"Silvan"wrote in message
Swingman wrote:
I would never consider cutting expensive hardwood to a random length,
just
for storage purposes, without some prior planning.
My philosophy, more or less forced by a small shop space and limited
budget, is to let the lumber company store the lumber until I need it.
I'll add to my last post... I don't just cut it at random for storage
purposes. I make a plan, figure out what dimensions I have to have, and
what dimensions I can use, and then I go shopping. I store only off-cuts.
That's exactly what I was saying. Note my post did not address storing
"off-cuts", it addressed storing material for a project..
Like most woodworkers, I experience the quandry of having a difficult time
deciding what to keep and what to dispose when it comes to "leftovers" about
every six months or so, when the pile gets too big to ignore.
My trouble has more to do with the nature of the material. I mostly use
walnut now, and walnut comes in extremely random lengths and widths.
Luckily (maybe not pricewise) that is not the case here. Locally, there is
not much difference in lengths and widths available between walnut and most
other types of hardwood. Good FAS, no matter the hardwood, is expensive!
I go to great lengths to recycle walnut ... I routinely take the scraps from
a local sign company and joint and plane them into project useful material.
I've basically paid for a jointer doing just that.
If my cutlist wants a certain width and length, I have to be ready to
change
it all around on the spur of the moment. Maybe I don't get the width I
need, and the longest length I need is longer than half the length of any
of the boards, so I have to get creative.
I don't see how a cutlist program would do me a lick of good. Not in
walnut, particularly. With other species, I'm more likely to find a dozen
boards that are within an inch of being the same size.
Besides...
[silvan@giganator] ~
-apt-cache search cut|grep list
lslk - a lock file lister
mingw32 - Minimalist GNU win32 (cross) compiler
mingw32-binutils - Minimalist GNU win32 (cross) binutils
[silvan@giganator] ~
-apt-cache search cut|grep wood
[silvan@giganator] ~
-
Linux ain't got no cutlist program, Chief. If it did, Debian would have
heard about it by now.
Maybe I should start one.
Ahh .. yes you should. A good cutlist program, as well as a good design/shop
drawing, whether it be CAD or hand drawn, forces you to plan ahead ... to
the benefit of the project, and the bottom line.
I use CutList Plus Gold, and it is very easy to juggle the size of inventory
stock in just a few seconds to get maximum benefit. A truly valuable program
if you do a lot of projects.
At the cost of furniture grade hardwoods today, the savings by doing so
can be considerable, especially if you have to make a profit on the
project.
Agreed, but I waste practically nothing. When a piece gets down to less
than one square inch, then it goes in the trash. Anything bigger than
that
gets used somewhere, or stored for such time as I can use it. (I'm
getting
into making wooden models of late, so small scraps are very useful.) This
stuff is *expensive*!!
For some of us, including most hardwood dealers, there is no such thing as a
"scrap", at least until it forces itself upon you in such a manner that
there is no room left but to do something about it..
--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 9/21/03