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Offcut disease - Is there a cure or at least a support group?

Started by btulloh, February 10, 2016, 10:27:50 AM

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btulloh

I don't know how many people are afflicted by offcut disease, but I seem to have it and have not found a cure.  I have so much material from offcuts that it's hard to manage full size lumber.  Does this sound familiar to anyone?  Somehow I have to find a way to save fewer offcuts  plus get rid of my overstock.  But every time I try to cull them out, every piece looks too good to toss out.

Where does a person draw the line on saving offcuts?  I tend to save anything that doesn't get picked up by the dust collector.  Even those small pieces must have a use somewhere down the line. 

The problem is that offcuts are always too short by 2 inches, just a little too narrow, or just won't work, for some reason.

Can anyone here offer any guidance, or maybe the name of psychologist that specializes in this?
HM126

GAB

My suggestion to you would be to find a local high school with a wood working program and clean house.  In my case, I have a nephew who seemed to gravitate towards thin wood projects and I made a few deliveries of ash, white cedar, maple, hickory, hardhack, and a few other species.
Gerald
W-M LT40HDD34, SLR, JD 420, JD 950w/loader and Woods backhoe, V3507 Fransguard winch, Cordwood Saw, 18' flat bed trailer, and other toys.

Jemclimber

I have this disease as well. If you find a cure, please let me know.
lt15

rjwoelk

I get it as well, then something snaps and I throw it into a bucket and it becomes firewood kindling.  :D
Lt15 palax wood processor,3020 JD 7120 CIH 36x72 hay shed for workshop coop tractor with a duetz for power plant

jueston

my name is justin, and i'm a addicted to saving every wood scrap too...

i recently moved and cut a lot of it up into kindling size pieces for fires, but a lot of it i moved to the new house still sitting in piles of plastic bins sorted by size and species....

when i work exotics its even worse... i will save little tiny scraps, just a few inches long and to thin to use for anything, but i still save it...

Kbeitz

Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

21incher

I have the same problem, but finally convinced myself to burn all the bins I had full of walnut scrap. Makes me wonder why I was so worried about  1 x 1 x 12" pieces of scrap when I have 1500 bf sitting in my pole barn. I think it is because my dad grew up during the depression and taght me to save everything.:)
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

Sparty

Same problem here.  I have thought about making a nice offcut/scrap bin.  Boxes for cherry,walnut, maple, etc.  once the box is full, I have to burn the next piece or swap it out for something in the box.  Doubt it will cure the disease, but one can hope...

justallan1

When I start stumbling and tripping over the scraps I box them up and give them away for the price of shipping to other hobby craft woodworkers. I kind of sort them in boxes by types, some boxes still have good blanks in them and some boxes are live edge stuff for casting.
Most all of mine is box elder burls scraps and I tell the recipient that if they like it when they see it, to toss the site a few bucks.
I can do that here also if someone wants some.
You have to private message me though, so I'll get the notification on my phone.

plowboyswr

I'm a third generation scrap saver. We lost my grandfather 7 years ago, I walked into his garage a little while back and at the end of his work bench sat a box with all sorts of cut off lumber. Looked at the rafters and  wedged here and there is all sorts of lumber and plywood. Picked up the tool I was after chuckled and left. Was in Dad's shop the next day and by his radial arm saw sits an old shipping crate full of cut offs. Wedged in various places was different lumber. Dad has been gone a year and a half now. And the thought hit me about my garage and my box of cut offs I started laughing like the crazy person I am and my brother looking at me like he's going to call the fellers with the white coats, and I had to explain. We both was laughing by the time I got done. ;D
Just an ole farm boy takin one day at a time.
Steve

buzywoodliff

hi, my name is Glen, and I'm a hoarder too. 

i can't help seeing potential in about everything....short odd-ball logs, slabs, cut offs.  but it doesn't stop with the wood products.  old plow points, used nails and screws, baler twine, used oil buckets..... i even have a pile of rocks that are somehow much more interesting than the other millions of rocks.

help me

btulloh

I guess I'm not the only one.  I see nothing wrong, by the way, with the pile of special rocks or the old plow points. 

Old plow points do come in handy around here.  They mostly get cut in half and used for pads on jack stands or sometimes as mending plates.  Old cultivator feet are a little harder to find a purpose for, but they are valuable and must be retained.  Old oil buckets get filled with old oil and taken away, so at least I've got that licked. 

