free wood scraps?

[lilgodwin]

I assumed by searching the forum I'd find a few good threads on standard places to pick up free wood scraps. Surprisingly, I did not.

After picking up my two ShopSmiths recently, I've been wanting to get started on some small projects and basically just familiarizing myself with the machine. Don't worry... I'm going through the motors first. I've been looking around for free scraps. Craigslist and simply just asking around. A Home Depot worker told me if there's no cart near the cutting section, the only other place would be the molding aisle at the two cutting stations, and guided me over there, told me whatever scraps are left at the station are free for the taking. So, I loaded up a buggy and went on my way. I grabbed some thicker molding pieces, some smaller boards, and quite a few poles. Even a few nice looking boards of birch. Not sure if it's good to work with, but it looked nice. At Lowes, I only found a pile of 'stickers', crummy boards for stacking products on top of it seems. I took them anyway, better than nothing.

So I go back to Home Depot today and find a decent armful, throw it on the cart, and buy the switch I needed for the ShopSmith. To my surprise, the lady makes a deal out of my wooden scraps. Says she'll have to charge me. I told her the situation, and asked her to verify. She said she can give me a discount, but I'll still have to pay for them. So, I just left them.

I do plan on going back sometime and asking someone with some authority just to get the final word. But, I'm curious about everyone else' experiences on locating wooden scraps for free.

I've been told to check out HD, Lowes, cabinet makers, and lumber yards. I don't mind going around and asking, but it'd be nice to know what to expect, and maybe some other ideas/options.

I know I'm naive on the topic, and maybe I was completely wrong to think that I could have taken the wood in the first place, even though I was directly told and guided by an associate.

Thoughts?

[nuhobby]

A friend here in Indy claimed he was getting free scraps from Menards (midwest place sort of like Lowes or Home Depot), but that was a few years ago.

For a couple years I was on a morning "dumpster dive" route once each week, through some nicer subdivisions . I got a few good finds on construction lumber, some nice MDF and laminate pieces, and the occasional furniture outcast including one nice slab of mahogany.

These days I probably buy as much nice lumber from eBay as anywhere else, for the small-to-midsize scale of projects i do.

Good luck hunting!
Chris

[JPG]

HD used to have a cull rack. The cutoffs were marked with a rattlecan and the color indicated the 'scrap' price.

A while back, they discontinued that.

However once it is in the trash 'conveyance' it is fair game. Just be sure to inquire of the dept chief flunky before going to checkout.


If yer really lucky you can be there as the cutoff is created and the buyer essentially gives it to you. Sheesh what a customer base!

[tomsalwasser]

HD used to have a cull rack. The cutoffs were marked with a rattlecan and the color indicated the 'scrap' price. A while back, they discontinued that.

Home Depot in my neck of the woods now offers all cull lumber at 70% off regular price. I check nearly every day, you never know what you're going to find there. It's usually twisted, cracked, checked, warped, bowed, broken, and if that wasn't bad enough, it's now painted purple. Be that as it may there are some real treasures to be had in that cull pile. Not today though.

Photo Jan 14, 1 28 48 PM.jpg (629.46 KiB) Viewed 9768 times

[skou]

My roommate does stucco repair, and a couple months ago,
we went to the local HD, to see if they had any decent
supplies.

Ended up getting a small pallet of ripped bags, for the list
price of ONE of them. Yep, portland cement, stucco mix,
sand, fence post mix, all in all, about 600 pounds of stuff.

Three dollars and change.

The have the rare scraps of lumber, too. Oh, early last year,
i needed some pieces of concrete pavers, to put my 55 gallon
drum smoker on. Lady let me HAVE 4 broken 16 inch square
bricks.

Sometimes you wins, sometimes you loses.

steve

[sawwood]

So I have been working on this patio project for the last 6 months along with comments from the peanut gallery, ie my neighbors. This included a half circle of Windsor wall blocks going outside the rectangular box of my townhomes patio area to accommodate the circular fire pit. Then some river pebbles and plastic chairs to finish it off. In the process I need a half wall block and after trying to break one in half with a cement chisle without success. Good grief!!! Come on break!! On a recent HD trip I stumble across one in the outside gardening/landscape section broken in half. So after having to walk all the way back to the front/customer service, it's winter time and there's no associates in outside gardening. An associate finally comes back there and I ask how much for the broken one and he says "oh we can't sell broken ones, we have to throw them away ........................ (long pause) but YOU can have it". Problem solved!!

Sometimes I think HD is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get!!