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Help me with my board hoarding!

3K views 37 replies 32 participants last post by  BadJoints 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have a real problem discarding scraps.

I usually do a burn pile ever couple weeks and its like any piece of wood over 6" long I find myself looking at it wondering if I should toss it in. 9 times out of 10 I hold on to it.

So I have several bins full of cutoffs now and I don't seem to use much but I can't bring myself to get rid of it.

I've even caught myself saying "that would make a clamp pad".

Anyone else?
 
#2 ·
Yeah, I have a bin full of unusable pieces that I've convinced myself are usable. It finally got unmanageable, so I grabbed a couple 5 gallon pails recently, and started filling them up with the pieces that I've convinced myself I'll someday use, but never will. After I finish my current project, the pails are getting sent across the street to my neighbor who has a fire pit. Win/win situation. I did keep a small piece (maybe 10"x4" of 4/4) for random uses, like wedges or plugs.

I think the fact that my wife has recently increased my funding (because I'm solely doing projects for the house/family now) has helped me to part with the random scraps and odd-sized plywood pieces.
 
#8 ·
You can do a thick butchers block cutting board table. Use the various scrap pieces on the end grain, then leave a small hole for scraps to fall into the trash can. Use some long scraps for legs and then a scrap wood shelf on the bottom. Maybe put it on casters.
 
#11 · (Edited by Moderator)
You can do a thick butchers block cutting board table. Use the various scrap pieces on the end grain, then leave a small hole for scraps to fall into the trash can. Use some long scraps for legs and then a scrap wood shelf on the bottom. Maybe put it on casters.

- PhillipRCW
Yeah .. this is a good idea but, the problem is, when to get time to do this project. There will always be scraps accumulating so, when one plans to have time to tackle it, they can then start saving the scraps.

Otherwise, it's time to burn them. It's a mindset. Fortunately for me, I heat my house and shop with wood so I only have to store scraps for half a year.
 
#13 ·
I have 3 buckets of pine scraps, all several feet long. I use them but despite the fact I haven't bought a piece of pine in 10 years, they accumulate faster than than I can use them up. It's like loaves and fishes in there. Three times this year I've thrown out a wheelbarrow load of scraps. Plywood too.
 
#17 ·
I'm not just a scrapaholic, I bought a box of exotic cutoffs from Rockler. But only once. Really. Still have most of it, too. Now I've moved onto saving scraps of Baltic Birch left over from a production run of a project. Those I will use for clamp pads. I've got very little left after I cut a 4'X8' sheet of BB; it is mostly sawdust, since I can arbitrarily size the end product to efficiently use the sheet.
 
#24 · (Edited by Moderator)
I have been known to collect scrap wood, scrap iron, scrap machine parts, scrap tools, scrap electronic parts, scrap fasteners, scrap motors, scrap hardware, scrap machinery, and as the King of Siam used to say scrap etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I am a juncaholic

I had a great way for keeping up with it all. It was a foolproof alphabetical system. ;-| I filed everything under M for miscellaneous. ;-|

Do yourself a real big favor. Clean up your shop and don't collect scrap to the detriment of your woodworking. You'll enjoy your woodworking hobby a whole lot more. If you must collect scrap wood put it in a storage shed. You'll be a whole lot happier, will be prouder of your shop, will get more done, will work safer, and will do better quality work.

helluvawreck aka Charles
http://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com
 
#25 ·
When I first started out I would save thin strips to use as paint stirs. It took me a while to realize I didn't have to save them because I had a steady supply…

When I was young and had no money I saved everything. Now I've got the money to buy just about anything I want, but no place to stick it.
 
#26 ·
Must admit I keep way too many scraps. But I've turned most of them into little face grain cutting boards for the short scraps, and save the long scraps to make sushi/French bread boards and/or make them into chaotic end grain boards. I've got a bucket full now and they'll be made into boards in the next couple of weeks. I don't throw much away - I can almost always find a way to use scraps in cutting boards.
 
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