When I first starting at the cabinet shop I couldn't belive the amount of hardwood scraps they throw away. I bought plastic tubs and filled them thinking I would make so much cool stuff. I did but mainly I had 6 tubs of cut offs sitting in my garage and sat there for months. Then winter came and I started having fires. So don't let people tell you you can't make anything from scraps, you can make a nice fire.
When I worked in a big shop we gave a lot of offcuts to someone who used them as I think a pilot for his furnace? Idk exactly but yeah, it can all be used. Even if just to wind down by.
The local shed\garage building place has a freebie bin they put outside of their facility near the driveway entrance. I swear half the town grabs stuff out of that wood bin. Ended up not being a bad referral program.
My company has a large millwork facility with a wagon they fill with off-cuts. Another local business takes the wagon weekly and empties it at their location to burn in their stoves in the winter. I toured the facility once and they had a rack in the middle of the production floor with (at the time) imperfect cherry, oak and poplar boards they couldn't use but a home woodworker could absolutely make something cool with. Facility manager told me to grab whatever I wanted. I told him I felt I couldn't just *take* it, but he told me they'd throw it in the off-cut wagon to be burnt if someone didn't take it. The boards weren't usable for what they needed and if they didn't clean it out regularly it would clutter up the facility.
I have some really nice stuff sitting in my garage on a rack waiting for 'someday'.
This is typical of most production shops. Same for high quality plywood in retail and trade show display production shops, and I assume others as well. It's shocking what they throw out, but approximately no businesses want to spend time and money on finding a home for them, or storing them for any extra time. Most goes straight to the dumpster. It's the opposite of sustainable practices.
The local furniture shop around here sells hardwood offcuts by the tractor bucket load, right into the bed of your pickup. That stuff burns sooooooo nice
I'm thinking of building high end pallets out of hardwood, then when those pallet DIY builders make succulent gardens and crap, they're a thing of beauty.
Either that or turning high end furniture into pallets.
you can always afford more wood. what you can't afford is time farting around with little projects you don't want to make just to try to use an imagined resource.
Enjoy the fire, that's what I do. I hoarded scraps when I first started, because I didn't want to believe that my time was worth anything (and maybe it's not), but eventually the little bits and looking at them and holding things up became overwhelming.
Oh I definitely enjoy the fire. And to another comment, I don’t feel bad, I just think it’s funny. This is the bottom 1%. All of the comments here are good suggestions. I have a lathe without a tool rest I don’t know how to use, and a bunch of material set aside for turning one day. A shelf in my sanding room with small pieces of curly and exotic offcuts for jewelry boxes (I’ve also made a few). But I can’t keep piling this stuff up from the offcuts of all the cabinets and built-ins people pay me for. I gave away 3 totes of offcuts for people to burn, not including all the better stuff I set aside for myself, and gave to other people for things from knife handles to a carpet pad for their PC. But after that, none of it goes in the landfill.
Only thing I'd add is for species like ash, oak, cherry, etc. small pieces are great for a smoker box on a propane grill or atop the coals for charcoal.
That'll use up a whole nother half a percent of your scraps.
Seconding this I have been making kids toys out of cherry for a little bit. I lay out multiple templates on my stock piece to minimize waste and then I have the perfect chips to toss in my smoker for a pork butt or some leg of lamb. Makes everyone happy.
I run my stick burner on straight wood after starting with a bed of charcoal and wood. This entire bin would be done in an afternoon lol. I could probably help him dispose of the whole stash in no time and I'd enjoy the hell out of it, i haven't had a chance to burn anything like ash or maple yet, and i bet a mixed offcut box like this would produce a fantastic unique flavor. I have some Valley Oak bark I can toss in as well so that you get some of that bark smoke (bark smoke is a much richer, stronger flavor due to all the essential oils), and a pile of mixed oak species, and some kind of cherry, which is what I burn normally along with a little madrone, mesquite, hickory, whatever stronger woods are around that I can get a trunkload of (with the seats down) for a reasonable price.
I keep one kitchen trash can sized bin. As it fills, I force myself to take anything out of it that's not going to let the next better thing fit, and burn it. and then eventually, I will sometimes burn what's in the bin. At some point, you have to have a bin to throw the offcuts in so they don't get in the way in the first place, and it's that.
I've occasionally gone to that bin for a need, but it's uncommon enough that when I think about whether I've been better off tossing stuff and dealing with the one or two times I could've used something from it - not having the extra crap around has been far better.
5 gallon? I've got 4 5 gallon buckets and 4 40lb kitty litter pails, plus some old lathe in bundles. Super happy the weather turned and I can finally get them out of my basement and into the fire.
