What to do with scrap?!

I keep my small peices in a couple of boxes. They come in handy for trim and such.

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

Someone just posted a hanging storage area for small pieces, goes over his garage door so its dead space that is hard to use.

Heat the house … I used to give it to a friend that used it.

-- Odie, Confucius say, "He who laughs at one's self is BUTT of joke". http://woodstermangotwood.blogspot.com/ (my funny blog)

List them at Ebay, even those 5×2x3/4 has potential buyers

There was a Blog yesterday here, discussing about the way of helping other LJ’s that are having a hard time these days, even with small pieces of wood for turning or smalll projects.

-- Francisco Luna, San Francisco Bay Area.

I like to keep smaller pieces of select hardwood for use as pegs and such. Walnut would be a good contrasting color to a maple or other light wood. Pine and oak, more common woods go to my relatives houses for burning in the fire pit or chiminea.

-- Accept Nothing, Challenge Everything

I take a various paths with scraps. Small pieces of Plywood/MDF/Pine go out the door. Small pieces of Oak/Cherry goto a BBQ friend of mine and other non-oily type of Hardwood (really small pieces) goto the fireplace. As the value of the wood increases the smaller the piece I am willing to keep.

The next is storage. I am the guy with the storage hanging from the ceiling. You have to have somewhere to keep these pieces without tripping over them. So keep as much as you can within reason and value (to you). With this hanging storage and my big lumber storage rack on the wall I am still planning to build me one of these.

Now what really comes into play for me is how small is “small”. Above gives a good guide for myself. Say a 8”x8” piece of 1/2ply. Do I keep it or throw it? Well how much of this “stuff” do I have already? Most of the time the only thing these types of pieces are good for is backer boards for drilling/routing/clamp pads. The question is then do I have enough of this on hand already?

The other factor is how much do I have on hand, lets say red oak (I have a ton of shorts that are from 35” long to 12” long and from 13” wide to 5” wide). At this point of time anything that is a cutoff from an end of one of these the boards are considered junk (I have plenty on hand) and goes to the BBQ pile. Now lets take a ebony pen blank, I clean up before I cut this wood and I try to gather the sawdust up and put it into a 35mm film canister. Even a real small price of this can be turned into a decorative detail for a Greene & Greene style project. What it boils down to, is there are no easy answers but you do have to prune your stock back from time to time.

Hope this gives you something to chew on.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Too Small? If it gets stuck in the 1 1/2” shop vac hose- it’s a keeper!!

keeping it is easy, storing it is something else. Make sure you organize them well. ( at least in your head) so you don’t over do it. And make sure you have a wide range in there. If it’s full of pine then clean out the junk pieces.

When making a dutchman or other type of fit in piece this is where I go. Like sike says. You can use small pieces to contrast your work. Which becomes a little more special when you accent it with opposing colors.

-- Woodshop supplies at bulk discounts. www.getneds.com

once a year (about) i make up a batch of picture frames small boxes or small turned containers. i built a 24 inch cube, when that fills up with small scrap i go through it. 90 percent of these the loml gives as gifts

-- It's not a sickness, i can stop buying tools anytime.

btw if you ever turned pens, smaller scrap gets looked at. i saw one on line that was a 30 piece glue up.. way to much spare time

-- It's not a sickness, i can stop buying tools anytime.

I keep all my scraps to make pens with. Sort them out by species and store them in 5 gallon drywall buckets.
The buckets stack and don’t take up a lot of room.

-- Those that say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Perhaps I should get a lathe!? Thanks for the insight! Keep them comin’ if you think of any others.

-- Jeremy, Rochester, NY

heres a good project to use all those scraps

http://www.woodturningonline.com/Turning/Turning_content/Turn-a-Plate.pdf

-- BRODY. NSW AUSTRALIA -arguments with turnings are rarely productive-

How about boxing them up in asortments and sell them at a tage sale.at least you’ll get some cash for it. Or you could sell it to campers for kindling. —you should see the stuff they through in the dumpster at work. Needless to say, I have to stay away from that dumpster!

-- ART- WINSTED CT. Just Remember! If you walk a mile in another mans shoes ----your a mile away and you've got his shoes!

I’ve got a bunch of ends that I think would make a good set of blocks. Cut ‘em into regular shapes, offer ‘em on Freecycle…

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

Doll furniture?

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Lots of nic/nac shelves….

-- There is no such thing as scrap wood! Rastus NE www.nativelumber.net

Coasters with your company name an number burned on them to give to the local cafe/bar?

-- There is no such thing as scrap wood! Rastus NE www.nativelumber.net

I use mine to make toys for kids.

depends on the size, most of the time i use them as accents on other pieces. The cherry i will use in my smoker to smoke meat. it smells and tastes soooo much better than either hickory or mesquite. some pieces i will use on other projects, if i don’t have to match grain and color that closely.

-- Joey, Magee, Ms http://woodnwaresms.com

I let them build up until my Wife gets tired of (what she views as)clutter and takes it for her crafts.

Plywood and MDF goes in the dumpster. I use my hardwood scraps for inlay or various small projects. Lately, I have been making lots of bookmarks out of my scraps. They are normally 6” x 1.5” and sell very well at shows. Last weekend I sold 32 at $5 per. Anything smaller usually gets burned in my outdoor fireplace in the Fall.

