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Driving home from dinner with my wife I noticed a pallet on the side of the road in front of the granite and marble place I pass every day but never make it to before they close. My wife didn't want to stop so I took her home and promptly ran out the door again.
A full pallet of scrap granite and some marble. I only took a couple pieces off of the top (22" x 26" and 20" x 26") but plan to grab some of the bigger pieces in the morning. There are even a couple pieces that looked to be about 1.25" thick... too far down the stack to deal with tonight though. Hopefully in the morning.

That junk is heavy....

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Christian, there is a place off of Michigan St that I raid. Occasionally they will have broken pieces out there, but not the size you snagged.   Great fine. Now keep an eye out for their wood. The one I raid gets a lot of their stuff from Brazil. I have gotten mahogany, mahogany cousins and something that is seriously heavy with big pores. Its cream and pinkish. Great stuff.

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Aoibeann

That's it. I'm gonna move to the US....

So I guess it would be rude of me to tell you that I cleaned up some stuff I picked up last night and was rewarded with enough stock to make at least 3 necks if not 4 and a couple of head or tail blocks as well. I'm not 100% positive its mahogany, but it looks an awful lot like it, the color is more pink though. At the very least I'll make a couple of necks out of it for practice.

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Aoibeann

Pink could be an African variety (Khaya's often pink-ish, slightly coarser grained, but otherwise very mahogany-like), weight's in the same ballpark, stiffness can vary a great deal (only downside, really)

Sweet score Lillian! So... where did you say this place is again? I wonder what other types of places are discarding usable wood? Do you remember the barrels of scrap at Dusty Strings? Lots of bubinga and even koa. 

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils - Louis Hector Berlioz

Chansen / C hansen / C. Hansen / Christian Hansen - not a handle.

Christian

Christian, off of Michigan, just behind the DoT's yard. I forget the street its on, but its one of several stone slab importers in the neighborhood. If you cruise Sodo, you'll come across several places that just toss pallets out. There is a place on 1st, across and a couple buildings north of Crosscut that gets in books and papers from somewhere tropical. Lots of pickings there, but not a lot of length to it, but if you are looking for binding material, it'll work fine. Just be aware of your nail holes.

I was told about, but have yet to find, a place down in Auburn that deals with metal and occasionally gets shipments in on oak. I have a couple of 4"x3"x30+" pieces that I wish I could remember where I scored them from. Most of it looks like crap until you get it cleaned up. I look for anything that isn't obviously pine. But even then I've found some decent spruce that ended up as the frame for the dog house. They were true 2"x4"s.

Look for the stone importers that get their stone in 2"x4" frames that are bolted together. Better chance of getting usable wood from them.

As for the scraps at Dusty Strings, I know how you can get your hands on those. The Woodcraft store off of Michigan has them out front in big boxes. You can get some decent deals in there too.

Have fun hunting.

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Aoibeann

Ive scored some perfect quarter maple (?) off of I think appliance pallets. It is sick how much wood pallets go through. Its rough cut , so it always looks like crap. and screw nail holes are always an issue. but my stuff cleaned up nice.

You can sometimes score thick granite from countertop people (for plane blade true up) The sink holes in countertops are 'scrap'. Usually over 1/2" thick.