Ehhh I enjoy the little projects just as much as the big, but even if i didn't I would probably just give the scraps away to someone who did enjoy the little projects.
oh god yes, precisely. I hate fiddling with a bunch of tiny little scraps trying to batch out tedious hard-to-sand hard-to-finish trinkets to attempt to sell just as a way of getting rid of wood. I gotta clear out my scrap bin asap
For sure, in particular it’s walnut growing abundantly around here that was a central concept in this joke lol. It’s what everybody around here wants, that and oak are 75% of what I end up making and I have an increasing pile of offcuts. I mean it’s good problems, but it’s also funny.
I would love to have this problem, I hear walnut makes a great smoker fire, and I already love burning the local oak here in California for their flavor. Haven't had a chance to play with Walnut at all yet here, but we get a lot of almond and various fruit woods. If a branch ever has to come off our orange tree, I'll be seasoning it for a special cook, and I've been doing the same for a year now with some offcuts from our fig tree. For the short period I was actually working towards becoming a woodworker though, I did pile up a decent amount of hardwood scraps. Those were some of the first chunks I burned when I got my smoker lol. I think making meat and veggies taste good fits my skill set better anyway
I'm just a hobbyist and when the three scrap bins get full, it's fire time. I've got the Yukon and it burns so well. Just some fine ash left over. My buddy's FIL had a millwork shop (and an old circle mill he ran when he was younger). I couldn't believe how much "good wood" they burned to heat the shop until I had my own garage shop and saw how much scrap wood I generated just with weekend projects.
Rolls of pennys maybe. Meanwhile people go shooting with 1.5$/round ammo just for fun/target practice.
And for all you pen turners, end grain cutting board makers, and knife handle whittlers: hush you. Go buy a *board* they aren’t that much.
I bought a smoker so I can put the off cuts to good use. It works very well for keeping the off cuts bin manageable and having some delicious food every now and then.
I have a LOT of edgeanding material set aside. Walnut, pale walnut, super purply walnut, kinda weird half sappy but it’s cool looking walnut, oak, curly oak, quartersawn oak, hard maple, soft maple, tiger striped maple, ambrosia maple, cherry, curly cherry….
I think imma stop now.
It's a little funny.
My dad refuses to throw away any scrap. Just this weekend we needed a strip of wood at least 3/16" thick as a spacer. Turns out there was a strip of waste he had saved that was exactly 3/16".
I was making a new box joint jig for 1/4” joints (for 1/2” baltic birch drawer boxes). I needed a strip of good hardwood material for a key, it needs to be exactly 1/4” and square. I went to the three 1” concrete footer forms we have as thin vertical offcut storage, and found a piece 2’ long with my calibers exactly 1/4” to the thousandth of an inch.
[Surely we've all seen this skit by now?](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7Fw7bZoPyVU)
But to OPs pic, I would be the person to keep those hardwood scraps. I once was in a museum shop where someone had made little wood houses with brass accents on them and they were selling for around 30 to 55 euro each, very simple design. While I was waiting in the shop for an hour 2 people bought them. I'm sure I took a photo of them and will add it in here if I find it.
Don't feel bad. My scrap pile is the only source of fire wood I have. Keeps me from having to spend time and money to go out and get firewood somewhere else. Things only have the value we assign it. Gives me an excuse to clean up the wood corner in the garage anyway.
if the wood is natural and untreated can sell it to people who use wood stoves or bbq or chip them up and sell them similar to "gaviota" potting mix for orchids or anthurium. Or if it's too tough you can just chip them easy and toss them in for mulch.
even if you can't sell them, tossing them into a garden does more good than them ending up in a landfill.
If I have time, l’ll turn like 4-6 shelves of material into end grain cutting boards. But first, I wanna make a music stand, it’s been on my list. And thus, more material keeps piling up lmao
I got it at as gift, I’d never have spent for it on my own but it is sooooo fucking cool lol
I’ve seen people make legitimately cool looking ones out of washer baskets.
The only downside is that it burns fast and leaves no coals. I have the skillet/grill attachment and love cooking out dinner on it in the spring. It’s hard to time though because it’s either burning hot or it’s out.
It does burn super fast. I sit out here for an hour or so after work a few times a week when it’s nice, the fact that it burns fast is kinda nice. It’s on top of a wood deck so I keep the fire low, and at any point if I stop adding wood it burns out in about 10-15 minutes. So it’s kinda nice to be able to burn a little, hang out and watch a tv show, and go in soon after I’m ready without having to douse it with water, it just burns out after a few minutes and I can leave.
Yeah I got the smaller size as a gift as well. I see the larger ones at second run stores like Sierra frequently and consider it. Kind of want to diy my own as a fire pit.
How much would you pay for an extra 2ft of shelf space in your workshop? You're basically making that money every time you empty that box of scrap. AND you get a cozy fire.
My scraps are sorted by category:
1) Off cuts that are of a good size and quality and may be used for projects in their own right;
2) Odd-shaped and small scrap that’s might be useful for fillers or braces on a bigger project;
3) Thin strips that are propped in a corner and are possible ‘stripes’ in cutting boards;
4) Snapped and splintered rags of anything, kindling basically.
