Cut offs, what to do with it?

Looks like there are some good lengths in that pile. Maybe you should look into making a spattering of toys or small items.

-- He said wood...http://hickbyassociation.blogspot.com/

if you had a lathe you would know just what to do with all that scrap, start making segmented bowls.

-- Roper - Master of sawdust-

• cutting board
• small table
• carving
• jig material
• toys
• scroll-saw type things

That is what I make all my toys out of . I got a couple of pick up loads from a cabnet shop , beem working on the for about 3 years still got a lot left. lots of things in that pile .
Chuck

-- Chuck, wiswood2 www.wisconsinwoodchuck.com

Jigs and fixtures.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Make pens!

I’ve got a jewelry box in the queue that could easily make use of some of those pieces.

And the stuff I used for my cell phone charger cord organizer came from a pile that looked an awful lot like that.

-- Dan Lyke, Petaluma California, http://www.flutterby.net/User:DanLyke

make all sorts of stuff… be creative.. not wasteful

-- making sawdust....

Looks like a boat load of tooth picks.

-- My favorite piece is my last one, my best piece is my next one.

Kirk, It depends on what kind of wood you have. Do you have clamps I mean a lot of clamps. The longer pieces you can joint the edges and clamp them together and make a butcher block top for a workbench or something like that. But they need to be thick pieces. If there small pieces you could make kid puzzles, mind teasers. If you have a lathe then you could make chess pieces etc. But if you find that you put them in scrap bin and haven’t touched them in six months then burn them or throw them away. You could get you a wood burning stove or heater for your shop and then uses them in there.

I have a pile that looks like that too. Every once in a while I have to bite the bullet and clean house.
Looks like you need some smaller projects and / or a lot of glue.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/6915

-- A thing of beauty is a joy forever...

Hi Kirk,

I have several piles that look like that as well. Perhaps I am OCD with respect to cut offs but I only get rid of them under extreme duress. I don’t use them a great deal but every so often a project comes along whereby I need one a cutoff rather than slicing up a new board. This alone justifies, at least in my mind, keeping them all.

But you are right at some point you simply run out of room.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Wisewood2 has the rite idea. Trucks, cars, boats and animated pull toys!

All scraps

Lew

Or this,

Lew

Check out my projects on my homesite. I use nearly all drop-offs and “scrap” on small projects. There are several of them posted there.

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

that right thier my friend is pen turner nervana lmao

-- I buy tools so i can make more money,so ican buy more tools so I can work more, to make more money, so I can buy more tool, so I can work more

Fisher Wood Stove

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

What can I say….... I vote for the toys, One can never have too many toys.

Lew your articulated loader looks great.(even with-out the bucket) As does your thing-a-mi-gig, crank thing.

-- Brian's Table Top Toys http://home.mountaincable.net/~bgraham/

I see pens, bottle stoppers, parts for small boxes, and parts to laminate into bigger parts.

I try not to keep any scrap under 1 BF (softwoods),... hardwoods, if it’ll fit on the lathe, it’s a keeper.

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://blanchardcreative.etsy.com -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

either way—-better to have too much wood then not enough…but maybe invest in a better tape measure…LOL JUST KIDDING…My pile is pretty darn close…and have been thinking about the same thing…

CHESS BOARD…and Pieces…

-- Matt, Napa, CA...fun is beautiful...just trying to have some fun...

I toss the softwood. Just not much use for it. I keep the exotics seperated for drawer pulls, ornaments, and inaly. The domestics are great for glueups, marquetry, etc.

there is an outfit out of Brooklyn making and selling furniture (fairly expensive i might add) that is inspired from your very dilema.

http://www.scrapile.com

-- Fritz Oakland, Ca http://www.muegenburg.com (dedicated to my other hobby)

Time you started making boxes.

make toys out it. I use stuff like this i get from a local furniture factory for all my toys and small clocks. one mans trash is another mans gold.

-- chebeaguewoodbutcher

I see 8 cutting boards, 3 jewelry boxes, a birdcage, 2 birdhouses, 18 pens, and a duck.

-- so much wood, so little time. Bradford.

i just tend to find uses for them everywhere so keep them around. i did that about a month ago and had plenty of small scraps. in cleaning i got rid of them all and the next day i needed a scrap for a stop block. well all my scarps were on their way to the dump so i had to cut a perfectly good piece of wood just for a stop block. believe me you’ll find uses for them.

Cut it all into varying smaller blocks,arches, etc., then have some cub-scout troop or the like come in and help you sand and stain/paint it all. When you’re done, donate the building blocks to a local daycare, nursery, etc. Small children are always enthusiastic about playing with building blocks… besides, it might end up being the spark kernel that starts some child’s creative mind. I can’t count how many times I ever came home from work to find that all of my cut-offs and other such pieces and parts had been hauled out in the yard and put to some kind of imaginative play out in the backyard by any of my own six children and their friends that were ever over visiting while the Hens cackled over this and that. It’s the kind of thing that creates a “good” memory in children and helps bridge the gap between the ages. It’ll undoubtedly make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, too, and probably make you some points with your Lady, too.

-- Sometimes my wife wishes that she was a block of wood... ;-)

Funny I saw the pile and the first thing I thought of was a recent article in Dwell magazine regarding a company out of Brooklyn NY that utilizes scrap and glues them up in very linear forms and then creates great pieces of furniture (tables and benches) that showcase the pattern. I then read through the thread and saw Fritz also recommended the same company.

-- Brian, Folsom, CA http://www.brianfullerdesigns.com

lots of good ideas…i might use some of them…do i need written permission?...lol

Aaah… as a new woodworker, I look at a pile like that and drool… Free wood…

This seems like a perfect reason to get a lathe… “No, really, I need a new lathe so I can use up all this wood and make nice bowls…”

-- Ryno

Birdhouses?

-- Worry does not empty tomorrow of it's sorrow, it empties today of it's strength.

If you need some ideas, throw the wood out and I’m sure you will discover a million and one uses for it. Isn’t that the way it usually works.

-- Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didin't do then by the ones you did. - Mark Twain