Smart use of Scrolling waste wood

[FrankEV]

I lost two fruit trees I had in my back yard due to the severe cold snap we had this past Winter and they needed to be removed.   I filled in one tree area with sod, but the other was partially in my paver patio.  After removing the tree and replacing some of the pavers I decided to build a fire pit to enjoy next fall when the weather cools off.  After many trips to and from Lowes, this 30” square fire pit is the result of my efforts as shown in these pics.

Those 3.5” x 7.5” x 11.5” blocks are heavy.  I used 48 of them plus 32 of the small spacer blocks.  My aching back! 

 

I have a trash can next to my saw that gets a lot of the waste pieces I cut out.  This material, along with other trash and trimmed off strips have been going out on garbage pickup days, and presumably winding up in the landfill.   Upon completing the fire pit build, I realized that I will be needing Firewood and, of course, kindling.  The wood cut outs and other trim pieces I generate will make excellent kindling.  So now I need two buckets next to the saw…one for wood the other for trash.   I think this is a win-win for both the environment and me.   And, BTW, sawdust is a great fire starter.  I usually turn my sawdust, collected in my vacuum system, into my garden beds, but now I will save some to use in the fire pit.

Just a litle bit of useless but important information for your reading pleasure.

[kmmcrafts]

Nice looking fire pit you made, I also have a fire pit and we I typically make enough scraps to not only have kindling wood but most times enough to have 4-5 fires a year just from my scraps.. yep, I mess up and make that much ornamental fire wood, .. No  kidding aside on a more serious note, some of the wood I get is rejects because of splits / knots etc.. and I work around those bad areas quite easily doing small scroll sawing works so I do generate a few wheelbarrow loads of scraps every year so it's a win win as the wife and kids love to sit around the fire.. makes great family time for us all.  

[Gene Howe]

Just a caution...walnut shavings/dust will kill plants. 

I plane a lot of walnut. Spreading it along the perimeter of the  shop eliminates weed trimmer use.

[kmmcrafts]

3 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

Just a caution...walnut shavings/dust will kill plants. 

I plane a lot of walnut. Spreading it along the perimeter of the  shop eliminates weed trimmer use.

Really? I'm putting this throughout my whole lawn then.. save a ton of mower gas too which means more walnut lumber money..

Seriously though that is good to know, I knew it's not good for animal bedding as it poisonous to many animals. I take my sawdust to my brothers mill and dump it in his big pile.. but if I have any exotics, walnut, or glued up panels in the shavings I have to leave my bags with him as there are certain places he can take that stuff too but not for the stockyards or the horse farms etc.  

[Norm Fengstad]

I didn't know about walnut I have a fire place in our living room that takes care of wood scraps or oops projects

[JessL]

We heat our shop and our house in the winter with a wood burning stove so all scraps go towards helping keep us warm.  In the summer we use it for bon fires and such.   

[kywoodmaster]

Nice looking fire pit Frank.  Yes the blocks are heavy.  Dr released me after surgery two week ago since then I have unloaded 150 of the big ones 70 of the small ones and will be going back for another 100 big ones this week.  Sawdust and Vaseline makes great fire starters.  I always carried them in my survival kit.

[Scrappile]

Very nice, Frank... I amusing a lot of waste wood I have for intarsia...

[OCtoolguy]

We're not allowed to burn anything.

[JackJones]

3 hours ago, OCtoolguy said:

We're not allowed to burn anything.

??? Really ?

[Scrappile]

You. burn hundreds of acres  every year down there!  I watched the show "Burning Paradise" a while back.  I watched it because my Aunt and Uncle use to live there, way back when it was a pretty small town.  I loved to visit then there.  Glad they  alive to see that happen to the place they loved so much.

[FrankEV]

14 hours ago, Scrappile said:

Very nice, Frank... I amusing a lot of waste wood I have for intarsia...

I predominantly use ply for cuttings and pine or poplar for frames, so most if the scrap is not reusable.  I keep a lot of the larger pieces of ply that are large enough for small cutting panels.  However, don't cut to many smaller pieces.  The stockpile is getting quite large.

[OCtoolguy]

1 hour ago, Scrappile said:

You. burn hundreds of acres  every year down there!  I watched the show "Burning Paradise" a while back.  I watched it because my Aunt and Uncle use to live there, way back when it was a pretty small town.  I loved to visit then there.  Glad they  alive to see that happen to the place they loved so much.

That's true Paul but not legally.

[OCtoolguy]

10 hours ago, JackJones said:

??? Really ?

Nope!