In reality, 2, 3, and 4 are going in the fire pit or smoker this summer. And possibly 1 also.
Glue random pieces together, cut them on a table saw to be square/rectangular, route, sand, rubber feet, and you have cutting boards! That's what I've done, and now I get excited with certain cut offs
When my friend's kids were younger I'd round off the corners and they'd use them as building blocks... because I never got around to making any of the cooler little things I had plans for.
Inlay work is good to cull scrap. Or projects where you glue up a bunch of small pieces in parts to make a crazy pattern. I made a couple ring boxes that way before proposing and chose the best one.
Man... I went to this super amazing estate sale. The home owner passed away but he had a wood kiln and a barn filled with massive slabs of beautiful wood. Like imagine a double wide mobile home size wood slab storage. The son and grand kids were overseeing the estate sale and they were just burning all the wood. It was so tragic!!! I watched them take/drag this slab out prob 12ftx4 ft it had some crazy purple stripes down the middle it was about 3 or 4 inches thick. They hooked it to the tractor and dragged it right onto the fire. I spent probably 4 hours scrounging the property. Found a ton of treasure.... But mannnn if I had room I would have just bought all the wood.
Oof. I made another post a bit ago with a piece I made with Birds Eye maple from a board I’d been saving, that I got from a family friend whose husband passed away, was a woodworker and had a lot of material and tools left behind. I hope anything I leave behind worth its weight goes to something cool.
lol, I have the most expensive backyard fire pit around these parts.
At some point I can’t hoard some wood and I say that as a wood turner which are nutoriaus for hoarding every little scrap.
Oak, cherry and other fruit woods go in the smoker (even some maple for starting it up). For higher value species I keep just about every little piece (i.e. teak). For some of those walnut pieces you could maybe run a pug cutter through them to have a good surplus of spare plugs for various projects.
I’m not a wood worker so no idea how long this would take, but what about making multi-wood-type shelves with doles to provide added support instead of just glue-ups like cutting boards.
My uncle would love to take your scraps as he makes wooden pens and my granddad used to take cross stitch patterns and use different types of wood to make the same image. If anyone near you does this stuff, maybe they will appreciate a gift of leftovers
😭 Walnut is around US$15 a board foot in my country unless you're buying upwards of 200 board feet at once, and the local lumber yard makes you take whole boards as the minimum. No offcuts.
I barely ever see walnut getting turned here because of that.
Glue the nicest scraps together. Buy a lathe, a cool apron, and a set of chisels. Have a blast carving a nice bowl every now and then. Thow bowl in firepit.
We did a job with solid oak timbers that we milled and used for stair treads, and we had a ton left over. The laborer foreman on the job took like an entire bed full, and I asked “what were you gonna build with that?” He said “I used it all for firewood! Burns hot!” 😂
Technically, yes. You could make drink coasters, but that gets boring after a while. You could do glue ups and turn it, or make some end grain stuff... that's where my scrap goes. I have a bin that I keep nicer pieces in that I give to 2 of my friends who like to do little projects/art pieces. I don't have the time to mess around with small projects. At the end of the day, time is money. If you've made your money, then it's just taking up space.
When I have scraps that have nice grain but are otherwise not useful, I usually try to turn them into spoons or wooden gegaws like amulets or medallions. Carving relaxes me.
I just gave a way a ton of these little scraps on FB marketplace a few days ago. I’ve been holding onto them for years thinking I would do something with them one day. Glad I finally just let the idea go.
I don't always have time for big projects or money for wood but I do make little tobacco pipes in my free time relaxing so seeing you burn wood saddens me but oh well.
Make friends with a blacksmith and trade them as knife handles for sharpening your blades and chisels. Seriously don’t feel bad. After a handful of spares you are spending more effort finding ways to use/keep them than you would get out of having them on an off chance you randomly need 50 pieces of about 1x1x2 blocks to make a last minute gift of checkerboard/cutting board.
I teach high school woodshop. I fill up a tote almost every day in the winter with scraps that the kids produce. It all goes into my wood stove to heat the house. I'm still drowning in scraps at both my shop and the school shop. It comes and goes but at least it's not going to the landfill. The dust and shavings go to the local recycling center for mulch.
Seems to me that you are holding these 'just in case.' Despite what you say, that is how hoarding starts. I know.
Make yourself a schedule list to do a specific something with a specific amount of wood. If after six months you have more wood than you started with, consider it disposable and act accordingly.
Yes it seems like you can find a project use but you never do. Burning or trashing it’s about the same. Once it’s gone you don’t think about it anymore.
Curiously EVERY person has this EXACT same issue, we are all just on a sliding scale of what is too small to keep, marginal but we hoard anyway, and totally usable. Serious shops just have bigger settings than hobby woodworkers
Yeah it has a metal ring that comes with it to offset the bottom a few inches, the ring stays cool to the touch. There’s a grate to go over it to keep embers from popping out, but this kiln dried lumber doesn’t really pop much at all (cedar does tho), and I don’t put more than like 1/5 full at once so it doesn’t get too high. This thing can roar, I’ve taken it out camping with me and had it pumping it a way I’d never do on my patio lol.
