I like what you posted above.

[Troy Turner]

for Phil's idea

[Brian Tymchak]

If I ever get around to building the MS bench, I'm going to have the base be open shelves on which I'll store plastic bins of small scrap. I bought the bins at the BORG (Sterilite brand IIRC). With the open shelves I'll be able to store different size bins for the volume of scrap I have. I have a lot of Ash since I finished the workbench, so I have 1 big bin and a smaller bin for that, and I have a little WO scrap so that gets a little bin stacked on top of another little bin for Walnut. Painters tape for labeling. Bins are movable, easy to pick up and take to the bench, etc. Nice and flexible for future needs... until I run out of shelf space...

[William Long]

I just designed the following for my shop. You could size as need. Casters are not shown but implied