Burning Question - When are cutoffs/scrap firewood?

[Chaz]

Saving cutoffs can become a problem after a while. I save wood scrap with the best of intention, but after a while .......

When does this wood become firewood? When, is enough, enough?

 

[Wiley's Woodworks]

When you don't have room for any more.

 

[DSWalker]

I have a 30 gallon trash can that I throw my cutoffs into. When it gets full, it goes to the fire pit.

I may save a few pieces just so the first few 'new' cutoffs dont get lonely.

 

[smallboat]

October

 

[Roy G]

A bit of advice. Don't burn any scraps of desert ironwood.

Roy G

 

[pcooper]

When I made a lot of pens, my answer would be when you can't make a pen from it, now it's when you can't make a chaotic cutting board from it, or you can't walk around the shop because of scrap piles...I burn about twice a year and still have scrap piles...

 

[bob vaughan]

The standard regret is 10% to 20% regardless of the scale of the scrap purge.

 

[Tarhead]

Offer it here and on the Facebook group for a $10 contribution. Never a shortage of somebody experiencing lean times.

 

[Berta]

When you primarily use a scroll saw, the scrap pile can contain very small things!

 

[Willemjm]

I got to the stage where I don’t save any. Installed a fireplace in the home and that is where they go. It just became too much of a hassle.

 

[Craptastic]

I struggle with wanting to save cutoffs and the room required to do so in my small shop. Sounds like that's a common problem. Usually I save anything bigger than about 5" in solid wood that's not just pine. Plywood scraps have a much higher size tolerance. Then when that pile starts building up I grab a cardboard box, throw all those scraps into it, and then go another few weeks before hauling that out to the fire pit.

 

[Oka]

I try to keep everything......... until I realize it is futile and then like others I keep the best grained pieces and scap the rest..... until the next purge.

 

[bob vaughan]

When you don't have room for any more.

That pretty much sums it up.

 

[bob vaughan]

A bit of advice. Don't burn any scraps of desert ironwood.

Roy G

OK, I'll bite. Why not burn desert ironwood?

 

[Linc H]

My experience is "one mans trash is another's treasure" being new to woodworking I am learning new things every time I am in the shop. Thanks to people's generosity on this site I have been able to pick up cutoffs from time to time in some cases I am just learning technics on a piece of wood with no intention of making something. However, I have made bottle openers, coasters, cheese cutting boards by using cut offs. I have learned about the different species of wood also by seeing it and working with it. My advice is post up what you dont need any more, give it a couple days, who knows you might be "fueling" (pun intended) someones buring desire to become a woodworker and not just fueling the burn pile.

 

[1075tech]

So, are you saying y'all don't stack your sawdust by grain size?

 

[JimD]

I agree with the "when you don't have any more room" reply. I keep lots of small scraps but some of them are kept in a large and small trash bucket. When I have a small project, like one I'm working on now, I look at the scraps I have laying around, sometimes they are on the floor. Many, many, times I make something out of scraps less than a foot square. Sometimes less than half that. But once in awhile, I need something to get a trash pile started or the accumulation gets to be too much and I clean up - a little.

 

[Dee2]

I keep 2-3 5 gallon buckets at the bandsaw. When I cut bowl blanks, the cut offs go into the buckets. When the buckets get full and it is time to make a run to the (dump) "convenience center", the cut offs are part of the run.

If the cutoffs are big enough to make stickers (used when stacking 1st turned bowls during drying), I process them into ~1X1X~6 pen blanks stickers.

 

[Roy G]

Bob, desert ironwood has a certain aroma that reminds me of burning stuff in SE Asia years ago.

Roy G

 

[ScottM]

When you do intarsia 1/2” square pieces get used regularly.