Offcuts

[RogerS]

Or more precisely what do you do with yours?

Do you keep them until, like me, you drown in them? How small do you go before you burn them or do you keep every last bit?

I confess I'm a bit of a squirrel as I hate to throw wood away but it's now getting beyond a joke. Having laid about 200 sq m of oak flooring I've got oak offcuts everywhere..too many to store but even if I did I'm not that sure what I'd use them for.

So what do the rest of you do?

 

[joiner_sim]

I'm an offcut junkie too! Going thru your mind, you think, I might need it at some point..... haha just gotta let go with some of the stuff that you have too much off. :lol:

 

[brianhabby]

It very soon gets silly, I think we are all squirrels at heart. We're the same at home, keeping stuff 'just in case'.

I reckon if me & SWMBO sorted each other's stuff out we might actually be able to move in our house :lol:

No idea what the best solution is other than to have a certain amount of space (perhaps an off-cuts box) and don't keep any more than will fit in it. At least that way it stays somewhat contained.

regards

Brian

 

[pren]

Offcut squirrel *raises hand*.

I've just offloaded two small car loads of scraps onto a colleague for his wood burning stove.

Oh yes, they were all absolutley essential at the time. Can't throw that out! I might need it for... something requiring a small peice of wood :roll: :lol:

Of course, having ditched all my scraps, I needed two small peices of 6mm ply the very next day. I'd just gotten rid of a whole load of it to the fire monster! :roll:

Now I will discard anything under 30cm long on the basis that anything longer than that can be made shorter but not the other way round.

Seems to work so far.

Bryn

 

[RogerS]

But when does an offcut become an offcut? 3.6m piece of wood and you end up with 1m spare. Does that constitute an offcut or does it get saved as you might be able to use it at a future date?

BTW I like your box idea, Brian.

 

[Mike-W]

I've got an 'off cut shelf' where I keep wood of all shapes and sizes -mainly hardwood's that are shorter than 3' The shelf get a surprising amount of use, once a year or so I have a chucking out session. I have the equivalent of about a cube of wood up there. I see minimizing wood waste as a bit of a challenge! Only last weekend I was bandsawing a short Yew branch for some wedges for through tenon joints in some stools I have just finished.

Best wishes Mike

 

[richburrow]

I find it hard to let go of offcuts as well.
I had oak left from a flooring job as well, made a jewelry boxes out if it and sold some to some of the kids in my class for their gcse projects.
Another plan I have been brewing is for mirrors. I have some really nice looking waney yew edges which could look nice as a frame. Got a good deal in a charity shop today for three pieces of mirror glass, what this space.
You do have to be ruthless sometimes though because like you say we end up drowning in the bits.

 

[matt]

Hmmm... interesting topic.

I used to keep almost everything and was drowning in lumps of wood that were never the right dimensions...

Then I bought a tablesaw. Suddenly I started to use up some of my offcuts as I ripped them to the size I needed.

Then I bought a bandsaw and, once again, more flexability ripping wider stuff down and other stuff to even smaller dimensions than I dare on the tablesaw.

Now I have plastic crate sitting under a shelf that it will not go under if it is overfull (thus forcing a clear out). The crate determines what lengths fill fit in.

In addition to this I have 3 shelves where I mostly longer pieces and stuff intended for future jobs.

I find having areas that hold stuff that is of a certain length helps me keep it and more importantly find it and actually use it.

 

[Gill]

But when does an offcut become an offcut? 3.6m piece of wood and you end up with 1m spare. Does that constitute an offcut or does it get saved as you might be able to use it at a future date?

1m spare? Yes please! I could probably make a chess set with that much wood, assuming it's about 18mm thick and a decent width.

Now, about that scroll saw you mentioned elsewhere, Roger....

Gill

 

[PowerTool]

Yep,also guilty of keeping everything
Although recently,I did have a clear-out - I reckoned if those short offcuts of pine cladding hadn't been needed in the last three years,then I was unlikely to want them now...
So now,hardwood offcuts I keep (down to bits small enough to make light pulls with),softwood offcuts end up as sticks for my local pub.

