Recently I befriended the owner of a large furniture-cabinet shop. To my surprise he burns daily two-three wheelbarrows full of scraps, most often solid red oak, maple, hickory, mohogany etc.The pieces vary from 3/4″ x2″ X 40″ to 3/4″ x 6″ x 40″. Yesterday he was building several large corner cabinets. In the wheelbarrow there were several, quite large, triangular pieces. All the scraps are burned in a large furnace. Any suggestion concerning books or websites where I can find a way to utilize them? Any help is appreciated.
John Cabot
Edited 4/30/2007 11:26 pm ET by JohnCabot
Replies
I suggest you make small boxs etc. I do it all the time
RIch
Edited 5/1/2007 3:15 am ET by TrueGentleman
I forgot to add the Pictures.
Rich
If you have a BBQ pit, the oak and hickory can be used in it. As mentioned before, boxes, but also end and long-grain cutting boards with alternating strips.
Coasters, picture frames, trivets, really big earrings.....
I suspect a businessperson gets to a point of diminishing returns on scrapwood. Even as a glorified hobbyist, I reach a stage where I must make a decision as to whether or not a piece is worth sorting out and stored (which in many cases means "buried"). LOL.
But I do save some stuff for small boxes, temporary bench dogs, tenon wedges, stops, painting/finishing pedastals and so on. And it depends on species, too. If it's ebony, I save every piece down to the size of a pencil nubbin.
John,
I have a bunch of walnut and maple just waiting to be made into a chess board.
Some day
ASK
aah, chessboard. not a lot of walnut and poplar it took me to make this: http://www.pbase.com/jdutta78/image/75312957just make it and finish with tung oil.-jEdited 5/7/2007 2:22 am ET by jdutta78
Edited 5/9/2007 6:11 pm ET by jdutta78
Thank you for responding. The high quality of your objects is inspiring.
John Cabot
To all those who partecipate with great suggestions: THANK YOU!
John Cabot
I make one or two projects each year I call "Scraps". Usually made from boards glued up from smaller strips and mixed woods. I tend to make small tables. A mission style end table with slatted sides will consume a good deal of scraps. I'll make a nice top with the most exotic pieces shown off. My latest used some zebrawood for aprons and three thin stripes in a red oak top as well as two thin stripes in the red oak lower shelf. Legs were hickory. Slats looked a little different and might have been pecan. I also have a plant stand design that consumes 32" or 36" thin strips of whatever flexible wood scraps I have and about 1 bd.ft. round for a round top glued up from other smaller pieces.
Be very cautious, John. You can get yourself hip-deep in scraps before you know it.
I'm notorious for saving "scraps" with the idea that "Someday, I'll make ..................(whatever)". For various reasons, that seldom actually happens, so I periodically have to purge the shop just to get room to work on stuff I'm getting paid for. - lol
I have a couple of 5 gallon buckets full of "exotic" wood scraps (rosewood, walnut, etc), but a couple of times a year, I haul a pickup load of scrap to the recycle center.
Rolling pins. I make them all the time. Use poly glue, glue up on a bias, (2 ½” squares work fine), saw out blanks and turn away. I use mineral oil for a finish.
I don't like rolling pins. My wife could use it against me. Lemme tell ya, they hurt like hell.
I make doll furniture. Rocking chairs are my favorite, couches are fun too.
I also make bird houses that look like cabins; complete with siding, shingles, windows, chimney and a front porch with turned columns.
You must have very happy birds.
Mine just uses a rock.
a rock .........
Jeez, don't give my missus any idears, huh.
Toys, and games. Maple makes wonderful blocks; cut it, sand it, add a little die or shellac if you want. Little wooden trucks or trains, little wooden houses, tracks and trestles for the little wooden trains in the little wooden village.
Cribbage boards come readily to mind. chess, and backgammon boards
Intarsia, could be fun. If you want to make things for kid's rooms coloring books are a great pattern source. Stained glass pattern books are also quite good. It is also quite easy to develop patterns from images on the computer.
Boxes, and trays. Picture frames. Desk sets. Turning small things; pens and pencils; toy tops.
Kaleidoscopes
A good source of practice wood to learn relief carving on.
1/4-scale models of new designs.
The old "Best of Fine Woodworking" series had a book on "Small Projects", many of which would be well suited. Percy Blandford wrote a book, "Woodworking With Scraps", that shows up on ebay from time to time. He also did at least two books on "weekend" projects many of which are small and would be suitable.
toys for kids are great fun!!
these pics have been posted before, but here's a couple of ideas
i have plans available
Pen barrels if you are into making pens. Knife handles for the hickory. Meat tenderizing hammers/handles. Mallet handles/heads. If you want to laminate you can get cane length materials. You can also make stave buckets/planters with the right wood. Bird houses, feeders. Small shelves. Hickory would make good peg material in a shaker peg shelf. Hickory dowels would also be strong. Dutchmen butterflies. Finish samples... make a book or board with numerous finishes applied with and without stains. Small blocks drilled for storing these samples on a lanyard would also work or stack them on a dowel and spin out the ones you want to see. Bookends, drawer organizers, dress top organizers, humidors, drawers for jewelery boxes...
John,
Some of my maple scraps become cutting boards for the kitchen.
I use scraps to light small fires under the arses of the undermotivated.
John,
This might kind of sound some what odd but hows about using some glue and turning the small pieces into biiiig pieces Kind of a mosaic look I suppose.
Sincerely,
Jim at Clark Customs
I was just thinking the other day a great topic would be just this!
Here's some my ideas
Shims, inlays, Paint stirrers, Gluing cauls, blocks, Sanding blocks, Glue up scrap for a mallet, Drawer pulls, Edge banding, stop blocks, file handles, drawer slides
Evening John...
With pieces you mentioned that are 40" long, I wouldn't over-look some large items that scrap can be used for with the use of lamination or jointery.
I get some nice Indonesian rubber wood from pallet bases at work and quite often my hard-wood supplier sells culls and early-wood at $.025 on the dollar. Not museum quality, but I use it to build some donation items for shelters and even myself, as I hate to see any form of wood wasted. Surprising what it can become with a little clever thought!
Regards...
Sarge.. jt
Amazing, what a beautiful bench!! It is certainly an inspiration for all of us to use what is otherwise burnt. Thank you for sharing such a high quality piece.
John Cabot
C
Afternoon John...
Thank you sir.. the majority of the bench top is scraps. The entire base is made from a single doug fir beam from an old civil war warehouse that was being torn down here in Atlanta. I had ripped it up into edible sizes and had to laminate it back together to get the thicker sizes I required when I decided to use it. With any kind of luck, it will be around to serve a purpose for another 150 some odd years!
Regards...
Sarge.. jt
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