Replies

1. 
   Thorvald | Jan 24, 2009 05:06am | #1

   But will you still respect yourself in the morning? 

   I used to have the same problem, but in the old shop the scrap would begin to disappear into the woodstove come fall, and by Thanksgiving, the place was pretty well cleaned up.

   Verne

   If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to cut it up and make something with it . . . what a waste!

2. 
   gofigure57 | Jan 24, 2009 02:37pm | #2

       Maverick, I feel your pain.

                     Tom.

   
1. 
   oldusty | Jan 24, 2009 05:36pm | #5

     go , Have you talked to anybody about this yet ?

1. 
   gofigure57 | Jan 24, 2009 05:56pm | #6

     Dusty , it is to embarrassing.

               Tom.

1. 
   oldusty | Jan 24, 2009 06:08pm | #7

   Tom , notice I didn't show you mine ?

2. 
   bldrbill | Jan 24, 2009 06:24pm | #8

   Tom--I wouldn't call that scrap.  It all looks like good stuff to me. :)

1. 
   gofigure57 | Jan 25, 2009 01:07am | #10

      Bill,  you obviously think like me .  Every once in a while I become overwhelmed with the over abundance of cut offs , At that point I drag a bunch of what I think I do not want any more to the fire can.  The more I toss in the can the more painful it becomes, I have actually yanked stuff out of the can to relieve the pain. I then take the partially burned piece back into the shop and cut off the burnt part and stick it back in the pile.  I know I need help.

                             Tom.

3. 
   heartwould | Jan 24, 2009 04:25pm | #3

   Good for you!

   When My Young Bride and I moved into our present home in 1974, our neighbor to the South was a gentleman who had "reclaimed" lumber during the Depression.  He and his brother had dismantled houses and buildings for resale.  Emery had a nice little pile of scraps in his basement that he had always intended to use for clever little projects that never quite came about.  After Emery died, his son took all of those short pieces of cherry and oak and mahogany and black walnut and burned them.  As dry as those little treasures were, the fire didn't last very long.

4. 
   Jfrostjr | Jan 24, 2009 05:19pm | #4

   Some people save string. I could be worse.

   Frosty

   "I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922

1. 
   maverick | Jan 25, 2009 07:00pm | #14

   one time I was cleaning out a womans closet and I found a shoe box labeled "pieces of yarn too short to save"

   and I thought I was a packrat!

1. 
   Jfrostjr | Jan 25, 2009 07:43pm | #15

   That's a hoot! I burst out laughing when I read your post. Thanks for the lift.Frosty"I sometimes think we consider the good fortune of the early bird and overlook the bad fortune of the early worm." FDR - 1922

5. 
   Eef | Jan 25, 2009 12:36am | #9

   hey man,
   did the same thing this summer. got rid of EVERYTHING that i was pretending about. every tool that had a missing part, you know, the c-clamp that's missing the little pad, old files, electric tools that i told myself i would restore some day and all that scrap, crap, wood that i've been dragging around for years.
   afterwards i put all the junk out on the curb. within five minutes there were no less than ten guys pawing with disbelief through it all. one guy says to me "you're getting rid of this stuff?"
   i honestly felt purged, refreshed and i now know EVERYTHING what's in me shop.
   thanks for telling your story.
   eef

6. 
   KiddervilleAcres | Jan 25, 2009 03:41am | #11

   maverick,

   in every knook and cranny of my shop there are pieces of scrap plywood (usually too small) or lengths of hardwood (just not what I need)

   Ya mean that isn't the way it's supposed to be!?  Dang, in all this time I thought.......

   OK, sounds like a confessional in here so I have something to confess too:  I bring too much wood into me woodshop, you know like they say, "So it can acclimate".  Well I didn't know they meant a few days, not 6 months.  The boards lay on the assembly table and I havta move 'em a hundred times.

   By the way, whatcha got in that timber box?

   :-)

   Regards,

   Bob @ Kidderville Acres

   A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!