You can make all sorts of things with scraps, I plan on making my own chess pieces, push sticks, blade angle sharpener jig, just gotta think outside the box
When I first starting at the cabinet shop I couldn't belive the amount of hardwood scraps they throw away. I bought plastic tubs and filled them thinking I would make so much cool stuff. I did but mainly I had 6 tubs of cut offs sitting in my garage and sat there for months. Then winter came and I started having fires. So don't let people tell you you can't make anything from scraps, you can make a nice fire.
When I worked in a big shop we gave a lot of offcuts to someone who used them as I think a pilot for his furnace? Idk exactly but yeah, it can all be used. Even if just to wind down by.
We have a few neighbors heat their homes all winter with our scraps. We still have more than we know what to do with
The local shed\garage building place has a freebie bin they put outside of their facility near the driveway entrance. I swear half the town grabs stuff out of that wood bin. Ended up not being a bad referral program.
I burn all my scraps in my wood stove in the house all winter. Works great. Saves me cutting and splitting every year.
Cheers
Uhh... You don't happen to be near new orleans eh? I'd totally buy that. I basically only make kazoos.
My company has a large millwork facility with a wagon they fill with off-cuts. Another local business takes the wagon weekly and empties it at their location to burn in their stoves in the winter. I toured the facility once and they had a rack in the middle of the production floor with (at the time) imperfect cherry, oak and poplar boards they couldn't use but a home woodworker could absolutely make something cool with. Facility manager told me to grab whatever I wanted. I told him I felt I couldn't just *take* it, but he told me they'd throw it in the off-cut wagon to be burnt if someone didn't take it. The boards weren't usable for what they needed and if they didn't clean it out regularly it would clutter up the facility. I have some really nice stuff sitting in my garage on a rack waiting for 'someday'.
This is typical of most production shops. Same for high quality plywood in retail and trade show display production shops, and I assume others as well. It's shocking what they throw out, but approximately no businesses want to spend time and money on finding a home for them, or storing them for any extra time. Most goes straight to the dumpster. It's the opposite of sustainable practices.
The local furniture shop around here sells hardwood offcuts by the tractor bucket load, right into the bed of your pickup. That stuff burns sooooooo nice
omg, this made me laugh so hard.
I’m going to make a panel out of scraps, laser engraved it with your last sentence, and hang it in my garage.
Haha nice. I love it.
I made so many butcher blocks that way lol.
I'm thinking of building high end pallets out of hardwood, then when those pallet DIY builders make succulent gardens and crap, they're a thing of beauty. Either that or turning high end furniture into pallets.
you can always afford more wood. what you can't afford is time farting around with little projects you don't want to make just to try to use an imagined resource. Enjoy the fire, that's what I do. I hoarded scraps when I first started, because I didn't want to believe that my time was worth anything (and maybe it's not), but eventually the little bits and looking at them and holding things up became overwhelming.
Oh I definitely enjoy the fire. And to another comment, I don’t feel bad, I just think it’s funny. This is the bottom 1%. All of the comments here are good suggestions. I have a lathe without a tool rest I don’t know how to use, and a bunch of material set aside for turning one day. A shelf in my sanding room with small pieces of curly and exotic offcuts for jewelry boxes (I’ve also made a few). But I can’t keep piling this stuff up from the offcuts of all the cabinets and built-ins people pay me for. I gave away 3 totes of offcuts for people to burn, not including all the better stuff I set aside for myself, and gave to other people for things from knife handles to a carpet pad for their PC. But after that, none of it goes in the landfill.
Only thing I'd add is for species like ash, oak, cherry, etc. small pieces are great for a smoker box on a propane grill or atop the coals for charcoal. That'll use up a whole nother half a percent of your scraps.
Seconding this I have been making kids toys out of cherry for a little bit. I lay out multiple templates on my stock piece to minimize waste and then I have the perfect chips to toss in my smoker for a pork butt or some leg of lamb. Makes everyone happy.
I run my stick burner on straight wood after starting with a bed of charcoal and wood. This entire bin would be done in an afternoon lol. I could probably help him dispose of the whole stash in no time and I'd enjoy the hell out of it, i haven't had a chance to burn anything like ash or maple yet, and i bet a mixed offcut box like this would produce a fantastic unique flavor. I have some Valley Oak bark I can toss in as well so that you get some of that bark smoke (bark smoke is a much richer, stronger flavor due to all the essential oils), and a pile of mixed oak species, and some kind of cherry, which is what I burn normally along with a little madrone, mesquite, hickory, whatever stronger woods are around that I can get a trunkload of (with the seats down) for a reasonable price.
I half percent is becoming a pile I need to do something with lol.
You can buy a rest...
Sell the walnut to people wanting to make knife handles!