Andrew

 

[archersam]

guilty too.
Last year I had a clear out of my single garage and had amassed enough bits of wood "just in case" that I was able to fill up a long wheel base transit with it all. I have no idea how it all fitted into the workshop.

Since moving to my new space I am a little better, but most of my "offcuts" tend to be pieces of wood that I have "saved" from going to the landfill

 

[p111dom]

I bit the bullet last week and took the majority of my off cuts to the tip. You're right, it does get out of hand.I really need to take up pen turning as most of my offcuts are about the right size for this. I have kept some back for jig making and general paint stiring duties etc but I have a lot less than before.

 

[RogerS]

Mmm..reading these gives me the germ of an idea.

My previous 'regime' as such was to use one of those plastic shelf stands. Top shelf and buckling had MFC offcuts from kitchen installs. Next shelf was MDF. Third shelf softwood and finally bottom shelf oak.

I've not touched the stuff on the topshelf for what..oooh...the last year?

Now for the :idea: When I once worked in a company I had my own office. Filing never my strong point, still isn't and probably never will be So I 'invented' my system. Desk piled high was this months stuff. At the end of each month, I'd simply dump the stuff from the top shelf of a three-shelf filing cupboard. Then move the stuff from the other shelves up one shelf and finally clear my desk completely and stick all that on the now-clear bottom shelf - Month+1. Then I'd start all over again.

So extending this to my plastic woodie shelves, don't bother about mixing wood..just adopt the 'top shelf throwaway/burn' policy?

Reckon it's worth a go.

 

[woodbloke]

It also depends on the type of wood. I mean, how big is an offcut of ebony or african blackwood? For those sorts of timber, once a bit becomes the size of a finger nail, it's probably a bit small to do anything useful with (though anything larger can be used to make handles on the lathe) Generally I do keep offcuts until the 'shop is pretty much choked with them and then it's time for a bit of a clear out.
Waka recently let me have some of his offcuts of AWO and I made a small unit for some 'Grommit' mugs out of it, so what's offcuts to one member ain't necessarily so to another :wink: - Rob

 

[Waka]

The problem with off cuts is, where do you draw the line. I'm happy to give them away because as Rob says, off cuts to one is not off cuts to someone else.

 

[wizer]

I can not bare to throw even the tiniest bits away. After reading this thread I have decided to use the very small bits for pens. That will do a number of things: Help me with my turning skills, Help me clear some room and give me a ready supply of 'favour gifts'. Everyone's a winner.

 

[Vormulac]

Following on from an earlier thread, 25 and 30 cm long, 10 to 12 cm wide and between 0.5 to 0.75 inch thick - is that off-cut territory or does that sound like a million pounds worth of timber? (I never work in 'real' wood so have no idea at all what it costs!)

 

[big soft moose]

I'm terible for accumulating wood - not just my own offcuts but also other peoples - the look on swimbos face on seeing the pile of oak off cuts i picked up from malcom (opener) a few weeks back - mind you that was before she realised we need a whole lot of trellises building in the garden.

mind you nothing gets wasted - even the small bits cut off when converting a square blank to round make decent fire lighting kindling for the old dears stove

and at work we are even worse, with virtually every piece of wood we have ever encountered being kept because it might be useful . Our recent workshop refit occasioned a very large bonfire 4ft high with a 6ft flame coming out the top (tho a few of the nicer bits did make their way into my own woodstore - shh dont tell swimbo )

 

[DaveL]

Well I do have the wood burner in the corner and when I find I have trouble moving about I have a clear up.
I never throw wood away, not even shavings, it all gets saved for the wood burner in the winter months which does mean I have a fire wood shed. I almost emptied it this last winter, I have just started the refill process and have noticed to my horror that the side has a crack in it, so before any more goes in, it all has to come out to allow repairs.

Oh the shed was given to me as fire wood.

 

[dickm]

Best solution to offcuts is to move house!
But then you get to your new house and think "there was a piece of x-wood in the stash that would just....... oh, no, d***, it went to the tip"