Does everyone have as big a problem with cut offs as I do? Almost never do I start a project that doesn’t result in many left overs that are too good to toss out. No matter how gnarly the board that passes through my planer each has a section here and there that can be cut out and saved for something useful. These pieces end up stacked under benches and leaning against the shop walls where they breed and multiply when I’m not looking. If things continue this way I will be forced to move my machines out in the rain which is not a good thing.
Any suggestions? Are there any charities out there making buggy whip racks or jewelry boxes for the homeless? Anybody willing to trade my oak and pine cut offs from some old dusty wenge, purple heart or ebony cut offs they might have lying around?
Three fingers
Replies
I was buried in cuttoffs from years of projects and a reluctance to toss anything that *might* be usable some day.
Then I built a wood-fired oven. Fresh bread every week. Pulled pork sammiches. Pizza. Fire-roasted peppers & onions.
Shop's never been so clean and I've never been so fat! ;-)
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mike,
If I ever get to Pittsburgh what time does the restaurant open?
Greg
"If I ever get to Pittsburgh what time does the restaurant open?"
About 2 minutes after the beer shows up. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Mike,
I like the beer and brownies.
Greg
"I like the beer and brownies."
You bring the beer, I'll bring the wood cutoffs and brownies. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
You bring the beer, I'll bring the wood cutoffs and brownies. ;-)
Mike, I don't want to brag, but my brownies are much better than yours for a hangover. Trust me ;)
Lee
"Mike, I don't want to brag, but my brownies are much better than yours for a hangover. Trust me ;)"
My guess is these ain't from the Betty Crocker recipe. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Alice is that you? Oh Alice!!! AZMO <!----><!----><!---->
-----------_o
---------_'-,>
-------(*)/ (*) http://www.EarthArtLandscape.com
Thats' the Pittsburgh I remember!Olde Frothingslosh, the beer with the head on the bottom! or was that The gallon of pale stale ale...Iron City... or was it Duquesne on Mary street.. orCheers
bb, I read the name iron city and I got a shiver down my back. It's on my never again list and I believe that there MUST be a 20 pound bag of brass washers at the bottom of the vat. Paddy
"Olde Frothingslosh, the beer with the head on the bottom!"
And brought to you by Rege Cordic.
If yer that old.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
I is. :)I think he was a classmate of my sister at Carnegie.
Check the authorized Rege Cordic, Cordic & Co and Olde Frothingslosh web site:http://cordic-and-co.com/
Edited 7/14/2008 9:22 am by boilerbay
One of my favorite Cordic gadgets was the "Rege Cordic Paint Bomb". You put it in a room, pull the pin, and beat a hasty exit. The thing explodes, leaving a fully painted room.
If only. ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
I think I did that once
...no, that was a stink bomb...Now if we could only get the shellac version!
Great idea but what about those pine cuts? They make pulled pork taste like turpentine. Besides, get too fat and you can't get close enough to your bench to do any work. Thanks. Three Fingers
"Great idea but what about those pine cuts? They make pulled pork taste like turpentine."
Ah, but not so in a wood oven (as opposed to a grill). To do pulled pork, you drink some beer while you heat up the oven for a couple of hours, drink some more beer while you cook and eat your dinner, and maybe some chocky chips or brownies for desert, drink some more beer while you let the fire go out except for a few coals, and then pop the pork butt in for an overnight visit -- 14 hrs. or so with the oven door sealed tight is just about right. You can sprinkle some hardwood sawdust (white oak works well) over the remaining coals for smoke for the first hour or two. The pork cooks from the retained heat in the masonry as the oven cools.
The pig just jumps off the bone the next morning. Much of it disappears somehow even before lunchtime. Modern science has yet to discover the reason for this "shrinkage" -- and I'm not tellin'! (But it helps a hangover.) ;-)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Great idea and Ya got a great sense of humor. ;-)
Ah, the blessing and curse of woodworkers.
I was really bad. (OK, still am, but I'm much better now. Thank you. View Image) After a project is complete. I start cleaning and sorting all the cutoffs. I save it all during because you never know when you're going to make a woodworking opportunity and need the same grain and color. At that point, I'm in a chucking mood so I hit the cutoff bins and start chucking. It's amazing how much you'll toss when you get in the mood. As for the ones that make past the chucking mode.
