What do you do with your scrap?

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Okay we all have to admit it...sure we whittle down a board time and time again, moving it from the stock pile to the scrap pile, then back to the scrap pile again....But at some point scrap wood...well becomes scrap wood. It just has no more practical use left in it. So my question is simple, what do you do with this scrap wood?

Since I started this post, I guess I'll go first.

As a model-maker, the exotic wood gets whittled down to the smallest of pieces and pretty much goes out of my shop as sawdust. The domestic wood I have a surprising amount of. The reason is because I harvest my own wood and tend to have a lot of wany edges, knots and other unusable lumber left over. In any case most of my scrap wood gets burned. My planer chips however and sawdust gets placed around the plants and shrubs around my house.

Now its your turn. Where is the final resting place of your scrap wood?
 
If the wood is a reasonable size, and dry, I save it for my buddy with a wood stove. It it is just small stuff, I toss it, wet stuff that it too small, that gets tossed too.

I have constant scraps creep.:D
 
I do both keep and utilize a lot of scrap wood around and have finally organized my shop and environs with lumber racks, sheet good racks, and cut-off bins that mean that (usually) the stuff is not getting in the way and that I can find the piece that I need for a job.

After my scrap has been reduced to a size that I expect I will no longer use it, that scrap goes into a woodpile or bin destined for the wood stove in the shop. The primary source of heat in the workshop is the stove (I also have an externaly vernted propane space heater but the thermostat on it is set very low so that it only comes on to keep the place from freezing at night or when we are away).
 
I gave away most of my previous scrap or "prototypes" to my neighbor to burn in his woodburner. I hope to get my own woodburner hooked up for the shop soon and burn it here instead of giving it away. Since I got the lathe I'm finding I cut the desirable stuff into smaller pieces for pen blanks and just put them in boxes...but a guy can only use so many pen blanks. So I guess I'll just be burning it for BTU's in the shop.
 
i pay to have it hauled off.....sometimes tipping the container 2-3 times in a week if i`m running moulding.....tod
 
Sawdust and planner chips go to the fence rows as mulch.

When it gets down to scrap it goes out back to a burn pile. Now that winter is here will probably start saving the smaller stuff for kindling for the FP.
 
I do some shooting in my yard. The woods behind my property do not belong to me so I am making a 'sorta' backstop with scrap wood. This includes stuff from my shop and branches I pick up from the yard. The stack is about 7' high and I keep adding.
 
scrap wood procession

the wood gets cut to size for the project at hand the left overs go into a bin big stuff and small stuff then as the need arizes i check out he big bin and when the small bin gets full its headed for the kindlin pile in the house for warmth.
 
Kindlin for the pieces that are too much of a bother to lean against a wall or stuff in a corner. I usually generate lots of kindlin during shop cleanups. As soon as I burn the stuff I find just the perfect use for it, but too late.
 
We have a city trash can and a city recycling can (very good sized). All my wood extras, including sawdust/chips go in there. Some of them make their way into our fire place, but we don't use that very often. Before this, I was overwhelmed with scraps. I hate getting rid of them, but I would be up to my eyeballs if I didn't.
 
Dust collector to trash, I separate the jointer/planer chips, which often get used as mulch, the small sticks cut into kindling (even though most fireplaces here, including ours, are gas) BUT

A friend had a pickup full of scrap wood, and found the local school in his area was thrilled to get it for the shop class. I called the school in my area, and the shop teacher wasn't willing to pick it up.
 
I am not sure what size you consider scrap,but my freind has made small ennd table tops out of scraps.Some he make into square and glues them to a sheet of plywood. The other style he has made are wedge shaped peices assemeld into a circle. What about useing them for cutting boards?
 
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