What to do with shorts and scraps?

[Rob Luter]

Like many, I have an abundance of short lengths of stock that are the result of cut offs and such. Most is decent wood and I can't bear to just burn it up. With the price of lumber these days I'd like to use it on something. Any suggestions for fun little projects that utilize smaller pieces of wood?

[Ron Citerone]

I glue it up into strips 3" wide and then plane it. When I have enough I glue them into cutting boards. At some point with too much and too short you gotta give it up.

[Grant Wilkinson]

+1 on cutting boards. I also use them for segmented bowls and "dizzy" bowls like this one.

interior_1_small.jpg

[Zachary Hoyt]

I use scraps down to a pretty small size (3/4"x1-1/8"x2" or so) and some thin strips for what I make. I keep a box in the shop for scraps that are too small for my use but too nice to burn in the boiler. Sometimes I pull a piece back out of there when I find I need a little piece for something, and when it gets full I take it upstairs and get a new box. When I have 3 or 4 boxes worth I put them on the Free section on Craigslist and someone always comes and is glad to have them. Often people say they can use some of the pieces and they know people who can use some of the others. When I started buying curly maple from Bell Forest Products I sold all my remaining small scraps of curly maple for $20 so that I could just use the new wood that matches. It took a few days to find a buyer who could use the short or flawed boards I had, but they were happy and so was I. It seems to me that it is good to utilize as much of the wood in a board as possible, even if it's not a money-making proposition.

[Rob Luter]

Good suggestions Zachary. I've thought about reaching out to a local craft guild or other collective that might use the small stuff. Some of the pieces are highly figured. They'd make good material for key fobs, letter openers, pen blanks, knife scales, earrings, and that sort of thing. Someone that does Marquetry could likely use this stuff too.

[Jim Becker]

I'm feeling really sad right now about this topic because I literally just had to "get rid of" 1200 lbs of excess material which included 90% of my "shorts" and cutoffs. The only things I kept were certain exotics and a few other odds and ends...all of which still has to go in storage for awhile until I get a new shop built. I don't like to throw good material out and have found over the years that all those various bits often come in handy...not just for "small projects" but in support of larger ones where one needs "bits" to complete or adjust or embellish. They became even more valuable when I got the CNC because the "flat shorts" were usable for a wide variety of personalized things as well as for utility like custom hold-down fixtures.

So the bright thing here is that I'm really happy that you're asking this question...good material is good material, no matter what the size...and it's far better to be used than head to recycling or the landfill.

[Thomas Wilson]

Whittling! As a kid I bought little cutoffs for carving. I was an idiot about how shops with wood stoves worked.

[Brian Tymchak]

Our local woodworking club cuts scraps into building blocks and donates them to the local Head Start programs.

[Randall J Cox]

What do I do with my off cuts? Right now I have 3 boxes on HF dollies and two 30 gallon barrels full (also on HF dollies) along with lots of other storage. Way too much, on wheels so I can keep moving it around to get it out of the way. Can't bear to get rid of it. Use it when I can. For my true scraps that aren't usable for anything else, take to my cabin and burn in my wood stove. Randy

[Mel Fulks]

Never worked in a commercial shop that did not have some kind of standard procedure for using up small pieces of good material. Some
would tell a helper to make boxes of a size that had always been a good seller. They were stacked in the office with a cardboard sign with the
price. If there is any sure seller made of wood it’s a box.

[Rod Sheridan]

Like many, I have an abundance of short lengths of stock that are the result of cut offs and such. Most is decent wood and I can't bear to just burn it up. With the price of lumber these days I'd like to use it on something. Any suggestions for fun little projects that utilize smaller pieces of wood?

Wood for smoking food if they're nice flavoured wood, or if cedar, make planked salmon.

regards, Rod.

[Rob Luter]

Wood for smoking food if they're nice flavoured wood, or if cedar, make planked salmon.

regards, Rod.

I have a big batch of cherry, but I live in the woods and have it growing wild. I have one about to come down that will cover me with smoking chunks for the rest of my life.

[Robert Hayward]

Will not offer any more suggestions but.... From the posts offering suggestions it seems woodworkers all suffer from wood scrap OCD. Me included.

[Andrew Seemann]

Two words: Wood Stove. I do have a 2' x 3' x 2' rolling cart I save useful sized scrap in, but that is the strict limit. The rest goes into the stove, fire pit, or maple sap evaporator. I'm fortunate that my pyromania just manages to offset my desire to need to hang on to pieces of wood.

[Rob Luter]

Will not offer any more suggestions but.... From the posts offering suggestions it seems woodworkers all suffer from wood scrap OCD. Me included.

Guilty as charged.