Thread: Offcuts

Exactly what you have done, keep them in a pile and keep adding to it .... never throw out wood.

Seriously perhaphs you could cut up some of the interesting stuff and offer it to the pen turners for the cost of postage ...... its a win win.

I keep all bit in a bucket like yourself but found that I would sometimes get caught on them when walking past, so I put an Occy strap around them, keeps them tight and tidy. Anything small is used a packing or strengthening block where they can't be seen, seem's a shame to chop a small bit off a length of timber for a bit that will not be seen. All the rest is firewood/kindling for the fire.

Something I have been doing is to put those itty bitty offcuts through the mulcher and use them on the garden or in the compost, which in turn become vegies for us.

I have also been smoothing off some of the others for the munchkins to use as blocks. It only takes a few minutes and the littlies love em.

If you glued it all together, you'd have a board that would cost what? 10 bucks? 20 bucks? You can't get a decent feed of fish'n'chips for that. Burn the lot and enjoy the clean workshop.

That's my philosophy.


Damien

Burn it. Off cuts like that are usless but make brilliant kindling

Originally Posted by Lignum

Burn it. Off cuts like that are usless but make brilliant kindling

I did the reverse this evening. I felt like doing some carving so I thought I'd carve a file handle from an interesting piece of wood. After looking amongst my offcuts and not seeing anything too exciting I ended up out at the woodpile and found some old gnarled bits of redgum. Some quick passes through the TS exposed some wonderful ripple grain. Maybe will pos a picture once its done.

Ah - the old 'offcuts' dilemma. Like most, I'm sure, I have a sliding scale of what's too good to chuck out. It depends on cost and rarity - bits of Brazilian rosewood get saved down to pen blank size (got a a drawer full of pen blanks, of all sorts of nice bits and bobs, and haven't made a pen in at least 6 years!), while less desirable stuff has to be at least 5-600mm and be useable in a way that I can see or it goes onto the pile that gets scooped up at the end of the day, & cut into kindling/firewood lengths for MILs fire (don't have a fireplace, ourselves, unfortunately ).

Years ago, when I had ankle-biters, I used to chuck all the odd and intersting small bits into a carton and give them to the kids' kindy. They'd buy a bottle of aquadhere and let the kids create masterpieces with them - I still have a wonderfully imaginative lion my youngest made from offcuts and half a bottle of glue... The only trouble with that system was my kids always went for the biggest constructions, & half of every carton came home again...

So, I have about half a ute-load of precious pieces less than a metre - all sorts of woods, lots of potential tool handles, knobs, plane blanks, you name it. Only trouble is, they are scattered amongst the general chaos, and though I often have a vague idea there's a bit just perfect for what I want, I can never find it! That is, until about 5 minutes after I chop a short piece off a long board. :mad:

Job number 305 1/2 of my new shed hyper-organisation is to build a decent timber rack, with provision for shorts, so I can find that perfect bit in a hurry.

Someday........

I call my local high school woodwork teacher. He comes around with a trailer and collects what he can use. The rest I cut up for kindling. It's either that or get buried by left-overs and go nuts trying to save everything I might use "one day"

Richard