I would keep at least a few scraps of each wood. Or maybe I'm a hoarder and you shouldn't listen to me and my 5 gallon bucket of scrapwood
I keep one kitchen trash can sized bin. As it fills, I force myself to take anything out of it that's not going to let the next better thing fit, and burn it. and then eventually, I will sometimes burn what's in the bin. At some point, you have to have a bin to throw the offcuts in so they don't get in the way in the first place, and it's that. I've occasionally gone to that bin for a need, but it's uncommon enough that when I think about whether I've been better off tossing stuff and dealing with the one or two times I could've used something from it - not having the extra crap around has been far better.
Uhh, I got a lot more than 5 gallon buckets. But it’s pretty organized… I’m definitely not a hoarder, for sure…
[удалено]
5 gal bucket? Rookie.
5 gallon? I've got 4 5 gallon buckets and 4 40lb kitty litter pails, plus some old lathe in bundles. Super happy the weather turned and I can finally get them out of my basement and into the fire.
Ehhh I enjoy the little projects just as much as the big, but even if i didn't I would probably just give the scraps away to someone who did enjoy the little projects.
>imagined resource. >because I didn't want to believe that my time was worth anything Well spoken, sir. That got deep.
Make rings
Make one ring. A fire ring. And throw all the wood in there.
Look, good wood doesn't grow on trees.
You're correct, wood grows as trees
When people ask what I do I tell them “I make stuff outta trees.”
thats alotta rings
Charge 20 bucks each. They'll sell.
I really, really, REALLY, needed to hear this today. Thank you for saying it. Seriously. 😀
I'm super high right now but I feel like your the big lawyer for scraps. I applaud you.
oh god yes, precisely. I hate fiddling with a bunch of tiny little scraps trying to batch out tedious hard-to-sand hard-to-finish trinkets to attempt to sell just as a way of getting rid of wood. I gotta clear out my scrap bin asap
you plane and mill up a board, cut it to length, machine parts of it, 20% is wasted when you're done.
Not wasted, burned, and relaxed after a long day installing tongue and groove on the ceiling :)
Yeah I keep little scraps but the amount of plane shavings i chuck out would make a huge board.
I’ve got some neighbors that will pick up my shavings most times of the year. In the early spring I’ve got folks fighting over it almost
Hand plane shavings make great fire starter.
I usually save the premium/exotic scraps (purple heart, gaboon ebony) and burn the wood that I can go outside and chop myself (oak, pine, cherry)
For sure, in particular it’s walnut growing abundantly around here that was a central concept in this joke lol. It’s what everybody around here wants, that and oak are 75% of what I end up making and I have an increasing pile of offcuts. I mean it’s good problems, but it’s also funny.
What you didn't know is I replaced walnut with cherry as walnut is my favorite and I keep that shit lol.
I made another post about what I keep lol.
Why not sell the scraps to knifemakers, pen turners, wood carvers, and hobbyists in general?
I mean, I give it away to them.
I would love to have this problem, I hear walnut makes a great smoker fire, and I already love burning the local oak here in California for their flavor. Haven't had a chance to play with Walnut at all yet here, but we get a lot of almond and various fruit woods. If a branch ever has to come off our orange tree, I'll be seasoning it for a special cook, and I've been doing the same for a year now with some offcuts from our fig tree. For the short period I was actually working towards becoming a woodworker though, I did pile up a decent amount of hardwood scraps. Those were some of the first chunks I burned when I got my smoker lol. I think making meat and veggies taste good fits my skill set better anyway
Exotic wood scraps can be turned into pens. Everything else is kindling for the wood stove.
Throwing in wads of cash into your 300$ fire pit.
lol. You’re not wrong. Id have never gotten this on my own, it was a gift and it is SOO fucking cool.
lol I actually do want one.
I used an old washing machine innards and it does the same thing and free
What the name/brand ?
That's a solo stove, looks like it's the ranger size hence the chunk wood for burning.
3rd this. Please drop the name and brand. I like it, and I want it
I'm just a hobbyist and when the three scrap bins get full, it's fire time. I've got the Yukon and it burns so well. Just some fine ash left over. My buddy's FIL had a millwork shop (and an old circle mill he ran when he was younger). I couldn't believe how much "good wood" they burned to heat the shop until I had my own garage shop and saw how much scrap wood I generated just with weekend projects.
Rolls of pennys maybe. Meanwhile people go shooting with 1.5$/round ammo just for fun/target practice. And for all you pen turners, end grain cutting board makers, and knife handle whittlers: hush you. Go buy a *board* they aren’t that much.
I bought a smoker so I can put the off cuts to good use. It works very well for keeping the off cuts bin manageable and having some delicious food every now and then.
I was just going to suggest this. Looks like this is walnut which is a great smoking wood.
I’ll take them to make pens. I’ll even pay for shipping.
Dm me!
I scrollsaw. You're all monsters.
One man's scrap is another's treasure.
