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Looking for fellow packrats

Please tell me I'm not the only one who saves almost every little scrap and offcut because it "might" be "useful" some day. My shed is beginning to look like an explosion at Lumber R Us!

FoggyTown

Reply to
foggytown
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Nope, you're not the only one... ;-)

My parents are children of the 1930's and therefore HATE to throw anything away. Their house is full of stuff "that might be useful to someone someday..." It took many years for me to throw away worn-out shoes that don't fit me anymore and can't possibly fit anyone else. ;-)

My shop is a single-car garage. I have learned to limit myself to one roll-around box of large scraps and two smaller containers of small scraps. When these fill up I force myself to discard the overflow. It hurts, but it's the only thing that lets me continue to walk around in the shop.... ;-)

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

Great topic!

Ditto here with depression era parents. I sort all my scraps by size and species. I tend to save every part of exotic wood (sometimes even the sawdust for small repairs). All but toxic wood planer shavings are used in my daughters ginea pig cage, or as 'instant fire' kindling. Any other small scraps of other wood is used as kindling, and all ashes from the fireplace are used to feed plants and garden. Nothing intentionally goes to waste in my house.

Todd

Reply to
Todd the wood junkie

I used to, until I bought a chiminea. Furniture grade scraps make GREAT firewood!

Barry

Reply to
Ba r r y

scraps of lumber, parts & hardware from old furniture that was reclaimed, you name it, I may not use it tomarrow, or the next day, but I will use it someday

I have even been known to scrounge old brocken stuff to pilfer parts off from

foggytown wrote:

Reply to
Richard Clements

Reply to
Sean Dinh

This is how I manage it:

I have 3 boxes

  1. Kindling (too small to be useful as anything but a shim). Used as firestarters.
  2. Dubious usefulness... offcuts & stuff up a foot or so long. This is the first place to liik for a chunk of wood for a test cut
  3. 1-2 foot pieces that I'm sure that i can use for "something"

I have to cull the bits from time to time and the worst bits end up in the wood stove.

Reply to
Stephen M

chiminea are really low fired ceramics, and don't do well with high temp fires like that one. you might look at carefully to see if it has cracked. it's not fun to fire up one of these, have it roaring away, and have it fall apart.

Reply to
Charles Spitzer

Thanks!

It's a few years old, I'll take a close look at it.

Luckily, it's 10 feet from 450 gallons of water, a hose and a spigot.

Nothing like a 10 foot hole in the deck! ;^0

Barry

Reply to
Ba r r y

I have a 2 car garage, well at least it WAS a 2 car garage, Now it my own personal warehouse, Don't feel bad. If you throw it away you'll be sure to need it one day!

Searcher1

Reply to
Searcher

Oh my God. You're not alone. As well as cut-offs, we have a few rentals that I maintain to the best of my abilities. Wanna talk about a whole lotta stuff? Water heaters, appliances, plumbing, etc. It's a good thing that the Ranch is secluded, or neighbors might be complaining... Tom Work at your leisure!

Reply to
Tom

I save everything. I have a roto bin rack full of nothing but loose screws and hardware I have picked up along the way (my wife is a builder and I always gain a few pounds when I visit her jobs). It seems if it touches the ground they won't bend over to pick it up, no matter what it is. I dumpster dived enough 2x12 WR cedar to build lots of cool stuff. Pavers are always being thrown away and I got enough to build a fireplace, "tile" a 10x20 shed and half of my garage. Good way to cover nasty stucco. I have boxes of hardwood cutoffs too good to throw away but we burn crown molding and base in our fireplace. Light it with a match, burns fast, no smoke, very little ash. That's great when my wife wants a 45 minute fire. They call me Fred Sanford

Reply to
Greg

I have a bigger problem. I build and repair photo equipment. I get all sorts of enlargers, cameras, roll easels, tripods, processors etc that I just can't throw away. I have gears, motors, metal, hardware etc as well as the exotic hardwoods I can't part with. max

Reply to
max

Fri, Dec 10, 2004, 7:47pm (EST+5) snipped-for-privacy@burrverizon.net (Searcher) claims: If you throw it away you'll be sure to need it one day!

The actual rule is, you'll need it within one hour of it being irretrievably gone.

JOAT Remember: Nova is Avon, spelled backwards.

Reply to
J T

My wife has given me an ultimatum; Don't bring it home if you aren't going to use it that day.

Being a contractor, I have a warehouse full of stuff. I can actually go through stacks of stuff and relate it to the job that it came from. I have a 20 yard dumpster that gets hauled off at least once every 2 weeks and I still have a ton of stuff.

Reply to
Robert Allison

Well, I knew I was pretty far down the road when I used a hole cutter to drill 15 holes (each 1 1/2") in 1/2" oak stock to make a perforated gallery rail for a wall shelf . . . and I couldn't bear to throw the little circles away! Maybe some day I'll paste them onto something for a relief effect I guess. Surrrrrrrrrre! FoggyTown "Cut to shape . . . pound to fit."

Reply to
foggytown

round tuits?

Gary

Reply to
GeeDubb

You've got a lot of "Me Too!"s. Not me.

I've got one cutoff bin. The rule is when it's full - something has to come out to make room for something to go in.

Other rules:

- Thou shall not save even medium sized pieces of MDF, Particle Board, Masonite, etc.

- Thou shall not save those long but narrow strips of anything

- Thou is allowed to violate any of the above rules, but put the violations directly in your path where they shall annoy you until you decide to follow the rules again.

Reply to
patrick conroy

make some yoyo's !

skeez

Reply to
skeezics

Ah, that is something like I got to, except I have three; one for "primo" bits; must be over 24" long, usually wider, usually hardwood or premium ply. One Moderate cutoffs; stuff which *might* get used, but typically used for impromptu jig, push stick, etc. If it gets totally full, it is culled for firewood.

One straight off the saw/bench. When it is full, stuff either goes to the other 2 or get burned.

For some reason I have a hard time giving these up. Dunno why, they pretty much never get used, but they are long, dammit!

PK

Reply to
Paul Kierstead

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