-- I don't make mistakes, only design changes....www.dgmwoodworks.com

As I have been working towards becoming a semi-pro shop i am just reluctant to through away anything. You never know what small piece will be perfect for a job. Here is my solution.

Doug

-- Doug, Carrollton, TX. www.djswoodworks.com

I use the large plastic bids with hinged tops about every 3 months I make something from it give it to students or my high school woodshop.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

At this stage in my burgeoning and space-limited woodworking I’ve been scavenging scraps from a local custom furniture shop, and this stuff is like gold to me. I have a storage bin full of it under my bed, and when I need something to experiment with, it’s like my toy box. I guess the point is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, or something like that. :)

At the very least, think of all of the finish experimentation that you can do…

At the very most, try something that you wouldn’t try on stock that you bought for a project. I made my first shooting board last night, and some of these bits of scrap are going to make nice little trinket boxes some day.

Carve them! Or give them to a friendly woodcarver to use (probably someone who carves miniature, or at least smallish, items).

-- David A. P. -- Ars Arboris ("Art of the Tree") -- ArsArboris.com

Put them in various sized cardboard boxes, not sorting the pieces in any way shape manner or form, kick the boxes around the shop when they get in the way, say a few choice words, stack the boxes, pick up the scraps from the tipped over boxes and repeat.

It works for me. :-)

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Between pens, intarsia, and fan pulls etc we don’t know exactly what scrap is. If its big enough to go in the shop vac we’ll probably let it – unless…. its a really nice wood or I’m making glued up pen blanks

-- CaptnA - "When someone hurts you, write it in the sand so the winds of forgiveness will scatter the memory... "

Call your local high school and donate it -

-- rob

Put them in a box and put the box by the curb with a sign that says ‘free’. people will take anything if free.

-- Paul, La Center, Washington

I have trouble getting rid of scraps. I actually went through the scrap bin at school and brought home a lot of good cedar and ply scraps. We made a wallmount tv stand for the tv and stereo in the garage out of it.

When it comes to hardwood scraps I keep them in a box. I have been dinkin with small carvings so I use it for that. I collect wood more than I do anything with it right now. When I get time though those scraps will be turning into projects. Then again my dog occassionally raids my scrap box for wood to chew on. Since she gave up chewing on my shoes in exchange for a chance at some nice hard maple I am all for it. THough I did flip a bit when she tried to snag a piece of mahogany and then there was that piece of ebony…. Moral of the story that my family and now the dog has learned is “Don’t mess with the Mommas scrap wood”.

-- ~too many hobbies, not enough free time.

All great ideas! Thanks!

-- Jeremy, Rochester, NY

Segmented turnings?

-- Mike, American in Norway

Children's Toys!

-- Randy, Tupelo, MS ~ May I become more like the Master Carpenter every day.

you will soon realise that you simply can’t store all your scrap it can be cut and sold on ebay for pen turning I buy some from there and intarsia ask Alison she’s the real iontarsian expert here I think.Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Randy, that is awesome! I can really see my daughter playing with somthing like that some day! Thanks for shareing!

Maybe I should get a lathe then I can learn the art of turning pens!

By the way, this has got to be my favorite post! All great ideas!

-- Jeremy, Rochester, NY

I realy need to look at a pen lathe.

Half the stuff you guys call scrap is what I go out and buy to START a project. haha

Oh wait ….did I say buy????

My pallets are free!

Scrappy

-- Scrap Wood's the best...the projects are smaller, and so is the mess!

i sell it to the chinese and they turn it into those cheap ramen noodles!

-- Carving

I just made a jump rope for my daughter two days ago with some small scrap. I turned a couple handles on the lathe and bored them out, then made a “countersunk” larger area for the knot to fit in. Now what to do with the rest of the pile, I have no idea.

-- Dale Manning, Carthage, NY

I always wondered where those ramen noodles came from

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas

Ramen, though originated in China, is actually a Japanese dish (http://tinyurl.com/hjklt). Grandpaw could be selling his scrap to the wrong guy for the wrong reason!

-- The time I enjoy wasting is not time wasted

I use mine for various things. as well as having a burn session every so often. If they are long enough and wide enough I use them to make toys and games.

-- There is no such thing as a mistake. Its called a design modification Rick Kruse, Grand Rapids, MI

When I make my band saw boxes I start with either a large chunk or a laminated block of wood. In order to get to the rounded sweeping lines of the box, off come the corners. This leaves me with a bunch of little wedges (the outside corner with an arcing interior surface).

Since I use mostly exotics, the last thing I want to do is toss em or burn em. Here’s the idea. I trimmed up the wedges into stable triangles and installed a clock face on the angled or curved side. They became excellent desk top clock for co workers and friends.

One had such a broad curve that I left it rounded and, as well as the clock, I placed a wedge of pretty wood at the bottom that would support business cards. An odd use but it was better than throwing out a beautiful piece of burl wood.

-- Behind the Bark is a lot of Heartwood----Charles, Centennial, CO

When scraps become too small to be parts, they become wedges, plugs or splines. Sawdust (non aromatic or non oily) becomes compost. Aromatic sawdust gets covered and becomes dog beds. Fine sawdust mixed w/ glue becomes filler. What’s left gets thrown out with the filter.
Kimball