Just happened to measure my scrap bin today (the numbers blew my mind)

I was cleaning out the shop last weekend and decided to weigh all the offcuts from the last 3 months. Turns out I tossed almost 40 pounds of usable maple and cherry (stuff smaller than 12 inches but still good for drawer parts or small boxes). Has anyone else ever tracked their scrap weight, or am I just the weirdo with a bathroom scale in the dust pile?

3 comments

3 Comments

lane.eric2mo ago

Is there a reason you were tracking it in the first place? I started keeping a bin for anything over 4 inches wide and it helped me stop buying small stock for jigs and drawer boxes. I just sorted my stuff by width instead of weight and it saved me from buying a whole board when I really only needed a few strips.

faith6842mo ago

Honestly, 40 pounds over 3 months doesn't sound like that big of a deal to me. You're probably just being a little dramatic about it, man. Scrap is scrap, and unless you're running a pro shop where every board foot costs you an arm and a leg, it's not worth stressing over. Tbh, I've never once weighed my offcuts and I doubt most people have either. It seems like more of a head game than a practical thing, you know?

thomas.parker2mo ago

Different strokes and all that, but I actually found @lane.eric's sorting method super helpful for reusing scraps on smaller projects. Weighing your offcuts might be overkill, but sorting by width saved me from buying a whole 8-footer every time I needed a couple of strips.