So for any of you who still turn pens, what do you do with the end scraps that are left over after cutting/ trimming?  As a good woodworker tends to do, I ended up saving cutoffs from all of my pen blanks, both wood and acrylic. As i was reorganizing my tool chests and whatnot I realized I had a full drawer of these cutoffs.  Some are as short as 1/4", some might be 2".  None of them could be used in any regular pen kit applications.  I thought about heading to Goodwill and try and find some kind of food processor or blender to break them into smaller bits and mix them into acrylic resin and make new blanks with them.  Before I completely destroy them in this way, anyone have a different method, or do most of you simply discard the extra?

I usually save anything that doesn't go thru the shop vac hose. But, honestly, the scrap bin gets dumped every now and then. I do save the "exotic" pieces hoping that I'll find a use. Sometimes it even works out- these were made from a Woodcraft Magazine project. The black pieces were from some African Blackwood savings-

 

 

Edited June 20, 20179 yr by lew

I make my own blanks and size them for no scraps.

Using epoxy glue them back into blanks. some use white plastic (gift cards are a good source) or veneer in between to provide contrast.

I have totes full of blanks so I just add the off-cuts to my scrap/campfire boxes

i make fridge magnets or fan & light string pulls out of my pen blank scraps. I have also made snowman ornaments with them

 

 

On 6/20/2017 at 1:03 PM, lew said:

I usually save anything that doesn't go thru the shop vac hose. But, honestly, the scrap bin gets dumped every now and then. I do save the "exotic" pieces hoping that I'll find a use. Sometimes it even works out- these were made from a Woodcraft Magazine project. The black pieces were from some African Blackwood savings-

 

 

 

Lew - those are beautiful, but what are they?  Toothpicks or pool cues?

Cal

Chop sticks.

 

11 minutes ago, clhyer said:

 

Lew - those are beautiful, but what are they?  Toothpicks or pool cues?

Cal

Chop sticks

I haven't used chop sticks in probably 40 years!

Beautiful pieces Lew,

Cal

Those sticks are too nice to get oyster sauce stains on 'em.

5 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

Those sticks are too nice to get oyster sauce stains on 'em.

Thanks!

I actually made 3 sets. Kept one and gave the other 2 to my brother and his wife.

When we go out for Sushi, everyone knows to save their sticks for me. They come in handy in the shop.

 

I save all of the scraps but haven't done anything with them yet. I will probably put a bunch of small pieces in some acrylic and make something.

I glue up blanks from wood and acrylic scraps,  Some times just wood and sometimes wood with acrylic accents.  I also will divide layers with different veneers or, like mentioned by John I'll use old gift cards or something like that.  

I have also glued up several into larger blanks for projects like Kaleidoscopes and usually make a matching flat blank and turn it for a neat matching pedestal, those usually sell first even though the price is higher.

I have also used them to make decorative pulls  for jewelry boxes and turned some pendants for necklaces.

 

If they are just plain pieces they can be use for utility drawer pulls and even stops or glue block inside a cabinet.