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So

I have always wanted to ask you folks what you do with all the little offcuts and scrap pieces of wood the accumulates in the shop. You know the pieces, the remains from the back after cutting out the profile. The remains from the neck billets if you do a multi-piece laminated neck and get two necks per billet. The small pieces of plywood that remains from making jigs.

So................what is the point in which you will just toss the stuff in the trash and what will you keep?

Is there a particular size which you will hold onto? Give me some ideas please.

Here is a picture of what I think needs to go into the trash however these pieces have been hanging around the shop for about 3 years now.

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"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

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I have lots of that stuff too. I keep it in a box that I'm always rummaging thru.
Another thing I do.....When I start processing a new guitar, I almost always take a set of bindings off the set of sides before I bend them. Most side sets are plenty wide enough so why let the wood end up as a cutoff. I take it first and either put it in my stash or use it for matching bindings on the same guitar.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I have been making earrings. Anything with good color or figure I sand to 600 and put a coat of tru-oil on and then oooo steel wool it. That one piece of curly maple there would get you maybe 10 pairs. Things like simple rectangles are really popular and can easily sell for $10 a pair (it can also buy some goodwill with friends!). Lately I have been buying lumber and cutting off a piece and paying for the board with that little offcut. I save most everything, even little pieces of plywood come in handy. I cut the biggest squared off piece I can from the offcut and throw it in my plywood box.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

i have had offcuts which were suitable for use as bridge plates, laminating blocks, solid blocks, headstock wings, binding, linings, repair stock for patches and cleats, small parts in jigs and fixtures, handles, and of course the inevitable finish testing, and no doubt things i've forgotten to mention. i've seen examples of potential uses in threads here in making of rosettes, headplates, inlays, etc.

i'm also an inveterate hoarder who hates to waste anything and am also fortunate to have a bit of space to save/store things. and all to often in the past when i've gotten the cleaning bug and thrown out "useless" stuff, i've regretted it soon after when i needed that "useless" item for some purpose.

i know some consider me crazy for keeping such stuff, but it has served me well.

Wait till you get about 10 pounds and sell it at the next swap meet. Someone will buy it.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

The bindings idea is a great one.

I stash a decent amount away for repairs.

I keep all that stuff too.
I get bridge patches of my rosewood back sets. Somtimes I can get nice end grafts.
They do come in handy sometimes, but they also present a storage problem.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I always keep that stuff, and I will mark what guitar it came from. I have had to fall back on them scraps in the past to match up a mistake

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

If you could find someone who does intarsia, Im sure they could use it rather than throwing out - wooden inlay is getting more popular it seems so mabye they dont have to go in the trash after all - especially on Live Earth day

Who knows mabye you would be really good at intarsia yourself Rod?
Cheers
Charliewood
(PS Regarding Live Earth day... mabye people could find time to sign a petition saving something they love or some other such eco friendly thing today?)

I keep a 30 gallon garbage can next to my bandsaw. If there is any potential whatsoever for the scrap pieces being used in the future, I throw it in that garbage can. Stuff that has no value at all for anything go into the regular garbage can. I use it for end wedges, bridge plates, and most of the other stuff listed above. I hate to waste anything.

Today, I am making binding out of some ash and sycamore that I had left over from another build. Gives me something to do on a saturday.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Oh, don't get me wrong. I will keep a piece of wood if I think it has a use.

But since I have such a small shop (185 sft) and limited room, I was just wondering what other folks do with the off cuts.

I guess most of us are all the same. "I can use that someday" applies to most of the offcuts we make.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I heat partially with a woodstove. 'nuff said.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Got a big pile of it,Come and get it.
                  James

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James W Bolan
Nashville Tennessee

I too save and try to use every thing, even if I use it for kindling... it gets used.

I use a lot of wood in the inlays I do. This is something I did a while back, after I couldn't find the piece I needed.

I'm not a neat-freak, but now when I get a little off-cut that looks promising, I know where to put it.

Long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Bob, thats a great idea!!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

My gosh, this forum is so inspiring!! That's what I intend to do, Bob, when I have enough wood.

Bob, cool idea man! I like it.

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My Facebook Guitar Page

"There's really no wrong way, as long as the results are what's desired." Charles Fox

"We have to constantly remind ourselves what we're doing....No Luthier is putting a man on the moon!" Harry Fleishman

"Generosity is always different in the eye of the person who didn't receive anything, but who wanted some." Waddy Thomson

I started saving mine a while back after reading a post on here and people were showing the stacks of cutouts they had. I now number and date each one as well.

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Reguards,

Ken H

Yeah,I'm a saver of everything too. Bob long,
That is a nice organized scrap bin you have there.
Mine is all thrown in a big dusty box.Got to get organized here!

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

James where do you live?

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Zac

Anchorage Alaska

Finshed my 1st! See #1 here

Okay - now this is something I can finally weigh into with some authority! :) and especially in the size shop I have. This last year, I finally figured out how to do it - only took me close to 300 guitars and the associated scrap.

What I did is I went through all the back and side pieces and sorted them and the same thing with all the bracing material. I sorted everything into copier paper boxes, so in one box I have all the pieces that may make headstock overlays, rosettes, anything of size.

The next box contains smaller pieces that would work for end grafts.

Another little box for heel caps and such.

All of these would be the most figured stuff. I have another box that I would just consider bridge plate material.

And then I have a long box from the side rips that I keep to cut into binding.

The same goes for bracing material. Long pieces in one box, even if they're skinnier, short pieces in another. Mahogany, if it won't make an end or tail block, is firewood.

I save certain pieces of top wood for repairs, but only a few. Lance commented on saving these for future repairs on guitars. Get over it :) the chances of doing a spruce patch on one of your guitars is rare. (Hank Mauel has had to do one and I'm going to have to go down and help him throw stuff out of his shop since he's such a pack rat. It will probably take us a whole day!)

All the mahogany and spruce I either give to my neighbor for kindling and save a little for myself. Italian makes a really good fire starter.

What you need to do is make a plan, throw everything in piles, turn the ban saw on, and start cutting them into pieces to throw in the boxes. And then as you're building guitars, if you see something that needs to go into one of the boxes, cut it and do it immediately.

The last option is to donate all your off cuts and pieces of binding materials to the local high school woodshop to use to make jewelry boxes. They will love you. You've got something they can't afford to supply.

Lance

Organizing stuff is nice, but it will keep accumulating several times faster than you will ever use it. I am among those who find it hard to ever throw out or burn a piece of good wood. I found that the cure for this is to move your shop. Unfortunately, the cure is worse than the disease.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

I save all my scraps in a box. Then maybe once or twice a year I have the grandkids over for a campout. We build a big fire in the back yard, and I keep whatever I think is large enough to use. The rest becomes fuel for the fire.

A lot of stuff that size is just right for making a set of matching
coasters that you can give to a customer along with his/her
guitar.  Laminate them if you have to.



I remember seeing someone who turned out matching pens for customers
from the offcuts of drop tops on electrics...Larry Davis maybe?