Show us what you make with your offcuts

[smart51]

I've made more than one bass out of offcuts from other projects, but I have a growing box of smaller pieces. I'm sure everyone here does. So what do you do with them? Here are a couple of things I've made in the last couple of weeks. I'd love to see pics of what you've done.

This last one was a prototype to see if it would work. I hate the shape of knob on the top, and the 3mm barbeque skewer holding it is not strong enough. But now I know the idea works, I'm going to do it again but bigger.

 

[rudy4444]

I've made a few desktop boxes to hold picks, tuners, etc. Each box lets you highlight different aspects of making musical instruments.

 

[RichterScale]

Not necessarily off-cuts from basses, but definitely scraps.
It's a wenge FB that I screwed up the radius on and repurposed, strips of poplar that I salvaged from an old* table top, some old* oak shelving, some old* plywood and some scrap 5mm underlayment. Tuners salvaged from an old parker acoustic guitar. The only things purchased were the strings and the $5 dog bowl.

*Old= a table and shelving/cabinets from the 1920s and 30s.
It was a fun build. Just have to get around to wiring it up.
I haven't built enough basses to accumulate enough off-cuts to build anything else yet, but I'm working on it.

 

[MPU]

I’ve cut my offcuts to pen blank size and swapped them to sandpaper or Abranet at local tool shop that sells pen blanks for pen turners. Flame maple, walnut, bubinga and cherry mostly. Alder and small offcuts go into the fireplace.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Most of these wood knobs were offcuts. Some even went on the bodies they were cut off of! Same with the file and screwdriver handles.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

This was made from offcuts. Everything except the fretboard came from offcut scrap.

 

[Beej]

This was made from offcuts. Everything except the fretboard came from offcut scrap.
View attachment 4904448

Can I look through your garbage?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Not really me but another neat thing, when we moved from Idaho I had a big box o’scraps that a bowyer picked up. He used them for bow risers. Unfortunately the pictures were several phones ago and I don’t have them anymore.

 

[rmmottola]

Kids visit my shop regularly. I would love for them all to be able to leave with an instrument but that is just not realistic. But I always have a box of these whistles made from offcuts to hand out.

 

[TerribleTim68]

So yeah, some of this is offcuts -

Several of the "ball elements" are purpleheart that was offcuts from my first two bass builds. There's also a couple of these that I used offcuts of Flame Maple for the "finials" (notably the one in the middle and the one on the far right). The green ball element (second from right, and one more that isn't pictured) was an offcut of Ash that I used on my first bass build that I dyed green using Crimson "Stunning Stains".
There's two more that I made this year that aren't pictured, I had to ship them before I could get a "group shot" with everyone.

For those interested, that one with the green Ash ball is also Olivewood for the finials. there was some conversation about Olivewood earlier this week.

Anyways, some of my offcuts end up on Christmas trees.
Mostly I'm just glad to be finished with these this year. I don't seem to be very excited about Christmas or making ornaments this year, but it has become an annual thing with some family members and if they did not get an ornament there would be much sadness, so I had to get power through and get them done. Now that I've wrapped up 10 ornaments once again, I can get back to my regularly schedule shop program....and maybe that commission build.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

For a few years, most of my non-exotic hardwood offcuts went to.....Rob Allen's fireplace! Rob used his fireplace through a lot of the year for heat and cooking, and all of us here would collect hardwood scraps in boxes that Rob would pick up. In return, he'd give me leftover good hardwood strips and other materials like Corian. He gave me some bundles of beautiful strips of walnut that he didn't need. Unfortunately, not quite the size to use in my basses. Jeremy has started making some prototype necks from them, and may use them up.

If you hadn't heard, Rob is now semi-retired and is currently enjoying being a pro guitarist....in Italy! For a while. He brought in two partners who have taken over his shop and company. They are continuing to build the Rob Allen basses; same design, same shop and processes. Rob's shop is still here in the Secret Underground Lab, down the hall from me. Rand Havener runs it now, churning out the Mouses. I help him out, making occasional tools and parts.

Rand hasn't asked for firewood so far.

How do I use my offcuts? Scraps of ebony and other fingerboard woods get saved and stored and used for small parts. Most excess maple gets cut into strips, which get used in neck laminations or are milled into truss rod filler strips. Blocks get saved and used for fixtures and tool handles.

Walnut neck wood; not much scrap. I select and plan the boards carefully, so there isn't much waste.

Walnut and poplar body cutoffs: most of them become sample boards for testing finishes. We do a lot of that around here.

 

[Flamingo21]

Here's my mandola:

The thumb rest is an offcut from the body. The tailpiece is an offcut from the fingerboard.

 

[lbridenstine]

I made a whole bunch of guitar picks / guitar pick necklaces in the past with the really small offcuts.

I think this clock has some offcuts in it too.

 

[Freekmagnet]

Not necessarily off-cuts from basses, but definitely scraps.
It's a wenge FB that I screwed up the radius on and repurposed, strips of poplar that I salvaged from an old* table top, some old* oak shelving, some old* plywood and some scrap 5mm underlayment. Tuners salvaged from an old parker acoustic guitar. The only things purchased were the strings and the $5 dog bowl.
View attachment 4904152
*Old= a table and shelving/cabinets from the 1920s and 30s.
It was a fun build. Just have to get around to wiring it up.
I haven't built enough basses to accumulate enough off-cuts to build anything else yet, but I'm working on it.

That’s a cool bass! Love your design!

 

[Freekmagnet]

Wow! There's a lot of inspiring work in this thread!

Kids visit my shop regularly. I would love for them all to be able to leave with an instrument but that is just not realistic. But I always have a box of these whistles made from offcuts to hand out.

View attachment 4904947

@rmmottola You, sir, get a gold star by your name!

So yeah, some of this is offcuts -
View attachment 4905325

View attachment 4905326 View attachment 4905327 View attachment 4905328
Several of the "ball elements" are purpleheart that was offcuts from my first two bass builds. There's also a couple of these that I used offcuts of Flame Maple for the "finials" (notably the one in the middle and the one on the far right). The green ball element (second from right, and one more that isn't pictured) was an offcut of Ash that I used on my first bass build that I dyed green using Crimson "Stunning Stains".
There's two more that I made this year that aren't pictured, I had to ship them before I could get a "group shot" with everyone.

For those interested, that one with the green Ash ball is also Olivewood for the finials. there was some conversation about Olivewood earlier this week.

Anyways, some of my offcuts end up on Christmas trees.
Mostly I'm just glad to be finished with these this year. I don't seem to be very excited about Christmas or making ornaments this year, but it has become an annual thing with some family members and if they did not get an ornament there would be much sadness, so I had to get power through and get them done. Now that I've wrapped up 10 ornaments once again, I can get back to my regularly schedule shop program....and maybe that commission build.

Those are really cool!

I made a whole bunch of guitar picks / guitar pick necklaces in the past with the really small offcuts.

View attachment 4906088

I think this clock has some offcuts in it too.

View attachment 4906089

That clock is adorable!

 

[mapleglo]

I make piles of wood!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I make piles of wood!

View attachment 4910121

Hey I know! You could make some shelving to store all those piles of wood offcuts. Until you need them for some project....

 

[mapleglo]

Hey I know! You could make some shelving to store all those piles of wood offcuts. Until you need them for some project....

Kinda like this?

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Kinda like this?

View attachment 4910142

Bonus points if you actually used some of the offcuts to make the shelves.

 

[mapleglo]

Well, I have used the offcuts from making that bench as storage pieces under the bench. If that makes sense.