What do you do with your scrap?

[steve_g]

The “endless wood scrap conundrum” … Do you save that piece of drop or consider throwing it away as the cost of doing business? Saving every promising piece of scrap will shortly find you out of room! Occasionally you will find a school or hobby/craft-person happy to take a handful pieces, but they hardly make a dent in the growing problem! Have you noticed that CNC scrap is awkward? Nested parts leave you with odd shapes and often without straight lines or square corners!

The last few years I’ve been saving Pecan drops from tables, chairs, mantles and other miscellaneous projects. I saved them if I could cut 2”, 3” or 4” strips from them. I finally found the time to carry out my plan!

My office floor now reflects my love for Texas Pecan wood! It was ridiculously time consuming and hard work… but worth it!

What do you do with your scrap?
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=30887&stc=1
SG

[Tim Lucas]

I Love your scrap! That is beautiful!

[Ajcoholic]

I Love your scrap! That is beautiful!

It sure is!

This was not too long ago. I dispose of a lot of wood waste. All my hardwood scraps go to people to burn. My mdf, melamine etc go into the dumpster. I could fill many, many trailers like this over the course of a year. Too many. But what the heck do you do with all the smaller pieces left from every job?

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j307/ajcoholic/4847301F-F6E0-4897-8803-AA4407B2B9AB_zpsflbh2zq9.jpeg (http://s83.photobucket.com/user/ajcoholic/media/4847301F-F6E0-4897-8803-AA4407B2B9AB_zpsflbh2zq9.jpeg.html)

[bill.young]

A while back I wrote a blog post about dealing with small offcuts and waste in general. I haven't explored it much further, but can't help but think that if there was a way to automate nesting small parts into your daily cutting that it would be "green" in both ways...environmentally and financially. The materials are better than free, since you don't have to pay to haul them away.

http://www.shopbotblog.com/2015/11/distributed-manufacturing-waste-management/

[cowboy1296]

the small pieces i give to some to burn in their stove, but the larger pieces are not considered scrap. Here is a piece i made for out of scrap for me and you floor is beautiful.http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=30888&stc=1

[Brady Watson]

A pecan floor???? That's nuts!!!

Seriously - gorgeous result. I'm floored! :p

You are so right about 'if you kept every drop or cut off' - it'd fill up the shop quick. Smaller sized stuff goes in a rolling trash can for the wood stove. Larger stuff - or precious exotics go in the keep pile.

-B

[dmidkiff]

Beautiful floor and great use of scrap. Of course you could have turned thousands of pens with that.:)

[willnewton]

Half the floors in my house are “character” hickory that I paid an arm and leg for. It looks almost exactly like your pecan. I am a bit jealous that I had to pay 4 times as much as regular flooring to get mine and your flooring was paid for by your customers! :)

[Brian Harnett]

My scrap gets ripped and cut for glue ups odd shaped small stuff goes in the woodstove sawdust goes to people that raise chickens most of my sawdust is good for that, I stay away from manufactured boards for almost all my work.

And I fill boxes and give them away to several woodworkers I know that do smaller hobby stuff.

[dlcw]

BEAUTIFUL Floor Steve!!!!

THe small stuff I give to friends to use as fire starter in their fireplaces. The bigger pieces I either use for craft type projects or give to the local highschool woodshop. Most of my plywood scrap goes to the highschool woodshop where they use it for jigs/patterns and stuff like that. I take appropriate woods and make cutting boards. Very little goes in the trash.

[chiloquinruss]

Now that's a floor! Just terrific. I recently joined a craftsman guild (I can see Bill Young laughing, Craftsman?) anyhow great bunch of folks. I took a load of 'scrap' to a meeting a while back and you would be amazed to see how great my 'scrap' looks now! :D Russ

[bobmoore]

My farmer neighbor saves his empty feed bags for me. I built a stand to hold them vertical and throw cut off pieces in as they com off the saw. I take those bags of scrap to him along with barrels of sawdust. He throws the bag of scraps into his outdoor wood stove. Nobody has to fool around picking up hundreds of pieces of wood. Sawdust of coarse is bedding for the calves.

[dlcw]

Now that's a floor! Just terrific. I recently joined a craftsman guild (I can see Bill Young laughing, Craftsman?) anyhow great bunch of folks. I took a load of 'scrap' to a meeting a while back and you would be amazed to see how great my 'scrap' looks now! :D Russ

Russ,

There are some incredibly creative people out there (me not being one of them) that take what a production shop would consider scrap/junk and turn it into amazing things. I wish I had that level of creativity in my blood.... :)

[Xray]

Nice floor.

Not nearly as prolific cutting as most of you guys, pistol grips, yoyos, light switch covers ,guitar pick guards are a few things I make from cutoffs.
Burn alot too, even save my sawdust to pitch into the fire with a woosh, not much gets wasted when it comes to wood.

[genek]

Any thing that is big enough to use or glue up I make bottle stopper, Ink pens, four by four cheese boards. On some of my large panels that I glue up. and have room I cut bangle Bracelets, rings, and other products. The only thing that goes out side is saw dust and small pieces which I compost ( I average five to ten 55 gallon drums every week and sometimes more). Some of my Scrap I sale to local wood turners. I have one that does segmented bowls and he buys by the pound. The compost I sale by the pound. Thin strips are sanded flat and added in where they can be used on cutting boards or as inlay. I am now starting to do intarsia projects out of some scrap.