cutoff catch all.

[drumpriest]

I recently made a bunch of kitchen cabinets, and I have found that my unwillingness to throw away scraps was quickly making my shop unreasonable. I found a plan in one of the magazines for a "cut off catch all". Theirs was a bit too large for my shop, and I wanted a mobile one, since I find that I make my cut offs in different locations for different projects. This is my version.



Construction is a combo of loose mortise and tenon for the frame and panel back, pocket screws, and good ole drywall screws. Went together fairly easily over the weekend with scraps I had around the shop. Only the bottom and sides were really a large amount of wood.

Dimensions are 2' tall by 3' wide. And it's already made a HUGE difference to my shop. I have wall mounted wood storage for 2' and larger stuff, but that was getting full, and there are always bits that are shorter laying around.

[bigstick509]

[Uncle Cracker]

Nice job! I also have "cutoff clutter", so I may make a couple of those myself...

[BobSch]

Great idea and nicely done. Come Spring I'll have to consider something like that, my cutoff piles are getting out of hand.

[lrogers]

That looks like it is all ready seeing a good work out.

[cabinetman]

Good looking rack. Taking the time to plan out the storage can make life a bit more organized, and make some room. You did a nice job on that.

In the beginning, my storage was the space under the tablesaw surround table. Pretty soon it starts overflowing right where walking is necessary. That was a safety hazard. Then the small stuff went into buckets. When that overflowed, it went into 55 gal drums. Too hard to find what you're looking for.

But overflow gets more involved. There's substrate and hardwood plywood storage. And like hardwood lumber it's nice to separate as to sizes, and species. Then there's plastic laminate storage, with different sizes colors, and thicknesses. Then there metals storage, such as sliding door track, showcase and commercial fixture hardware, and closet hardware. And the beat goes on.
.

[warrenp]

Nice job Keith...I have one of those on my TTD list.

[Hoover]

Good looking rack. .

Said that once, and got slapped. In truth it really was a good looking rack!!!

[ironhat]

Said that once, and got slapped. In truth it really was a good looking rack!!!

Someone had to say it.

[phi1l]

I just finishe done of those as well. Mine diesn't look quite a nice, & it colapsed the first time I put it together.

My design was for the stock to lean against the sides of the rack. So it has 2 dividers in the middle. I also built from scraps, so the my back consisted of 3 six inch wide pieces of 1/2 CDX (Top, middle, bottom). The casters I had were a bit on the small & overloaded side too. But the big problem was that I forgot to set the pocket screw drill stop of 1/2" material for 3/4". I screwed it together, .... (hmmm I wonder why all those screws are sticking out the back???) loaded it up, then tried to move it, bulling on one of the ends..... Snap!! Crack!!!... the whole thing was now listing about 10deg to port....


After a couple more glasses of port. I disassembled the whole thing, redrilled with the correct stop setting, reassembled & added cross bracing to the back. This time after loading it up & gingerly pulled to move it.. It stayed together!!!! ...

I guess that's one advantage pocket screws have over glued joints, if you screw up or just don't like some part of what you ended up with, you can just take it apart & change what you want, instead of just trashing the whole thing

[John Hunter]

Very nice, wish I had the shop floor space for one. I have to store my cutoffs in the shed where I keep the lawn tractor.

[chopnhack]

Nice, there is no such thing as scrap wood

[cabinetman]

But the big problem was that I forgot to set the pocket screw drill stop of 1/2" material for 3/4". I screwed it together, .... (hmmm I wonder why all those screws are sticking out the back???) loaded it up, then tried to move it, bulling on one of the ends..... Snap!! Crack!!!... the whole thing was now listing about 10deg to port....

You're fortunate that the piece wasn't a furniture or kitchen cabinet item that fell apart after finishing, or fell off the wall.
.

[SARGE..g-47]

Almost missed this Keith... nice job and a good design on that one. I have about 6 furniture dollie's which are on casters so.. I simply put a large plastic tub on 3 of them and shot a couple of Spax screws with a washer through the bottom of the tub into the hardwood frame of the dolly. I also use the bottom rack under my work-bench and one of my assembly tables to store cut-offs.

But.. after each project (about every two months) I still go through and cull out what I am pretty sure I won't use. If I don't I find my cup floweth over and it becomes more of a nuisance than plus. But.. I do find that I use most of the scraps eventually on something so it pays to keep them if you have the room.

Regards...

[drumpriest]

Thanks all,

John - I should have snapped a photo of it in position, but this guy was designed to slide behind the wing of my jointer, where there was some dead space in the shop. It'll come out when needed. Shop space is a premium in my place too, so it had to have a home before I started to build it.

Sarge - I did that culling pass just before loading this thing up, though I was probably conservative. It just seems criminal to throw stuff away. Mostly for solid wood cut-offs I either use them for something, or they fuel the marshmallow fire, but plywood is a different matter.