When you do various projects using wood there is scrap left over: some pieces large, other pieces quite small. Anyone care to comment on what your policy is as to what you keep vs what you throw away? (I notice I have been keeping very small pieces and am starting to think that is a mistake)
I don’t have much storage space, so I have to be fairly ruthless. Anything that will fit into the trash bin, I definitely throw away. That would generally be under 2 feet or so (talking about dimensional lumber). I’d probably keep anything 4 feet or over. Standards are also very different for hardwood vs. fir, since hardwood lumber tends to be expensive. But I don’t work with hardwood much so for me that’s kind of moot. If you’re talking about sheet goods like plywood, I would certainly keep anything 1/4 of a sheet or larger, and again, I would save smaller pieces for better quality wood.
I do a lot of woodworking and also have very limited space. Expensive woods I will try to make room for anything over 6" long. Domestic hardwoods I keep over about 2 feet. Soft woods i keep just enough for small projects I may need a scrap for.
My husband used to save just about everything, but not so much any more. Much of the small stuff ends up in the fireplace with the logs, since that’s how he heats his shop. But it depends on the wood, too. As his shop has gotten more crowded, he saves less and less.
One shelf has a pile of small pieces: 2x4 pine, 1x6 oak, all sorts of stuff, in lengths as small as ~4 inches. A deliberate collection of these is handy to have around as quick shims/spacers, hammering blocks, places to mix epoxy, test pieces for wood router setup, etc. As mentioned above though, one needs to be ruthless when it comes to managing a collection, lest it grow to hoarder proportions. These days, I only add new pieces when old ones get too trashed to keep in the collection.
All of it. Big pieces stacked up, small pieces in a box. A lot of small pieces end up with glue or paint on them and eventually get tossed.
keep what you have space for.
small pieces are used for blocking, bracing and cleats in projects.
also wood is used for blocking, bracing and elevation on a temporary basis. keeping multiple numbers of pieces in the various sizes is useful for this.
Unfortunately I have a lot of storage space, which means I keep too much scrap wood lying around. It does come in handy, even the small pieces, but not often enough to justify the pile. Once every few years I’ll clean out the shop and start the process over.
I’m having the same problem right now. Doing a project where I have 60 scrap pieces of 2’ x 4’ quarter inch plywood, 60 the same size of masonite. Seems too big to just throw out, but I don’t really have space to keep them.
2 by 4 feet each? Just put an ad on Craigslist, free for picking it up. Keep a few pieces for yourself.