glenn bradley
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Plywood and composite scrap
- Thread starter glenn bradley
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Mike Stafford
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If they made sheets of these materials the right size there wouldn't be so many scraps. 
When I was making jewelry boxes I accumulated lots of plywood scraps. It seemed like I was wasting as much as I was using. I guess I should have designed my boxes to more efficiently use the plywood. Of course I was using 1/8" and 1/4" plywood in those days so the scrap pile was not nearly as heavy as yours.
On occasions I did find similarly sized scraps and cut them to the same size and made a batch of boxes that were the same design and size. I seldom did production runs of the same item and when I did this to reduce the plywood scrap pile it was because of my guilt about wasting so much "good wood".
I also found these scraps useful for making jigs, extension fences and waste blocks. I still had lots of pieces that were relegated to the fireplace.
To further complicate my waste plywood scrap problem there was a salvage lumber yard in a nearby city that on occasion sold damaged sheets of Baltic birch plywood. These sheets are 5 feet by 5 feet. They weren't the right size either. I used them to make shop furniture and jigs for my table saw. On one trip he had a few sheets of 1 1/4" (32mm). I have never seen that particular thickness for sale anywhere. I bought all of those (they were $10 each). I built a portable planer stand and my router table from that material. It was heavy as lead. The scraps from my Baltic birch were too good to throw away.....
When I was making jewelry boxes I accumulated lots of plywood scraps. It seemed like I was wasting as much as I was using. I guess I should have designed my boxes to more efficiently use the plywood. Of course I was using 1/8" and 1/4" plywood in those days so the scrap pile was not nearly as heavy as yours.
On occasions I did find similarly sized scraps and cut them to the same size and made a batch of boxes that were the same design and size. I seldom did production runs of the same item and when I did this to reduce the plywood scrap pile it was because of my guilt about wasting so much "good wood".
I also found these scraps useful for making jigs, extension fences and waste blocks. I still had lots of pieces that were relegated to the fireplace.
To further complicate my waste plywood scrap problem there was a salvage lumber yard in a nearby city that on occasion sold damaged sheets of Baltic birch plywood. These sheets are 5 feet by 5 feet. They weren't the right size either. I used them to make shop furniture and jigs for my table saw. On one trip he had a few sheets of 1 1/4" (32mm). I have never seen that particular thickness for sale anywhere. I bought all of those (they were $10 each). I built a portable planer stand and my router table from that material. It was heavy as lead. The scraps from my Baltic birch were too good to throw away.....
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I took that approach when I was making jewelry boxes, but it seems nobody wanted 2' x 4' jewelry boxes.
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If you put a $100 price tag on them with the appropriately blah blah blah story line I bet you could sell dozens.
Chuck Ellis
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I glued up some plywood scraps, cut it to pepper mill blank size and turned a small pepper mill from it... turned out rather interesting... US made plywood tends to have a few voids, but what we got from Brazil back in my previous life seemed to have fewer.
Mike Stafford
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I tried gluing up plywood scraps to turn a bowl in the manner of Rude Osolnik. It was a less than satisfactory experiment. I used regular old plywood and the soft inner layers combined with all the voids to make a rather ugly bowl. Perhaps if I had used my Baltic birch plywood scraps I would have had a better result. Alas, I didn't.
glenn bradley
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That looks great Chuck. Maybe I shouldn't sell that lather after all
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Mike Stafford
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Never tried OSB but I did turn a bowl from some laminated veneer lumber scrap. It finished okay after eating up my bowl gouges as I think I had to sharpen the gouge with each revolution of the blank. I wouldn't be surprised if OSB also ate the edge off a bowl gouge.
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Yeah, it was not very kind to sharp edges. As expected, the bowl was overall a colossal waste of glue and time, but it made for a funny photo to pull out from time to time.
Chuck Ellis
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Makes me think of a bowl made from straw or rope... it's not pretty but someone would snatch it up if you offered it for sale.
As Frank Fusco says, people are funny critters.