Hi everyone!
Anyone here a bit of a DIYer? Well for those who are (or know someone who is) will know that scrap wood is an ongoing battle in the shed/workshop. I've been working on a complete internal rebuild of our garage/workshop and I've been deciding on what to do with my scrap piles.
The problem with scrap is that it's often too small to be
immediately useful, and it's often kept around because "it might be useful.... someday". However, then it builds up in those sections of the workshop/shed that we dare not speak about... and it takes up space, and it gathers dust, insects, and other mess... and pretty soon... you have a lot of mess.
So I started doing something... a little odd.... whenever I had 20-30mins between other tasks.
1. I'd go and look at my scrap pile, and sort it into piles of equivalent thickness. If the edges aren't straight, I'd fix that on my table saw.
2. I'd find two of my larger pieces from each pile, then biscuit join them (They're so much cheaper for those not obsessed with the Festool Domino system) and glue them together, clamping them straight with panel clamps wherever possible.
3. I'd repeat step 2 and make multiple panels by adding one piece at a time and clamping them up.
4. The next day, I'd find the next smallest piece from each pile and add one piece to each panel.
Repeat this for just 30 minutes a day each day for a week or two, and you won't have scrap anymore, you'll have usable panels. Trim them to usable shapes, give it a quick sand and they're ready for use. You'll be amazed how much less space one contiguous panel of wood takes up compared to many small ones!
What to do with all that scrap? Well this happened organically...
My better half is a pro graphic designer and photographer specialising in architectural design/numerous environmental projects/wildlife/numerous major events of all types. When she has big jobs coming up every flash, camera, drone, torch, phone, microphone, field recorder, comes out and needs charging.. and the house descends into
"charging chaos".
We needed a charging station that could provide storage for batteries and related cabling, run every charger necessary, and do it around a speaker, next to a fridge, and in a space that's no more than 28cm deep, 70cm wide, and 185cm high. (11" x 28" x 73")
THE SCRAP WOOD CHALLENGE
I'm not going to describe everything I did, but if a picture's worth a thousand words... How about four?
When the scrap bits were too small to make into larger panels, I turned them into drawers!
Once that was done, I started working on the electrical...
And the near-final result....
Ok, there's only 12 chargers shown here, but we can add the rest (even all at once) if needed.
Now let's take note of how "scrappy" this project really was....
- That power switch in the bottom right, was scrounged from a house about to be demolished (I had permission).
- There are three 8 socket power boards, that were salvaged from a decommisioned server room several years ago. You can see the plugs in the recesses behind the two middle shelves, and the one at the top for the "wall wart" chargers.
- Those lights were salvaged from failed six-LED strip system where the transformer blew up. (I replaced with a 15W DIN rail 12V DC power supply I had from my old 3D printer enclosure.
- The RCBO (circuit breaker) in the top right, and power monitor were spares from an old project where the client skipped town without paying...
- I used the last of a 20L vat of PVA glue about 5 years out of date to assemble the panels from my scrap.
- The paint was left over from my new 3D printer enclosure.
- Most of the wiring was also left over from my new 3D printer enclosure build or CNC control box wiring job.
- I salvaged six rare Earth magnets from some old hard drives, and they stick the whole station to the fridge to avoid tipping. Each one has about 10Kg of attractive force at point blank range, so it'd take a lot to tip it over. The 28Kg speaker in the bottom also helps to stabilise the whole unit.
- The drawer runners were 3D printed using left-over spools that would have been difficult to use in larger projects.. so I cleared out about 8 near-empty spools of filament there too.
I admit I had to buy:
- some heat shrink, ($6 on Ali Express)
- about half of the drawer handles, ($12 at Bunnings)
- the cable clips to hold the back-side wiring in place, ($9 from Ali Express)
- two paint rollers, ($4 Ali Express)
- the adjustable shelf pins, ($12 Ali Express)
- the two "circuit breaker boxes" ($30 from Bunnings/Ali Express)
- a new spool of solder, ($35 Ali Express), and
- the screws used here and there. ($12)
Everything else was salvaged, repurposed, or were unused from other projects.
Let's talk about audio...
If there are any audio mavens out there cringing that I put a speaker in a box, relax. These are front firing ported speakers. If the ports were on the back or if they had side-facing radiators.. sure that would be bad.... but this is a relatively rare type of speaker and it works well.
And the result?
The mess is gone, no one is tempted to unplug my gear anymore, I cleaned up the scrap pile in the workshop, used a bunch of esoteric stuff laying about my workshop, and if anyone needs to find another charger, a battery, a charging cable, or an adaptor to recharge... they're all in drawers.
It may sound a little Lord of the Rings/nerdy....
"...One spot to charge all phones and in the station find them...."
You have no idea how many times I was asked "Have you seen my phone?" when chargers were literally everywhere in the house. It's nice not to worry about it now. Now we can discuss important things like "what steak do I want for dinner?"
Final notes:
Would I recommend gluing scrap wood together to make panels when new MDF and plywood sheets only cost $43-$65 new?
Not if you're in a hurry! That said...
It's not actually that time consuming to join scrap wood pieces together. Simply add a piece to each panel you have, morning and night each day while listening to your favourite music.... and you'll have some good panels within a week. Naturally, there's some cost in glue and biscuits, but I basically saved myself from buying three 2400x1200mm MDF sheets... (worth about $130 Australian) by using $30 of biscuits, an old tub of gap filler (maybe $10) about $20 of glue, $8 worth of sanding disks and some patience. That's a little less than $60 saved...in just the wood.
Sure, it's not going save huge amounts money or offer the fastest result... but you just made something useful from materials that'd end up in landfill otherwise.
If I had to buy all the electrical components.. that'd be expensive. However, it's hard to say "It's too expensive".. because there's nothing like this in any shop I know of. I had a bespoke problem and I needed to make something "weird" to suit. If I had to pay a professional joiner, and then electrician to do all the work (don't worry, it's checked out by my sparky buddy) it would cost thousands. In total, I think I dropped $120 ish.
I know I'm not a "fine" wood worker, but everyone here is happy with the results.. and I'm satisfied with that.
All the best in your bespoke, scrap-wood, and/or oddball projects!
Ham.
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