I use them for kid's projects. Birdhouses, cars, spaceships and the like. Since I don't have any of my own, I teach my nieces, nephews, friend and neighbor kids a little about woodworking and a lot about safety. And it doesn't matter if you mix woods because they are going to slather on paint anyway. BTW. Get Tempera paints. Easier to clean up. I sometimes spray coat the toy with Plasticcote if it's meant to hang around outdoors.
I use other cutoffs to make storage boxes in the shop or mockup/models of a design I'm thinking of. There also great to make door wedges (I made a bunch from scrap that looked like whimsical whales and gave them to people for Christmas) or practice carving, dovetails or a complicated joint. No, not that kind of joint. View Image
It's a never ending battle with cutoffs but think creatively and you'll find they aren't cutoffs but woodworking projects.
Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
Mr. fingers,
Might I suggest contacting Dr. Green. I understand he might be seeking fuel for his rocket stove. :-)
Failing that you must learn to distinguish between the male and female cutoffs and keep them separated. This is an undocumented part of woodworking that has caused the demise of many fellow woodworkers, not to mention the consumption of woodshops around the world.
Ima Knothead wrote a book called Caring for Your Cutoffs and Lataxe has a legion of wood fairies that may be of some help to you.
Eegads,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 7/11/2008 11:35 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Cutoffs. They are VALUABLE!
I even save sawdust.
I mix it with a binder and make my own MDF.
Wonderful stuff.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Mel,
Would you like mine?Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Chris,
Thanks anyway but I have more MDF than I need right now.Take a look at my new bowl in the Knots Gallery.
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Cutting boards.. Lots of them. Weddings, housewarmings, whatever.
What about gluing up some the hardwood scraps and making some mallets.(also known in my home as husband wackers)
I have the same problem and also needed an fix for my woodworking addiction that could be done on the fly. So, I started whittling spoons outta my scrap. Its a nice pastime and reduces my scrap to wood chips that my sister burns in her wood stove.
Roger
Zip,
To prevent my shop from being overrun with offcuts, I toss any scraps too small to likely find a use. Of course, I cannot part with my (larger-ish) scraps of exotics. I keep these for plugging holes and such. The key to keeping my shop relatively clear of offcuts is generously feeding the cardboard boxes I keep in my garage. I bring these boxes to the local wood recycling depot for a small fee.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
A wood burning stove in the shop solved my cut off problem. Anything 9 to 12 inches gets turned into a small cutting board.
McKay
P.S. Remember, it's all just firwood somewhere in the world.
Thanks for the great tips on using cut offs but after reviewing my old issues of FW last night I have decided to box up my cuts and Fed Ex them to Garrett Hack. that guy doesn't even generate sawdust much less cut offs! How does he do it? His expertise is so much greater than my wood butchery that I'm sure he will use them to make many beautiful and useful items. You are welcome, Mr. Hack.
Three criteria:
Length--long enough for planner?
Time--how long have they been sitting around?
Value--keep exotics forever
Jim
Make small boxes. Every piece of scrap looks like it could go into a small box.
I had a similar problem Zip. What can I do with all these oak and cherry offcuts that are about 8 to 16" long. I am now using them to make foot stools - - and using a rattan top. Sorry, I don't have a digital camera to show the results but it solved the off cut problem.
Just let a wood carver know you have cutoffs to spare.
David
I have a fire pit in the backyard. So I save my cut offs to burn in the fire pit. Hot dogs and marshmallows.
I'm with handyhands...I have a fire pit in the back yard. I hold
onto my cutoffs for a l o n g time - and
every two years I get the mood to purge.
Yesterday I put an old blade on my saw &
ripped a year's supply of kindling!Shop looks great & I can move around without tripping!Bill-http://www.franklinwoodwright.com
I have so much wood in my shop I can't move anymore. Unfortunately 95 percent of it is not high quality hardwood.
Here is a fun thing I made with scraps of pine, cedar, ??. I can do this kind of thing for the rest of my life without buying anymore wood.
Your fortune is made.
Nice "scraps".
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