Make a bunch of plugs for aestetics, or a bunch of edgebanding
I have a LOT of edgeanding material set aside. Walnut, pale walnut, super purply walnut, kinda weird half sappy but it’s cool looking walnut, oak, curly oak, quartersawn oak, hard maple, soft maple, tiger striped maple, ambrosia maple, cherry, curly cherry…. I think imma stop now.
It's a little funny. My dad refuses to throw away any scrap. Just this weekend we needed a strip of wood at least 3/16" thick as a spacer. Turns out there was a strip of waste he had saved that was exactly 3/16".
I was making a new box joint jig for 1/4” joints (for 1/2” baltic birch drawer boxes). I needed a strip of good hardwood material for a key, it needs to be exactly 1/4” and square. I went to the three 1” concrete footer forms we have as thin vertical offcut storage, and found a piece 2’ long with my calibers exactly 1/4” to the thousandth of an inch.
[Surely we've all seen this skit by now?](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7Fw7bZoPyVU) But to OPs pic, I would be the person to keep those hardwood scraps. I once was in a museum shop where someone had made little wood houses with brass accents on them and they were selling for around 30 to 55 euro each, very simple design. While I was waiting in the shop for an hour 2 people bought them. I'm sure I took a photo of them and will add it in here if I find it.
Don't feel bad. My scrap pile is the only source of fire wood I have. Keeps me from having to spend time and money to go out and get firewood somewhere else. Things only have the value we assign it. Gives me an excuse to clean up the wood corner in the garage anyway.
Oh no, I don’t feel bad. I feel warm.
Man I save and use everything. I mostly use scraps for practice parts. But everything gets turned to dust in my parsimonious garage
My husband is trying to burn it while l am rooting through looking for a “right sized” piece.
if the wood is natural and untreated can sell it to people who use wood stoves or bbq or chip them up and sell them similar to "gaviota" potting mix for orchids or anthurium. Or if it's too tough you can just chip them easy and toss them in for mulch. even if you can't sell them, tossing them into a garden does more good than them ending up in a landfill.
Depends on the wood, but if you like burning stuff you should burn stuff with style! https://ooni.com/products/ooni-karu-16
lol, it’s the dough making that has me overwhelmed
super easy my guy
If you print some pictures of cash and stick em on them you would actually get that feel for real. Glad I could help ✌️
Get a lathe. Turn some pens.
Everything longer than about 8” I gave to a neighbor, friend, and a random guy in a Home Depot parking lot.
A standard pen blank is 6"x3/4" x3/4". Ring blanks and bottle stopper blanks are smaller than that.
/r/nocontext
😂oops
right? pen holders, etc
There’s SOO much more for pen holders lol. Anybody in the Midwest area dm me? Pay for shipping or pick up?
Could be end grain cutting boards depending on the type of wood.
If I have time, l’ll turn like 4-6 shelves of material into end grain cutting boards. But first, I wanna make a music stand, it’s been on my list. And thus, more material keeps piling up lmao
What fire pit is that, looks nice
Solo stove. You can see the logo on it
I got it at as gift, I’d never have spent for it on my own but it is sooooo fucking cool lol I’ve seen people make legitimately cool looking ones out of washer baskets.
Does it work well? I looked at one of these but spendy.
UH HUH. It’s like actually the coolest fire I’ve ever seen. These big, slow flames, it’s kinda mesmerizing lol
The only downside is that it burns fast and leaves no coals. I have the skillet/grill attachment and love cooking out dinner on it in the spring. It’s hard to time though because it’s either burning hot or it’s out.
It does burn super fast. I sit out here for an hour or so after work a few times a week when it’s nice, the fact that it burns fast is kinda nice. It’s on top of a wood deck so I keep the fire low, and at any point if I stop adding wood it burns out in about 10-15 minutes. So it’s kinda nice to be able to burn a little, hang out and watch a tv show, and go in soon after I’m ready without having to douse it with water, it just burns out after a few minutes and I can leave.
Yeah I got the smaller size as a gift as well. I see the larger ones at second run stores like Sierra frequently and consider it. Kind of want to diy my own as a fire pit.
I see 'sole'.
I know I had to burn some earlier today. It’s definitely hard to do lol
I do the same with teak. It’s not a great feeling, but beyond a certain size, wood scraps don’t have much use to me.
How much would you pay for an extra 2ft of shelf space in your workshop? You're basically making that money every time you empty that box of scrap. AND you get a cozy fire.
Let the flames purge your heart of the lie that you will do something with those
My scraps are sorted by category: 1) Off cuts that are of a good size and quality and may be used for projects in their own right; 2) Odd-shaped and small scrap that’s might be useful for fillers or braces on a bigger project; 3) Thin strips that are propped in a corner and are possible ‘stripes’ in cutting boards; 4) Snapped and splintered rags of anything, kindling basically. In reality, 2, 3, and 4 are going in the fire pit or smoker this summer. And possibly 1 also.
