We generate offcuts throughout the year in the workshop.
Chopped tails, tenon cheeks, waste from miters, offcut ends, pieces of dowel, slivers from rippings… you name it. If there is something big enough, I will do my best to save it for another use. What is left is generally burned in the woodstove. That said, it’s not the most convenient thing to reach into a container, grab a bunch of small irregularly shaped pieces of wood with sharp points and edges, and reach into the stove box and sprinkle them about. You might, no, you will get burned that way.
At the initial stage of building a fire the offcuts are not helpful, unlike their featherweight cousins:
Once the fire builds and is fully underway, then they can be added very nicely packaged like this:
I save all the bits and pieces in sheetrock buckets and then pack them in the flat cardboard boxes we recycle otherwise. They burn very hot.
Hi Tico,
What do you do with plywood/mdf offcuts?
-Eric
Very good Tico, I burn most of mine at the workshop in the woods. I have a constant battle with rising floor levels due to waste shavings, so burning helps keep them down, hardly warms the open sided place, but does give a good ambiance for passing visitors/customers.
KRs
Richard
More than ever I’m trying to generate as little waste of those materials as I can since it’s to the landfill with them, unfortunately.
Beautiful view out your window!
Thanks, Joe. I love gazing out there in all seasons.
All the trees in the near and foreground are ones we planted. Time goes by.
A great idea! I will be boxing up those small offcuts.
Tico, since we moved back to Northern KY to a home with no fireplace, my cut-offs go in a can and get used n the neighborhood fire pit, or one of the neighbors will use them when camping. See you at WIA later in he year.
[…] few weeks back Tico Vogt wrote about how we deals with his offcuts – they are put to use heating his home. I’ve been meaning to implement a similar […]