Roadside & Repurposed finds Wood/Materials

[TH'er]

I'm posting this to see if any of you guy's ever find any of your materials on the side of the road, landfills, bulk pick up day etc..

I sure there are several people out there that would Sigh or frown upon even the thought of it..

I'm a GC and do a lot of renovation work and I've made many trips to the local land fill, and while there I've come across many pieces of furniture, desks, tables, drawer fronts, etc...
That have been made with nice hardwoods and all they need is a good sanding in order to use for your next project. and the best thing is "it's free"..

Just wondering if anyone Dare's to find good materials that are being thrown out... ie; table tops, drawer fronts, cabinet doors. etc...

[martzy]

Always look but rarely ever find anything.

[lkbraa]

Who doesn't luv dumpster diving or curbside stash and grab - lol! I am with you, it is amazing what people throw out...a lit'l TLC and it is amazing what types of woods you can find. Unfortanetly, there hasn't been a lot of rebuilding/remodeling of late so it has been slim pickins...but I try to keep an eye on things when I am out and about. Picked up a great old paneled solid wood door, cut it to size of glass I already had, added a base and now it is my coffee table...like I said - gotta luv those great finds!

[sawdustus]

Our town doesn't allow dumpster diving at the recycling center. Unfortunately, most of what is discarded for curbside pickup is pressboard, chipboard or veneered ply...which is why is out for pickup... but I occasionally find a nice piece of hardwood.

george

[NC Scroller]

Dumpster diving is an art to some. You are kinda new at this. Wait until your friends and neighbors find out about your scrolling. You will be amazed at what is offered.

It can get worse. If you ever start wood turning you find you investigate every time you hear a chain saw. LOL

[Wood Dog]

Oh yes, I keep my peepers open while doing errands on garbage pick up day around here.
Last year I picked up 2 complete kitchen cabinet doors of various sizes. One was solid oak, the other pressed board with thin veneer. Must have been a couple of months apart, guess the homeowner was doing some remodeling. Maybe his main kitchen and a basement set up????
At any rate its my go to pile for some projects for sure.
When I come back from the dentist I'll try to find some pix for ya.

Well I got sidetracked but I found one photo of the oak cabinet doors, still looking for the photo of the other set. Can you believe what people put in the garbage.......
oak kitchen doors on gargage (Small).jpg

[GladeFade]

Last summer I found 3 oak toilet seats along the road for trash. Grabbed them up, Planed them to cleanup, glued them together and made a bandsaw free form jewelry box out of them and sold it in a craft show for $40. Didn't have the heart to tell the buyers where I got the material from.
Still looking for more.
Bill

[Catlyn]

ROFLOL......So are you saying that if you had told them you would have had to say that they would be keeping their jewelry in the toilet??

Last summer I found 3 oak toilet seats along the road for trash. Grabbed them up, Planed them to cleanup, glued them together and made a bandsaw free form jewelry box out of them and sold it in a craft show for $40. Didn't have the heart to tell the buyers where I got the material from.
Still looking for more.
Bill

[Catlyn]

I was told that the local lumber yard in my town gets those oak pallets that their supplies come in on and they burn them up.....so i'm going to be checking into that eventually. I did pick up 3 pallets with some white pine boards on them where I used to work. Just those few boards offer some good crafting material.

I'm posting this to see if any of you guy's ever find any of your materials on the side of the road, landfills, bulk pick up day etc..

I sure there are several people out there that would Sigh or frown upon even the thought of it..

I'm a GC and do a lot of renovation work and I've made many trips to the local land fill, and while there I've come across many pieces of furniture, desks, tables, drawer fronts, etc...
That have been made with nice hardwoods and all they need is a good sanding in order to use for your next project. and the best thing is "it's free"..

Just wondering if anyone Dare's to find good materials that are being thrown out... ie; table tops, drawer fronts, cabinet doors. etc...

[Bill Wilson]

Repurposing found wood is kind of like couponing. Some folks can do it with great success, gettting tons of stuff for next to nothing. Some want to do it, but never seem to be able to find all the best deals. Some will do it if it falls in their lap. Others have no interest in it, whatsoever.

I used to do more dumpster diving than I do now. I found that I was accumulating too much stuff, waiting for the right project to use it and was running out of room to store it. I still cringe when I see good useable wood being thrown away and have to restrain myself sometimes from rescuing it, especially if I don't have an immediate purpose for it. However, I have a couple thousand board feet of roughsawn hardwood, drying in my father-in-laws barn, so it's not often I really need any more wood.

[Rolf]

Find yourself a local custom cabinet shop. Take some of your work and ask about scraps and if you make a connection make something for them. You will be amazed at how lucrative a connection like that can be.
I have made some "handrail Nativities" so my wife, while walking the dog, picked up a used handrail on the next street for me.

[NC Scroller]

I was told that the local lumber yard in my town gets those oak pallets that their supplies come in on and they burn them up.....so i'm going to be checking into that eventually. I did pick up 3 pallets with some white pine boards on them where I used to work. Just those few boards offer some good crafting material.

Be very very careful with pallets. They often have embedded nails, stones, concrete dust, etc from being dragged across the ground. Also pallets are often used to ship barrels and boxes of chemicals. There is no telling what might have soaked into the wood. If I was you I would pass them by.

[DBourdon]

Check out your local building sites. Sometimes a good source for odd pieces of lumber, 2by stock, plywood scraps and oak flooring pieces.

[Rolf]

Good advice Scott, I never thought of that. Stones and stuff is one thing but chemicals that could be a concern.

[Rolf]

Handrail Nativity

I was asked about what I ment about a "handrail Nativity" in a couple of my posts. I kind of remembered that I had posted about it when I first made them. Here is a link to the post. http://www.scrollsawer.com/forum/gen...-saw/13858.htm
The first had no color then later I added color.(page 2 of the posts)
It was my use of a Spielman pattern.