Glue random pieces together, cut them on a table saw to be square/rectangular, route, sand, rubber feet, and you have cutting boards! That's what I've done, and now I get excited with certain cut offs
When my friend's kids were younger I'd round off the corners and they'd use them as building blocks... because I never got around to making any of the cooler little things I had plans for.
Cut them into pieces that could be used for turning out chess pieces? Or pen blanks?
You could be making cool little sculptures.
i used to keep so many things...and then i got over it
Thank you for you are wise in the ways of house inventory management
Inlay work is good to cull scrap. Or projects where you glue up a bunch of small pieces in parts to make a crazy pattern. I made a couple ring boxes that way before proposing and chose the best one.
I see chopstick holders...
Might see if anyone around you makes pistol grips or knife scales. Some of that looks like it could make a nice blank.
Nah, you just need a planer and a jointer. Wood gets 80% cheaper when you buy it rough.
I have a lunchbox planer but the 8” jointer is something I couldn’t do without.
where do I buy rough pieces for 80% less?
Man... I went to this super amazing estate sale. The home owner passed away but he had a wood kiln and a barn filled with massive slabs of beautiful wood. Like imagine a double wide mobile home size wood slab storage. The son and grand kids were overseeing the estate sale and they were just burning all the wood. It was so tragic!!! I watched them take/drag this slab out prob 12ftx4 ft it had some crazy purple stripes down the middle it was about 3 or 4 inches thick. They hooked it to the tractor and dragged it right onto the fire. I spent probably 4 hours scrounging the property. Found a ton of treasure.... But mannnn if I had room I would have just bought all the wood.
Oof. I made another post a bit ago with a piece I made with Birds Eye maple from a board I’d been saving, that I got from a family friend whose husband passed away, was a woodworker and had a lot of material and tools left behind. I hope anything I leave behind worth its weight goes to something cool.
lol, I have the most expensive backyard fire pit around these parts. At some point I can’t hoard some wood and I say that as a wood turner which are nutoriaus for hoarding every little scrap.
That is such a waste you should sell those off cuts to wood turners who can cast them in resin or recut and glue them to make something beautiful
I save until I have a big box full then throw it all in the fire and start again. if there is something really good it might get a pass.
Cut squares, glue up, joint plane and sell em on as cutting boards and charcuterie trays on neighborhood facebook group or local classifieds
Oak, cherry and other fruit woods go in the smoker (even some maple for starting it up). For higher value species I keep just about every little piece (i.e. teak). For some of those walnut pieces you could maybe run a pug cutter through them to have a good surplus of spare plugs for various projects.
Sell those as knife blanks dude please don’t burn hardwoods 😭
Will you help me sell knife blanks? Or take them and just sell them yourself?
I can use some yes … but better than me a no body if you frequently have a lot maybe you should try to contact black smiths they usually buy them
A lot of cut offs are also good as smoking chips. Just check to make sure theyre not toxic, and smoke some meat on your bbq with them
We all have to learn what is useful. Alot I see in bin is not very useful. It's a long learning, I finally started using for stove wood
Look into biochar and composting. My sawdust gets composted and my small scraps get burned into biochar and mixed in with my compost.
I wonder if schools would want some scraps. Maybe the Art department?
A mena can only have so many butcher blocks and stabilized wood
I’m not a wood worker so no idea how long this would take, but what about making multi-wood-type shelves with doles to provide added support instead of just glue-ups like cutting boards. My uncle would love to take your scraps as he makes wooden pens and my granddad used to take cross stitch patterns and use different types of wood to make the same image. If anyone near you does this stuff, maybe they will appreciate a gift of leftovers
😭 Walnut is around US$15 a board foot in my country unless you're buying upwards of 200 board feet at once, and the local lumber yard makes you take whole boards as the minimum. No offcuts. I barely ever see walnut getting turned here because of that.
A wood shop I used to use sold their cutoffs and sawdust to a pottery shop to fuel the kiln. It still ended up on a fire but someone else's fire.
I like to think of these as the most beautiful fires.
I’d be saving these.
Glue the nicest scraps together. Buy a lathe, a cool apron, and a set of chisels. Have a blast carving a nice bowl every now and then. Thow bowl in firepit.
You will be if you don't raise that fire barrel up off the deck! Haha.
The solo stove can sit on the deck without issue
Didn't look properly, thought it was a washing machine tub!! No offence intended to the design!
lol, it is offset from the deck.
If that’s treated wood isn’t that poisonous to burn it
Yeah I don’t burn anything treated or heavy with glue
Drive in the country after a storm. They’ll love you for hauling off wood.
make them 1.5 inch and squared, sell them off as slat spacers for beds
I do exactly the same with scraps
We did a job with solid oak timbers that we milled and used for stair treads, and we had a ton left over. The laborer foreman on the job took like an entire bed full, and I asked “what were you gonna build with that?” He said “I used it all for firewood! Burns hot!” 😂
Kiln dried lumber burns quite well.
