What do you do with offcuts?

Willemjm

Willem
Corporate Member
Cutting boards, segmented turning, firewood, pen blanks, or trash?

C7E4648E-5279-4B89-83D6-47DD3DDA4CDA.jpeg
 

drw

Donn
Corporate Member
Willem, I don't think I have ever had an off-cut pile as impressive as yours. That said, some of your offcuts look to be worthy of saving (for what I don't know, but I do know that I am constantly looking for a "scrap" for something). Sadly, I am guilty of holding on to too many "keepers" to the point that I don't have enough room for normal shop activities. Since I don't have a fireplace or outdoor fire-pit, my only option is to load my truck with my precious hoard and head to the local landfill...what a terrible waste! If you and I were a segmented turners, like Charlie, we could probably get a dozen or more beautiful creations out of that pile!
 

Michael Mathews

Michael
Corporate Member
small off cuts that are large enough for small turning projects I save. I will turn knobs and finials and spinning tops and so forth with them. Others may be useful for butter or cream cheese knives and decorative carvings (power as dry wood is too hard to carve quickly).
 

Phil S

Phil Soper
Staff member
Corporate Member
Find a neighbor with an outside pizza oven, it ought to get you some free pizza
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
If it's hard wood I usually save it to use on my scroll saws, until my available space for it is exceeded. Pine, fir, and softer woods too short for immediate use go in some trash cans with lids just outside my shop when the inside can near the table and band saw gets full. When the hard wood shorts exceed their space, I take time to sort it and toss about half into the outside cans. My neighbor has an outside wood furnace to heat his house, and uses my scraps from the outside cans whenever he needs kindling. The cans are usually empty by January. When the warmer Weather returns I begin filling them up again. My saw dust that doesn't contain walnut or treated lumber goes into my gardens as mulch. The walnut and treated lumber scraps and saw dust go in the household trash to go to the landfill.

Find someone who heats with wood. They will be very happy to help you get rid of what you don't want.

Charley
 

FlyingRon

Moderator
Ron
I've throw them in boxes in hopes that they'll get used for something. Periodically my wife burns them when she's short of other stuff.
 
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Oka

Casey
Corporate Member
I take pieces glue them for turnings or create glued flat pieces for other projects ........ But ........to be brutally honest I did just give away to the local retrain cent a small pick up bed's worht of cut off drops since I am out of space. All depend on what wood it is
 

Billm0066

Bill
User
Small pieces are great for end grain coasters. Glue them up into 4" square blocks and chop them 1/2" wide. They make great christmas gifts especially if you make a holder for them. Or sell on Facebook marketplace. I buy off cuts from a furniture store. Wheel barrel full for $25, maple, walnut, and polar.
 

Jim M.

Woody
Corporate Member
I have a small bid for usable pieces for turning or small projects. I have another bin for burning in my wood stove. From time to time I'll go "shopping" in the burn bin for a project or throw some from the good bin into woodstove if low on burning materials.
 

pcooper

Phillip Cooper
Corporate Member
I took my pile like that and made some chaotic cutting boards, the boards don't have to be all the same size or species to look nice, looks like a mix of many tiny parts, has a look that lots of people like. I have a hard time getting rid of anything larger than a pen blank.
 

zapdafish

New User
Steve
each project I work on has its dedicated trash can for their scraps, when project is done trash is emptied, lol. It's pretty handy, keeps all scraps that could be used as spacers etc separated by project. but my scrap output is much smaller
 

Hjanes

Harlan
User
Check with art teachers in local schools before trashing them. Some teachers value the pieces, and most teachers never have sufficient budget for materials.
 

mpholway

Board of Directors, Events Director
Matt
Staff member
Corporate Member
Willem, very impressive pile! I use them to feed my fire pit habit. My biggest problem is that from May to September it is too hot in NC for a fire.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
I leave them on the floor or whatever horizontal surface they were last on until I get annoyed enough to throw them away. Sometimes while they are sitting around, they are the right size to be used for something.
 

Charles Lent

Charley
Corporate Member
Most of what I see in your photo is too good to burn or waste. When I through scrap wood out, the whole piece almost always fits in my closed hand. Those would be stacked neatly and used for something. The tiny pieces, well...

Charley
 

AllanD

Allan
Corporate Member
Alright, I'm a bit of a hoarder. I keep more than I should, but you just never know when you might need just that size!
 

David Turner

David
Corporate Member
My neighbor builds nativity scenes and so he likes to have different colors of woods to differentiate clothes, robes, etc. so I keep a box at the end of my table saw and when something is too small for future projects it goes into his box. When the box is full, I drop it off at his house.
 

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