Thread: How do people discard their timber scraps?

Not much of pretend wood used here

Love the mushrooms!

The box on the nature strip is a good idea too.

I second the view that if you have to cut it to put it in the bin then it's not scrap. Realistically I get that if you make large stuff and do so for a living that you might not have time to use the scraps but I hate the idea of throwing out wood.

I get a regular "waste" when i make my folding stools. 50 x 22 x about 190. I get two per unit. what follows is a list of SOME of the things I make from them.

1. split each into 2 on the bandsaw and make soft cheese knives
2. glue 4 together wide face to wide face. resaw and sand into drink coasters. 4 pieces become 4 coasters.
3. my Book Birds. Resaw to 9.5 x 50 and get 6+ per piece.
4. bangles. like the coasters but I laminate again with a veneer of two between. cut out with a hole saw, finish on the lathe.
5. love hearts. bandsaw them out, sand 'em, sell 'em.
6. cross forms. as jewellery.

The list is long. Not much ends up in my bin I can tell you. Now if I can find someone local with a garden then part of my dust waste issue will disappear as well. Hehehehehe.

Cheers
B

Like most others I keep what I think is a useful size and hope another project comes along.
Treated Pine off cuts go straight in the rubbish bin.
Other bits of scrap go in a bag and are used to light a fire in a boiler.

Anything less then 250mm long gets chopped into bits and then It goes into a bucket of water until I need some wood for my ugly drum smoker. Makes some tasty ribs and brisket.

As someone who mostly makes toys, I've been the very fortunate recipient of many small offcuts of some beautiful timbers from a good number of friends and forum members....

All I can say is a HUGE THANK YOU to those who share the love of beautiful timber around as it's certainly helped and educated me!!!

be realistic men, go for a drive, a long one if need be and just throw pieces out the window.


V


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soon you'll have a team of people behind you trying to get you back home
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so you dont have to be afraid of getting lost, they will help you.

There are two wastes here, timber off cut and wood shavings/dust.

For timber off cut, I am fortunate enough that I only work with kiln dried, untreated timber so I burn them all in my fire place.

For wood shavings/dust, I put them in wheelie bins and sale them to my repeated customers. When I am in thickness/planing mode of RS timber or panel glue ups, I make 0.5m3 of shavings in an hour, yes, that is right, 500 litres of wood shavings in an hour - I need to clear my dusty every hour, as result of this I have 4 x 250 and 12 x 150 litre wheelie bin in my backyard. half of them are filled up all the time.

A briquette press has been on my mind but just cant justify the spend. direct import from UK is about $20,000 NZD for an Italian BP (Prodeco). for similar machine here in NZ (Felder). it is $35,000.

A couple of sheltered workshops take the timber off cuts and the local horse and chook people take the shavings.

1. Small projects.
2. Give them to the local Men's Shed.
3. Burn them if they arn't full of chemical.
4. Chuck them in the garden to rot if they aren't coated. (Don't do this in an area that will attract termites.)
5. All else goes to the dump.

I feed a fair bit of shavings, saw dust, off cuts to the garden but not near the house or the shed & it needs a bit of added nitrogen to help the process. I sprinkle a bit of urea on it.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

1. Small projects.
2. Give them to the local Men's Shed.
3. Burn them if they arn't full of chemical.
4. Chuck them in the garden to rot if they aren't coated. (Don't do this in an area that will attract termites.)
5. All else goes to the dump.

I feed a fair bit of shavings, saw dust, off cuts to the garden but not near the house or the shed & it needs a bit of added nitrogen to help the process. I sprinkle a bit of urea on it.

with anybody watching or is this one of your 'private' moments

So is it better to throw things like mdf, melamine, plywood etc on the tip where it will contaminate the ground for years to come?. Or just burn it now and be done with it?.
Having a wood heater in my workshop I would not blink at burning plywood scraps if I used the stuff. Is it any worse than vehicles running on diesel fuel?.
Beats me!, the whole human condition of being seems to be a pretty filthy business when you look at it.

throw your MDF in your shed wood heater, go in the house for a you know what and coffee. By the time your back in the shed your fire will have burnt the crap, you will be safe, your shed warm and the neighbours cat dead from the fumes. sounds good idea to me. Mind you where I live once a month (when allowed) we have a massive bonfire, the stuff that disappears in there... well that gets rid of a lot of cats err I mean rubbish.