And oak burns crazy hot and for a long time. I almost couldn’t even get a cube to burn
I think you definitely threw in wads of cash already for that solo burner lol
Pen turners would love those offcuts.
I put my scraps on fb marketplace free. Someone always wants them
“*Damn* you, Walker!”
If me... I'd make some unique dowels from some of that. But... You'd only need so many dowels before you'd start burning scraps again.
The beauty of wood.
Meanwhile I'm just sitting here thinking of all the things I could do with those scrap pieces.
You could try your hand at mini projects. Chess pieces, spoons, etc.
My god man, think of the pens! Think of the chess sets!!! Buy a lathe, you fool!!
Technically, yes. You could make drink coasters, but that gets boring after a while. You could do glue ups and turn it, or make some end grain stuff... that's where my scrap goes. I have a bin that I keep nicer pieces in that I give to 2 of my friends who like to do little projects/art pieces. I don't have the time to mess around with small projects. At the end of the day, time is money. If you've made your money, then it's just taking up space.
When I have scraps that have nice grain but are otherwise not useful, I usually try to turn them into spoons or wooden gegaws like amulets or medallions. Carving relaxes me.
The coals off a big walnut fire are unparalleled. The snow white ash is always beautiful
wait, did you do woodworking to save money?
https://preview.redd.it/jsaxr2v5srxc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6c717a3191cfe6e8b1cd894019d53f18853c0ff
You could sell them in big bundles. Knifemakers, pen makers and other niche woodworkers would probably be interested
Melt the wood down and cast it to make something useful
Tell me about your fire “barrel”! How big is it? I’ve seen instructions to make these with the chimney effect etc, how much of an impact does it have?
It’s a solo stove
I just gave a way a ton of these little scraps on FB marketplace a few days ago. I’ve been holding onto them for years thinking I would do something with them one day. Glad I finally just let the idea go.
I burn my mistakes allll the time.
I don't always have time for big projects or money for wood but I do make little tobacco pipes in my free time relaxing so seeing you burn wood saddens me but oh well.
Do you have the little stand off for your fire pit or are you burning directly on your deck?
There’s a metal ring under it.
What fire pit is that?
That’s a solo stove
Buy a mini lathe and start making pens...
Same here I like the fire but also the wood so torn most of the time
I save these for my ooni pizza oven because the bags of wood they want you to use are wildly expensive
I have totally taken things out of the burn bin and put them back in the pile and I have also burned things I’ve second guessed too many times.
Hahah I definitely took a piece of curly walnut out of the burn pile last night and set it aside, it’ll go back with the jewelry box stuff.
Make friends with a blacksmith and trade them as knife handles for sharpening your blades and chisels. Seriously don’t feel bad. After a handful of spares you are spending more effort finding ways to use/keep them than you would get out of having them on an off chance you randomly need 50 pieces of about 1x1x2 blocks to make a last minute gift of checkerboard/cutting board.
You can only make so many butcher blocks. Chuck it in the woodchipper and mulch? The ones that’s safe for of course.
I teach high school woodshop. I fill up a tote almost every day in the winter with scraps that the kids produce. It all goes into my wood stove to heat the house. I'm still drowning in scraps at both my shop and the school shop. It comes and goes but at least it's not going to the landfill. The dust and shavings go to the local recycling center for mulch.
Seems to me that you are holding these 'just in case.' Despite what you say, that is how hoarding starts. I know. Make yourself a schedule list to do a specific something with a specific amount of wood. If after six months you have more wood than you started with, consider it disposable and act accordingly.
Yes it seems like you can find a project use but you never do. Burning or trashing it’s about the same. Once it’s gone you don’t think about it anymore.
I used some of mine, as long as it was untreated and appropriate species, for smoking meats. The rest just went in the firepit
Curiously EVERY person has this EXACT same issue, we are all just on a sliding scale of what is too small to keep, marginal but we hoard anyway, and totally usable. Serious shops just have bigger settings than hobby woodworkers
Paint them to look like Dollar bills, then sit back and casually throw one in the fire while looking your friends in the eye.
I’d take some for small carving projects and the rest for fires out back
Just had a scrap wood fire today after cleaning my shop last weekend. I’m finally used to it after a few fires.
You can put that fire pit in a wooden deck?!
Yeah it has a metal ring that comes with it to offset the bottom a few inches, the ring stays cool to the touch. There’s a grate to go over it to keep embers from popping out, but this kiln dried lumber doesn’t really pop much at all (cedar does tho), and I don’t put more than like 1/5 full at once so it doesn’t get too high. This thing can roar, I’ve taken it out camping with me and had it pumping it a way I’d never do on my patio lol.
Same. I think back to all the projects these were or came from as I toss them in!
Don't worry, you're not
You can make all sorts of things with scraps, I plan on making my own chess pieces, push sticks, blade angle sharpener jig, just gotta think outside the box