# When to throw it in the burn bin.....



## Schroedc (Mar 14, 2018)

As most of you know, I've taken a regular job and working on liquidating a lot of my inventory and turning the shop into a hobby place. As I do that I'm going through 1000's of pen blanks and pieces I've kept and trying to decide on what to keep, what to sell off and what to just throw in the burn bin.....

How does everyone else decide on what to pitch?


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## ripjack13 (Mar 14, 2018)

Sell off the ones you dont need...
Burn the pieces...
Sell the the acrylics...

If they are very plain, maybe offer them up for a fair amout and price of shipping..

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mike1950 (Mar 14, 2018)

Not an easy line to draw. I am not good at it but a couple times a year i purge the shop. This yeaf a lot will get donated to Vets garage

Reactions: Like 5


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## Schroedc (Mar 14, 2018)

ripjack13 said:


> Sell off the ones you dont need...
> Burn the pieces...
> Sell the the acrylics...
> 
> If they are very plain, maybe offer them up for a fair amout and price of shipping..



Yeah, I probably don't need 400 cocobolo pen blanks these days....

I'll keep the acrylics for now

Reactions: Like 1


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## Tom Smart (Mar 14, 2018)

My shop is full of stuff I put in the burn box for the woodstove and as I looked at just before putting it into the fire took it back to the shop. 

So, I guess I'm not the right person to answer your question.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Funny 2


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## Tony (Mar 14, 2018)

I know I'm not the person to ask either, I don't throw anything away. @Mike1950 had a dang good idea though. If you want to donate them to the Vets Garage I'll kick in some money to help you cover shipping. Tony

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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## Mike1950 (Mar 14, 2018)

Tony said:


> I know I'm not the person to ask either, I don't throw anything away. @Mike1950 had a dang good idea though. If you want to donate them to the Vets Garage I'll kick in some money to help you cover shipping. Tony


find a local one- they are coming here this spring and hauling off a bunch of stuff. Great for me and great for them. I probably will start a bin after that - maybe get them to come once a month- HEAR THAT @Woodworking Vet

Reactions: Like 3


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## Tony (Mar 14, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> find a local one- they are coming here this spring and hauling off a bunch of stuff. Great for me and great for them. I probably will start a bin after that - maybe get them to come once a month- HEAR THAT @Woodworking Vet



They could fill a pickup if they came here, just saying @Woodworking Vet .......

Reactions: Like 2


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## CWS (Mar 14, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> Not an easy line to draw. I am not good at it but a couple times a year i purge the shop. This yeaf a lot will get donated to Vets garage


That is a very good cause. Sounds like they have a great thing going for our vets.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Mike1950 (Mar 14, 2018)

Tony said:


> They could fill a pickup if they came here, just saying @Woodworking Vet .......


stop tryin ta steal my cleanup crew....

Reactions: Funny 4


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## CWS (Mar 14, 2018)

I can help with their travel expenses or shipping to @Mike1950

Reactions: Like 2 | Funny 1


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## Tony (Mar 14, 2018)

Mike1950 said:


> stop tryin ta steal my cleanup crew....
> 
> View attachment 143487 View attachment 143487



If they stopped at your place on the way down here i could pick through your castoffs!!

Reactions: Like 2


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## Mike1950 (Mar 14, 2018)

CWS said:


> I can help with their travel expenses or shipping to @Mike1950



I think there are groups like this all over the country- I will find out

Reactions: Like 4


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## Schroedc (Mar 14, 2018)

So far the stuff going in the burn bin tonight is all stuff under 2" that wouldn't be worth it to ship to anyone. I will keep it in mind when I get to the bulk blank bins though, donate a few boxes, stuff a few boxes full for here to sell cheap. Conservative estimate right now is around 9,000 pen blanks not counting the slabs not cut up yet.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Tony (Mar 14, 2018)

Schroedc said:


> So far the stuff going in the burn bin tonight is all stuff under 2" that wouldn't be worth it to ship to anyone. I will keep it in mind when I get to the bulk blank bins though, donate a few boxes, stuff a few boxes full for here to sell cheap. Conservative estimate right now is around 9,000 pen blanks not counting the slabs not cut up yet.



So I could make about 27,000 fan pulls huh???

Reactions: Funny 5


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## Schroedc (Mar 14, 2018)

Tony said:


> So I could make about 27,000 fan pulls huh???



