Waste wood

[genek]

One of the topics that I was discussing with Mr. Gibson was how to control our waste. When we are cutting out patterns with the cnc most of the time we have waste. Areas that are still good wood but the pattern does not cut in that area. Sometimes I drop in smaller parts to build inventory, but when I can not or do not need to I leave that area blank. Then after I have finished cutting the patterns I take the scrap to the table saw rip out the good parts, save them back till I have enough to glue up to make cutting boards, ula boards, other items like the pasta measure.
By doing this I get free wood. By mixing up the different woods I end up with striped products. Most cabinet shops waste a lot.
If they would find ways to use their waste they could pay for men's time plus make a little money on the side. You have men that
at different times have nothing to do; rip up your waste make something out of it. Drop something else into the patterns being cut. Think outside of the box.

The first picture is of a 2 inch thick board that I just cut a run of herb boxes out of. The 2nd picture is the parts cut out ready for me to run through the planner so i can save them to glue up into ula boards or pasta measures.

By doing this I saved quite a bit of money over time. The savings and the product actually brought my profit for that board up to 4,000 percent mark up. I mass produce everything I do.. And I end up with lots of boards like the ones in the picture.
My waste is very little. Even the small pieces I put in a bin so that other craft people can come and pick through and buy.

Less waste mean more profit.

[genek]

Notice my box of waste wood. Also notice the small baby rattlers... These are made from the waste left on cutting other patterns.

[genek]

Here are some projects that you can do. I have several flower shops and a shop called sister's by design that order letters.

I have trophy shops that order plaques. Again here is a way that I use my waste material. How many times do you process a board and have 6 inches of board left make it into a small plaque finish it and whole sale it to a trophy shop or other place,...this small plaque in this picture paid for the board, which I had already charged the customer for the board to begin with.. Find ways to use your scrap.

[myxpykalix]

I save all my scraps because i can see value in some things and can immediately see something i could use it for in the scrap when i look at it, my problem is that when i need that piece of wood i can't find it. Also i think i have hoarding tendencies when it comes to wood

Hey Eugene are you going to Angus' shopbot camp this year?

[myxpykalix]

To answer your indexer question...about how it cuts..Just pretend you are cutting your file into a piece of rubber that you can then just wrap around a center.
All that happens is your bit cuts at the center of your round stock as it is mounted in the indexer and in a normal flat carving your X, Y and Z moves in combination to create your carving.
What happens with a indexer file is (as in my case) the indexer is mounted in my X axis, so my X axis moves stay the same but my Y axis moves are converted to "degrees" of angle (360 degrees) and turn the indexer to create that same flat carving around the circumference of your material. If that makes sense...:confused:

[genek]

Jack you hit up on a real problem, how much of the scrape do I save. and for how long. Jack I set a day aside each week to process scrap. My day is always Tuesday. The cnc and other equipment may be running but today, I am processing my scrap. Any .75 inch boards gets sliced into either 1 inch strips for cutting boards, 5/8 inch strips get chopped up for my pen turners that come each week,(they get pen blanks for 1.00 each or 5 for $4.00
Boards that are two inches thick get sliced to straighten them up to plane smooth. they get glued up as ula boards, rolling pins or new boards to cnc out more product out of. any scrap that can be used to turn say a wine bottle stopper goes into a bin sections of the two inch that can not be glued up is chopped up for wine stoppers etc. they are sold to the turners at 1.00

By tomorrow I will have planks of glued of boards walnut, maple, cherry ready to either cut my apple cutting boards, my pig, chicken etc from.
for decorative cutting boards, I will have 2" and 1" boards ready to re cut with the cnc for my patterns. you have to slice the wood anyway, so why use good wood use your scrape, Any product that you make where you have to slice your boards and glue up always use scrap. make boards and keep the ready to make product from..

[genek]

Jack I have section of 1" wood that can not be used for any thing much.. The ones that can be used for Tomato stakes I sale them for ten for $5.00
the good ones a local Hardware store buys. This year I have sold More Tomato and bean stakes than I normally do. there are so many ways to make money off of ones waste it is not funny.. my scrape pays for my new wood. there are so many avenues to sale product to I could go on and on about..
look at what you need to use, others need the same things, look at what others want and need, run a add in your local paper for craft people to come and buy your scrap. I have over 30 craft people come to my shop each week to but things, I have the price on the boxes and a seal box for them to drop their money in.. each week I average around $300.00 from my craft people.. I have craft people driving 50 miles or better. they get good wood at
good prices (cheaper than they can get at wood craft etc. I sale boards short boards that are too small to make rolling pins etc out to them.

your waste wood should have already been billed out to a job and paid for by that job, now use your waste to pay for your wood.

[genek]

Here is some of the wood that I have been Processing today, look at the number of 4ft boards that I have ready to go to the Glue up racks, These will all be glued up tonight.

Now my waste went to pure profit,, Less time in my cutting boards than I would have if I processed from new wood, (no Planning or edging) same amount of time to saw and glue. less time in the product and the wood has already been paid for...

profit went up about 1000%

[genek]

My glue up rack is full, this is the 3rd run still have 2 more to go. I wonder How much money did I make today,, well over $800.00 just in product that I will get out of all the scrape wood, Not counting what the cnc and laser was cutting today. That brings up another problem.. You should not be standing there watching your equipment run, You should be doing other jobs, like sanding, sawing , gluing up boards, anything but stand there. learn what your equipment sounds like check on it every so often but do not stand there and watch it run. you are losing money doing so.

I am a one man production team, while the cnc is running I am either slicing, sanding or hand routing edges of my product. when I get tired I come to the computer and post or read message... this afternoon I will take 500 honey dippers out of the oil bath, and put in 100 oven rack pulls. by the way I have a duplicating lathe. I have sanded about 150 laser cut ornaments that will be sprayed in about a hour....

learn to do production work.

[genek]

When you have products that you would normally slice your wood up into strips then re-glue them into boards to cut. always use your wast material to make these boards with. My apple cutting boards along with virtually all of my product that I make and that are on Our pattern cd's can be made from scrap wood. When I use the boards that I glue up from the different wood, I up the price of the product. Did it cost me more to make no.. Actually at times it is below what I would have paid for a solid colored board. Here are two examples of what I made out of my waste.