When do you consider a scrap to be useless?

[James Baker SD]

We all must end up with lots of scraps as we make projects. Today I am making a tea rack for the wife. After ripping a piece of Ash into 3-1/4" boards I have a long strip about 1/2" x 3/4" by 5'. After cutting the 3-1/4" boards into individual shelves, I have a piece about 6"x3/4"x3-1/4".

Obviously I would save a piece 3'x7" for later use, but for the small stuff, how do you decide what might be really useful for a later project, and what should go into the fire wood box?

James

[Michael Peet]

Man, I wish I knew. My scrap pile is totally out of control.

Mike

[Mark Engel]

That is a really good question. It is so hard to discard any piece of 'scrap' that may be usefull for something. But, to keep them all would require at least double the size of my shop for storage. At some point you just have to let go.

[Harold Burrell]

Man, I wish I knew. My scrap pile is totally out of control.

Mike

Hey, Mike...I see you are only a couple of hours from me. How about I come by and relieve you with that pile.

I just want to be a help...

[Roger Feeley]

My dad used to save scrap and it overwhelmed him. He would look at a broken maple clothes hanger and say, "That's some good wood. It might be useful some day." When he died in '89, my mother got 5 of those plastic rolling dumpsters from the trash company. Her goal was to fill them every week and that was her way of pacing herself. This went on for 3 months. My two brothers and I helped when we could but all of us lived far away. After the 'scrap' was out of the way, she called us all in to take anything we wanted and there was a lot. Then she called an estate sale company. They spent two weeks marking items and the sale (after a 20% commission) netted my mom over 11K. Then she called Goodwill and they hauled off the rest.

All of that is a long winded way to say that I have no intention of leaving my wife with the mess that my mom dealt with. My dad was not a hoarder. He lived through the depression and saw a use for everything. It just went against the grain to throw things away. But in the end, he left his 75 year old wife with a herculean cleanup. For her, getting out of that house was a liberation. She moved to a small apartment in a retirement community and loved it.

[Sid Matheny]

As long as I have a place to store it I keep almost all my scraps. When I start tripping over them I may discard some until I find a new hiding place.

Sid

[Van Huskey]

I have the same problem many do, to me it isn't worthless until it looks more like dust than wood...

[Mark Engel]

I have the same problem many do, to me it isn't worthless until it looks more like dust than wood...

Dust + glue = MDF (well, almost)

[Myk Rian]

My real small pieces get in a grocery bag under the drill press. When that is full, out it goes.
Larger ones are sorted every few months, cut up, and tossed in the grocery bag.

[anthony wall]

as i use almost entirely reclaimed wood i don't consider anything as scrap until it gets in the way that is and as it is usually hardwood i give it to people in the village who cook on wood fires

[John A langley]

I use the 3 move rule. 4th move it goes in the dumpster.

[Bill Huber]

When I can pick it up with the shop vac....

[tim young]

I don't keep anything shorter than 12". It is more of a safety concern for me. I was taught, if it's shorter than 12", you should not run it through a planer. However, the wife has taken up making pens and now she is questioning some of what I burn or recycle. If I can make it into a pen blank, I'll do that. But I do it right away.

[Curt Putnam]

Plane shavings are scrap. So is dust from the saw. Cutoff from my last failed attempt at hand cut dovetails become smoker chips. If I have too many smoker chips I either sell them or give them away. Solid wood dust & shavings go into the green barrel which the town turns into mulch. Anything larger I save - might need some smaller shims. If I'm forced to chuck stuff that I would otherwise save, it goes into the green barrel

[Ira Matheny]

I generate several 4' x 4' x 2'-6" totes of firewood each year. Most is 12" scraps. My employees, friends, and neighbors know where I live, and come each fall to visit.