1. 
   maverick | Jan 25, 2009 06:57pm | #13

   looks like I hit a nerve here. when I did this for hobby I would kill for all this crap. now I'm making a living at it its a matter of practicallity, business decision y'know

   I gots a barrel ful of small mouldings around 5 feet in length, its gotta go..

   I already burned all the red oak, the QS white oak might be the only survivor since mama wants new mission style LR tables

   today I'm gonna burn all the maple. I hate working with maple anyway. nasty wood

   I gots cherry, black walnut, teak, poplar, etc.

   I gotta set a rule somewhere, like all keepers must be 6 ft x 3" to escape the firing squad. and plywood cutoffs gotta be 2' x 2'. no exceptions!

    

1. 
   hamelech | Jan 25, 2009 08:21pm | #16

   Hi, all,Here's food for thought.I'm a hobbyist drum maker, using stave construction. Snare drums are typically 4-6" tall, configured with 12, 16 or 20 staves, the staves being anywhere from 2.2-3.5" finished width. Another technique is segment construction, where polygon shaped rings are made, then stacked on each other in a running bond pattern, which builds up the drum shell's height.It's worth it to me to find a source of inexpensive wood, and buying someone's hardwood scraps came to mind. My thought was to finger joint the scraps into longer boards, which makes it way safer to run them through WW machines, just like dimensional lumber. It's a small matter to cross cut them back to individual pieces for drum building.Generally speaking, at what price would you sell your scraps? Would 25-50 cents a pound be a reasonable starting price? You get the scraps out of your shop, someone recycles the wood, and the tree gets used one more time.What thoughts to y'all have on price, or arranging to finger joint and sell "recycled" wood for fishing money?Cheers,Seth

7. 
   jpat | Jan 25, 2009 06:27pm | #12

   Hey Maverick,

   Sorry to say you are not alone .... ok ok maybe I am not sorry.                                 I think I am gonna make a poster out of your post and hang it in my shop... if i can find the room. I feel liberated just saying this.

   Good luck,

   John

8. 
   xirebos | Jan 25, 2009 09:35pm | #17

   You know I was just wondering the other day what the "Cutoff Bin" in the FWW shop looks like - especially since mine grows like a hot house flower!

   Seth's request for our scraps is an interesting (and greener) alternative to the bonfire concept. Hell, if you'd pay the postage, I'd send mine to you!

1. 
   hamelech | Jan 25, 2009 10:39pm | #18

   That's where the economics of scrap begin to break down. It's 10% to buy the scrap, it's 90% to transport it.E.g., if you shipped me 10 pounds of useful scrap, what's the UPS shipping cost? Let's suggest $20 (I really don't know what it is.) If we agreed on 50 cents per pound, my actual cost is $2.50 / lb. At what point does the price per pound equal the price per board foot at the lumber yard for solid planks? I'm thinking that to justify parcel shipping, the scrap purchase would need to be of a big quantity.Perhaps "second life" scrap works best on a regional basis, maybe executed with a wood version of Craig's List (Knots category?), where supplier and buyer connect. Three other thoughts. 1a) Would you local lumber yard be willing to pay 25-50 cents per pound, and they can sell it out of their scrap bin for $1 per pound? This puts the wood where more rummaging woodworkers could find it. Maybe laminate a few off-cuts to make pen / bowl blanks, etc. to goose the sell-back value. 2a) High schools and community colleges? 2) What sort of deal could you make with your local Woodcraft or Rockler franchise to sell them finger-jointed project lumber? I don't think the profit would be very much for either party, but the wood goes back into the system for a "second life".3) Finger-joint the offcuts for your use; time & materials probably aren't an issue if the material stays in your shop. You can veneer over the wood to hide the joints, or leave it nude. Maybe it's good for mock-ups or prototypes, then burn it.I've burned my scraps, too. I got tired of managing them in assorted orange 5 gallon buckets, it's just yet another source of termite food, and I figured since I already paid for the wood, it's mine to dispose of any way I want.Now that my woodworking has included drum making, I find that offcuts fit the requirements of stave and segment drum shell construction. The challenge is making the sourcing of scrap and offcuts work for both parties.Cheers,Seth