Another Essay on Scrap Wood

For do-it-yourself (DIY) enthusiasts in ordinary households, there is very little we can do with plastics, empty bottles, copper and iron scraps other than to throw them into the recycle bins.  And  we should recycle them indeed. There is one exception from all of the materials we believe should be recycled that is getting little public support or attention.  Wood has no place in the recycle bin. And yes, getting rid of scrap wood is to throw them away as trash.  Even more tragic is very little is done with salvaged wood from homes destroyed in disaster areas from tornado or hurricane.  A lot of it is hauled away to landfill where they rot or are burned.

I have a special affinity to scrap wood because they served me well when I was learning to do woodworking as a hobby. Initially they were my test pieces in learning to use the first tools I acquired. Along with that practice I often bought used tools too. I have taken a long journey with the hobby I have come to love.  When my earlier projects needed to be set aside to be replaced as my skills progressed to a little higher level, I would dismantle the old ones into scrap material which I would later reuse or re-purpose into better looking projects.

However, I do not go seeking for scrap wood because I believe in finding them serendipitously. There is something about finding them by chance that adds to the allure. Like the pallet in front of the store when I saw it waiting to be hauled away.  I asked the store manager as I was leaving if I can have it.  He helped me load it into the back of my truck. 

Below are part of a few drawers I found at the curve in our neighborhood, waiting to be hauled away.  I knew the quality of the wood when I saw it. I dismantled the drawers into flat pieces.  I've used some for other projects already.

I glued two pieces with a central piece of a different species of wood. When the glue dried I cut the piece in half, like so on the next photo.

I created a cross diagonal contrast by flipping one side and glued the pieces again.

Many years ago a friend gave me some cutoffs of pieces of walnut and oak from a renovation project done at his kitchen. As cutoffs are short pieces I did a couple of small lazy Susan pieces (ball bearing hardware underneath) shown below which served as inspiration for this project,

I proved once again that a circle is really a polygon with infinite number of sides by cutting it on the table saw.  I did not have to make an infinite number of cuts to turn a square into a circle but indeed a circle I made.

 I made another circle for the base and shaped the edges on the router table

Cut a circle at the center.

I think giving a new life to what would have been thrown away scrap pieces was like saving the soul of the wood, to be over melodramatic about it. But it was worth a few hours at the woodshop.