Ok, I know this is an issue that everyone of us deals with one time or another and I definitely need some intelligent (?) insight here. Over the many years that I have done woodworking, I have always been a bit of a packrat with any cutoff pieces from projects. Now with more of the detailed models being done, I find that I have boxes and 5 gal pails of 1/16" 1/8" 3/8" and so on pieces of all sorts of species that I assume I will use, maybe, in some future project. I finish a project, clean up the shop and carefully toss the cutoffs into a bucket or a box, knowing in my heart I might need them in the next project. Sometimes I do; most times I don't.
I will also say some of the pieces are small, say 2x2" or stripes of 1/8" thick and maybe 12 inches long. What I have found is while I am working on a new project, I usually don't use any of those saved pieces because I dont know where the hell they are. SO, here is my question: What you all do with these bits and pieces? I can safely say that there are strips and pieces in my wood rack that are years old but never really used.
I AM A HOARDER and I NEED HELP. My shop is 24x26 and there are at least TEN 5 gal buckets with cutoffs, various cardboard boxes fulfilling the same purpose, and a portable wood rack that holds things I don't even know about. I don't have a fireplace or woodburing stove. But I just can't seem to bring myself to dump them.
Though you do models and can use small bits, I don't, but I still save most anything over 3" in length (with the grain).
I have a lot of sturdy small boxes, about 14"x10"x10". I keep same-species wood in each box if it will fit, Some woods (namely walnut), I have a box for < 1/4", 1/4" to 1/2", 1/2" to 3/4", etc. Having them separated by species makes it easy to find the small bits that can be used in a project. Exotics are all more or less kept together, but for the ones I don't recognize, I'll write in pencil the species.
Longer thin scraps are stored on a shelf, bigger scraps are stored in 55-gallon plastic barrels, separated by species.
It is OCD and getting out of hand, but at the start of every heating season I'll cull out wood for the stove.
mine are stored in these bins above my miter saw bench by species. i only save pieces that are about a foot long. exotic woods ill go down to about several inches, anything shorter usually gets tossed.
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