Probably more, some of these blanks are 8-10 inches long.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Sprung (Mar 14, 2018)

If it's a usable blank, but I won't be using it, I'll offer it for sale. Sometimes I'll offer a SFRB or padded envelope of misc. regular grain blanks with one or two nicer blanks included for a low price. If they don't sell at that, then it's to the burn pile. If it's not a usable blank for anyone - burn pile. I had gotten bad about not tossing things I might use. Now I'm running short of shop space and have been clearing out the excess. Currently have the equivalent of about two 55 gallon drums of scrap to burn, but my fire pit is buried under 2' of snow and ice.

As for right now, I've been accumulating stuff I need or want to sell - some to clear out excess inventory, some that I've stabilized to sell. I won't have quite as much as you to clear out, but will be selling quite a bit in various venues in the coming months. Whatever doesn't sell, well, I'll find another way to get it out of here. And then I'll start accumulating stuff that I can stabilize and repeat the process all over again...

Reactions: Like 5


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## Woodworking Vet (Mar 14, 2018)

I would hope there are other woodworking shops around the country available for veterans. Another idea is try a local military base if you have one near by. Fairchild Air Force Base just two miles down the road from me has a huge woodworking shop, they teach servicemen, their families and retirees how to turn pens and I bet they wouldn't turn away pen blanks either.

So if you can't find a place near you I can provide you with the address to the Vet's Garage or Fairchild AFB, or I can take them for you. Have you thought about gluing up some pen blanks together to make a larger block of wood to turn? That's what I would try. 

Some times wood is destined for the firepit anyway. I took two large boxes to the Vet's Garage this week and also burned a bunch of wood. Time to make room in the wood shed.

@Mike1950, I haven't forgotten to bring some help over to clean up all burls, I mean wood. I'm away from the Vet's Garage for the next week and a half but will talk to the guys on the 27th and get back to you.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Nature Man (Mar 15, 2018)

I would recommend that you gauge the market by offering a few things on this site. I know it takes time, which is precious, but I'm confident there if priced right, stuff will sell. Chuck

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Mike1950 (Mar 15, 2018)

Woodworking Vet said:


> I would hope there are other woodworking shops around the country available for veterans. Another idea is try a local military base if you have one near by. Fairchild Air Force Base just two miles down the road from me has a huge woodworking shop, they teach servicemen, their families and retirees how to turn pens and I bet they wouldn't turn away pen blanks either.
> 
> So if you can't find a place near you I can provide you with the address to the Vet's Garage or Fairchild AFB, or I can take them for you. Have you thought about gluing up some pen blanks together to make a larger block of wood to turn? That's what I would try.
> 
> ...



I know you have not forgot- just using you to show there are other good options other than fire...

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 18, 2018)

Sausage wood, milo, buttonwood, Juneberry, ear-leaf acacia, California laurel, walnut and basswood cut offs sadly started the heat box in the basement tonight. They have all been offered before, but had no takers, so to make the wife pleased, things are going by way of dust.


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## Eric Rorabaugh (Mar 18, 2018)

when was that offered? Man I missed that!


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## Mr. Peet (Mar 19, 2018)

Eric Rorabaugh said:


> when was that offered? Man I missed that!



Oh, over a year by now. It is in a better place now, house is at 69, the magic number I rarely see...


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## sprucegum (Mar 19, 2018)

I guess purging the shop comes easy for me. Maybe because I grew up building houses and if it was not at least 16" long it was of little use. I never could figure out how wood turning supply houses could market plain pen blanks, when I trimmed out my sons house in cherry 5 years ago I must have put 10,000 pen blanks in the stove. A local furniture factory sells hardwood cutoffs as firewood by the pickup load for $50/load. Only thing I hoard is stuff with a lot of figure and even that does not stay around forever if I can't find a use or a buyer it's gone.


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## Arn213 (Mar 19, 2018)

Schroedc said:


> Yeah, I probably don't need 400 cocobolo pen blanks these days....
> 
> I'll keep the acrylics for now



Yeah, that is a lot of Coco pen blanks (for now, until you really have a need for it to fill a large order), though I would hold onto it as much as you can as the restrictions put forward on rosewoods (unless “they”decide to loosen the leash a bit on their next 2019 convention), which only time will tell, that whatever is here in this country will slowly get exhausted.


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## bamafatboy (Mar 19, 2018)

Yeah I could use some Coco pen blanks myself, but not near that many. There is a large army base located about 20 miles from me and my wife and I used to go on base and meet with a group of retired military men and we would turn pens for the troops in the woodshop there. Most all the wood used was donated by woodworkers or penturners that had an abundance of wood that they would never use up. We would typically turn at least 100 pens on a given day. So that would be a good place to unloand some extra wood. The Vets really enjoy making pens for each other and for our service men and women.


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## Robert Baccus (Mar 25, 2018)

Never throw anything away--add a lean-to maybe.

Reactions: Like 1


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