Uses of log scraps - looking for ideas

[Hunter1000]

Hi everyone,

New to sawing but loving my new LT-15 from Woodmizer. Those folks are incredible with their customer service. 

Question for group that may have been a topic previously but can't find.  Are there creative uses you all have for the log waste from the mill?  Of course the cathedral shaped pieces from thick end of log, and also the long strips that have bark still attached?  Hate to just burn those up if you all have seen cool ideas/uses.

Thanks much!

[Savannahdan]

You could offer them up to local woodworkers either for sale or free.  They can use them for some of their projects. 

[Brad_bb]

Well if you are real wood miser you won't have much scrap.   The very outside of the cathedral is a scrap piece. The first cathedral you can cut into a small board that has a pretty pattern. The second cathedral piece, if the log is large enough, well you'll do a longer board and maybe a couple stickers from the sides of it.   The next board will take the outside of the rest of the log and will be mostly scrap but you might get a couple short short boards from it or stickers. The next cut might be stickers or might be boards.  I try to get all of the sticker material out of the waste as I can. I never seem to get ahead on stickers, probably because I'm keeping short boards as opposed to turning them into stickers.   On some ash logs, I've saved the outside slab cut, debarked of course, and will use them to screw into an interior wall of the house and drywall/plaster up to it, so it looks like the tree is growing right out of the wall.  Anytime I have actual scrap, what little there is, we cut to length for my off bearer's man cave wood stove.   Short boards can eventually be used for something, whether part of flooring, or to be use when making cutting boards. Sometimes thery'e long enough when building boxes or some other woodworking project.

[drobertson]

I am thinking you pretty much have already thought of some ideas, but, just want to compare with what others are doing with theirs,, no harm in this,, for the production guys, most goes to waste I bet, while others like myself, that try to saw production :-[ but give it a go anyway,  see some of theses and do save them back. Book ends, use your imagination, saw off one edge and match the live edges to corresponding pieces, it really boils to your imagination, vision.  Not sure of your wood working/finishing skills, but I've seen some amazing stuff used from what is normally considered if not a waste, a waste of time, being new has many benefits which carry lots of enthusiasm.  Just remember to sticker well,  this is just another learning curve in the whole process,, wishing you the best in your en devour.

[Hunter1000]

Thanks gents.  Good ideas!  Was thinking of using the long barked pieces stacked horizontally to create wall on deer ground blind using 4 stakes from white oak sawed up.  Since up off ground thinking will last a good while.  If anyone else has other ideas thanks in advance for responding.

[cutterboy]

Hi Hunter. The edgings that come off the sides of the flitches I cut up into one foot lengths and sell as hardwood kindling. I make up bundles and tie them up with baling twine and sell them for $5.00 apiece. I also sell firewood so I put the bundles of kindling out by the road beside the firewood. It sells pretty well.
   



 


 


 

   Good luck to you.....Cutter

[thecfarm]

POSTON comes up with some mighty fine things.

[Kbeitz]

$40.00 a box and you load....



 

[Kwill]

$40.00 a box and you load....



 

Thats quite the wood hauling cart

[r.man]

Hey Cutter is firewood payment on the honor system?

[deepsouth.us]

I saw a good bit of pine cedar and various oaks.

The pine scrap gets donated to whomever wants it, and the reminder gets burned. The small cedar waste goes to kindling while the big cedar waste is bundled with webbing and sold for $15-$20/bundle. The oak scrap goes to firewood.

[hbeane]

Hunter great question...I am happy To see Another LT-15.  Newbie.. I. Am brand new just assemble my mill this weekend..I also am not sure what to do with all the EXTRA...I don't really call anything scrap or trash..No mater what I am doing I save everything...I think cutting stickers out of every piece I can is my plan for now, since I have none I want to get plenty ahead if that is possible...I think the first piece would be neat to use for siding for something...Kinda like the deer blind idea also...Good luck

[YellowHammer]

Thanks gents.  Good ideas!  Was thinking of using the long barked pieces stacked horizontally to create wall on deer ground blind using 4 stakes from white oak sawed up.  Since up off ground thinking will last a good while.  If anyone else has other ideas thanks in advance for responding.

Here's my favorite deer hunting blind, cedar slabs nailed to a frame surrounding the base of this big tree.  The deer and turkeys will literally walk with 10 feet and not even care.  Can you see it?  The deer can't. 8)


I nailed a good bit of scrap together and made fish attractors for my pond and some local lakes.

I sell the log butts and cutoff offs to local wood turners for $10 if they load them, $20 if I have to help, and $30 if I have to use the tractor ;D. I sell a high percentage of what I cut off.

Big market for wedding serving platters and cake stands, sold a few like these today.


Got any muddy farm roads? Pave them with the slabs, side by side, like a wooden walkway to support your vehicles.

Anyway, lots of uses for the scraps, just depends on how much you are making.

[Brad_bb]

Kbeitz, one summer my mom decided to put out a bunch of extra tomatoes from her garden at the end of her driveway on a nice oak folding TV tray table with a sign that said free.  So someone took the tomatoes AND the TABLE!

So be careful with your cart and wood box!

[MikeON]

Our local church hosts a Festival of Trees every year in December. A few years ago, the theme was "Log Cabin Christmas".  They dug through my softwood slab pile and got enough material to put this together:

[Hunter1000]

Wow, excellent ideas everyone.  Keep em coming and the pictures help a lot.

[Brad_bb]

Kids play house or jungle gym siding is not a bad sounding idea. ...unless modern society determination it's too dangerous cause a kid could get a splinter (sarcasm).

[Peter Drouin]

 

  

  

 


sell chips and make money. ;D

[Dad2FourWI]

@Peter - wow, that is quite a chip pile!!!!  ;D

[cutterboy]

Hey Cutter is firewood payment on the honor system?

Yes. I have a little cash box there for the money. I haven't been stiffed yet.

[Tom the Sawyer]

Many of my clients have never had a log milled before, so we'll discuss what they want to do with their lumber.  Hearing those descriptions can give you a lot of insight into their knowledge and skill levels.  Since they are my off-bearers, I don't like to slab heavy (don't want to wear them out) and I will take slabs down in thicknesses they might be able to use. 

Some have no interest, if they toss them on the burn pile I'll slab as heavy as they can handle.  Others appreciate the possibilities in the odd pieces that come off when milling crooked logs or those with sweep.  Antler mounts, clock faces, bookends, turnings, carvings... there are many possibilities.  They learn to anticipate the cathedral grain of a horn, or the elongated oval of a hump.  Common thicknesses may help them fill out a layer in the drying stack, or just provide weight for the top of the stack.

I have a few that ask to dig though the slab pile, which is fine if they don't make a mess.  One guy has never had a log milled, but owns a laser engraver and is seeking stock for signs or plaques.  More than once I've heard the comment, "can you believe someone threw this away?"  I milled on-site for a client who was cleaning up the scrap when his wife got home.  She spied one scrap of walnut and came up with an alternative use for it.


 

[Hunter1000]

Thanks much Tom - love the ideas and input.