Then you experience growing pains in your stomach.
A similar thing happened to me when my friend who works for Volunteers of America let a few of us in on some free offucts that had been donated to the organization but which didn't sell. They needed to get rid of it in order to make room in their storage unit. No problem, I'm always happy to help a buddy.
So my friend, Scott, and I took his truck to the VOA site and started sifting through piles of plywood, mdf, pine, and a few pieces of hardwood.
Most were small pieces, but as woodworkers we can always talk ourselves into reasons why we should not pass up free wood—it's just too tempting. Surely we can find a use for it, otherwise, it will just end up in some landfill, right?
By the time we finished rifling through the piles, we had completely filled his truck with lumber.
I chose mostly pine, which we unloaded outside my shop, and he headed home. Later that week, after I had stowed the wood in my shop, Scott came over, walked in, looked around with a puzzled look on his face and said "Is your shop getting smaller?"
He didn't know what was different, he just knew my shop seemed to be more "stuffed."
And so it was—my eyes were bigger than my workshop and now I'm experiencing growing pains.
Posts
13 comments:
... And then God created woodstoves and fireplaces.
Time to start practicing with some new tool or technique...
Had wondered what your shop looks like. Do you have shop pics buried here somewhere? (have just been seeing the closeups of your cabinets, sawbucs, etc.).
You can use the pine to make a storage unit for even more wood!
Spoons! Spoons! I want to see pictures of the spoons!
I would be glad to help you out, but the commute would be a killer.
However, if you really want to keep the pine, I could probably find a way to help you out with all that other wood in the picture.
The sawbuck table looks good.
I just spent a week clearing small scraps out of my shop by building bird and bat houses. My backyard now looks like a sales floor with all the bird houses in the trees! I think I went a little overboard...And that was just left overs from a cabinet project! I also burned a lot of stuff that was too small to use. Nothing like an outside fire to warm the cold nights.
Bill, I can never seem to part with any wood--not even some of the little pieces!
Mdhills, I posted some photos when I first started this blog but a few things have changed since then. I'll post some new pics soon.
Doug, actually I am building a storage unit, but it's for underneath a cluttered and disorganized workbench. :o)
Shazza, I did make a spoon, but it's, well, not real purty. I need more practice!
Geemoney, you should see all the piles of wood in my garage. What a mess. I never met a piece of wood I didn't like.
TGEA, I bet the birds and bats are happy in their little village built just for them!
Kari - Nice haul! Don't worry about it, as you can never have too much wood. Or is that clamps? Or books? Or moulding planes? Or...
My second, extra, wood pile sits exactly where my wife's car is supposed to be...
Hi Kari
Just found your blog and it must be something in the gene's of woodworkers. Have just saved a whole lot of American White Oak skirting and trim from the dumpster at work. Must be nearly 100feet altogether. End of job "throw it out, dont need it on the next job" Will they ever learn!
Bob
Kari - I can never, ever, turn down free timber and hate to throw anything away...when is a piece of ebony too small to use? Once it gets smaller than finger nail size I might consider it, but 'til then off-cuts live in a drawer under the bench. There's a project somewhere in all that pine...you've just got to find it! - Rob
One of my use for straight pine boards is pretty oldfashioned: movable shelves in cabinets, esp. kitchen cabinets.
The weight/strength ratio is terrific. None of the pine shelves (some with maple edging and formica top) have shown any sign of sagging, whereas the plywood and particle board shelves started sagging within a year. And consider the weight difference - it seems you don't have to put anything on a 3 ft by 1 ft particle board shelf and it will still sag under its own weight.
Alfred
Nice score Kari! I love pine. It's so useful for so many things, from shop projects to secondary wood for fine furniture pieces, to veneer substrate, and it makes the shop smell like a shop should. If you have any trouble using all that, I'd be glad to free up some of your shop space for you :)! Not a far drive for me!
Hmmm. That looks familiar. Except it's stacked neatly. And it's nail free (gutted my grandparents barn).
Post a Comment