The little blocks and bits of wood that can fit in a box do get handled around here and end up in the stove or just go away, but I have a lot of 25 or 30 inch pieces of stuff, and it just doesn't seem to want to jump in the stove.  In addition there's:
   - router templates for various openings of all sizes and shapes, but never quite right the next time
   - single-use jigs - - to be re-used sometime in the future
   - 10 or 20 bf of many different species left over after every project
   - extra legs and setup stock from every table (never ever just mill out four legs!)
   - many small pieces of baltic birch
   - offcuts from tapering legs - I'll need those one day
   - jungle wood scraps - never through away any jungle wood

That's not to mention all the non-wood treasures.  Of course anything that's metal will eventually be used for something.  Everybody knows that.

It's the stuff that's big enough to be called a board, but not big enough to go in a lumber stack that's causing my problem.  I bet I could cover all the potential uses for those shorts with about $35 worth of lumber and not have to dig around for the right short every time. 

This cold weather is good time to sort out some stuff and work on my new attitude.  At least I know I'm not the only one with the disease.

BT
HM126

scgargoyle

At least wood is relatively light. I hoard metal offcuts, too! Ever try to move a 5 gallon bucket full of tool steel? :D
I hope my ship comes in before the dock rots!

buzywoodliff

I've been giving this some thought.... Maybe we're the ones that are "normal", it's the people that have a neat, tidy work shop without all the clutter that need help.  I'm thinking we could put on a seminar, maybe roast a pig.  Of course we'd have to save the bones and such.... Might need it for soup some day!!!

sandsawmill14

btulloh i think you joined that group when you signed up for ff ;)

buzywoodliff you have to make soup out of something :) :) :)

hudson 228, lucky knuckleboom,stihl 038 064 441 magnum

petefrom bearswamp

Back when I was in NY in the winter, I burned most of my cutoffs to warm my shop.
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

btulloh

I think you're right.  Keeping all this stuff is the real normal.  I just need to catalog everything and barcode it to make it easier to find.  Maybe set up a robotic picker to fetch things efficiently.

This trellis made from old hay rake tines using cultivator feet for brackets proves that stuff eventually gets used:



  

 
HM126

buzywoodliff


WLC

I didn't know that saving perfectly good scrap was a problem.  Guess I've got a dose of that disease too.  I don't even throw framing lumber scraps away, much less good stuff.  Guess I came by it honest.  When I was a kid working with my dad helping build houses he always made me clean up the scrap.  Anything less than 12" got piled up anything over 12 got saved for later use if needed.  Having that stack of longer off cuts saved having to go to the lumber yard and buy a full length piece several times.  I've just always done it as I might need it some day.
Woodmizer LT28
Branson 4wd tractor
Stihl chainsaws
Elbow grease.

Bandmill Bandit

There are a few cures but the best one i have found is a wood burning air tight stove. It really saves on the heating bill too and every piece gives everting it can. No piece is ever too small.
Skilled Master Sawyer. "Skilled labour don't come cheap. Cheap labour dont come skilled!
2018 F150 FX4, Husqvarna 340, 2 Logright 36 inch cant hooks and a bunch of stuff I built myself

terrifictimbersllc

I never remember or have second thoughts about anything that went into the wood stove.  :laugh:

Well, almost never.  This one still hurts. 

Once a friend who worked in a cabinet shop brought me over a big box of scraps for kindling.  They were mostly Honduras mahogany so I saved them with great satisfaction for years.   After all where am I ever going to get some more mahogany?

Whenever the wood pile is short on kindling I can easily go to my shop and come back with enough little pieces to quickly get the fire going.   Well once I was not home a couple days when it was cold and my wife thought she could do the same thing.   Turns out she was right, you can guess what box she helped herself from.  My mahogany.   :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[
DJ Hoover, Terrific Timbers LLC,  Mystic CT Woodmizer Million Board Foot Club member. 2019 LT70 Super Wide 55 Yanmar,  LogRite fetching arch, WM BMS250 sharpener/BMT250 setter.  2001 F350 7.3L PSD 6 spd manual ZF 4x4 Crew Cab Long Bed

samandothers

Do I save cut offs? Yes
Do I have a addiction?  No! I am in denial.  I at least try and separate the future usable sizes to those I could burn.  Though I have not burned any in years.

Did not know by grandfather but my dad had the same issue so I guess it could be passed down.  He was of the generation of 'use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without'!

pine

And how many of us with the "disease" have parents that grew up in the depression?  Nothing is wasted.  Nothing is thrown away that might have a use.  Food is NEVER wasted under any conditions.  Now the millennial generation that is another story.  Throw away society and nothing is kept or repaired, you just replace it.

21incher

Trying to clean up my shop after the last project, I realized that I also have saved every peice of sandpaper that I have used in the last 10 years. 2 boxes full, I think it is a real sickness.  :D
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

Kbeitz

For these people... Don't ever get into the habit of going to the junkyard every week... Or you might not ever see your workbench again. 
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

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