Scrape lumber ? second chance.

[woody1]

We have a family owned retail lumber supply. I have ended up with thousands of feet of twisted, cracked, bowed, ect. lumber. Almost all of it is spf untreated and yp treated. I am looking for way to recylcle it. I've made picnic tables, stakes, sold some for 1/2 price. Anyone have any other ideas to make a little money with lumber that is 2nds.
Thanks,
Woody

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

That is a tough one, since the twisting and bowing usually indicates
the presence of reaction wood.

You have hit the main ideas.  I would add (for the treated) utility or
accessory table to go on a deck or with picknic table - about 2 ft.
square and the height of an end table.  For the untreated, you could
split it and sell as "starter splinters."  Foot stools for deck or patio?
Mud room seat with footrest for changing the dirty booties?

[Tom]

One of the things I found that would draw a customer's attention was a neatly stacked or bundled quantity of boards, of varying lengths and thicknesses, labeled "Craft Wood".   It can be time consuming to put stuff like that together, but it can even be fun for a couple of youngsters to while away the time, and it is more productive than watching Television.

The bundles may or may not be of the same species, though species should be identified.  It should also be of a size that someone can pick it up and carry it in one arm.  It helps to tie it rustically with binding twine or thin rope, rather than tape or plastic wrap.  Make it something that someone would want to pick up.

Lengths of 3 feet are popular, but pieces one foot long work too.   You can even make little thin-boarded boxes, likened to a plumber's tool box, to hold small pieces of wood.   People will buy the wood just to get the box.  ;D

Something else that could be done with the untreated wood is to cut it up into "childrens building blocks".  They can be of any size from 1x3x4, 2x3x4, 2x2x6 or any size that a child could stack.   They may need to be sanded a little to get rid of splintered edges and to round the corners a little.

My Mom used to keep my brother and me knee deep in waste from the lumber yard.

You can also stack square blocks from a 8x8, 6x6 and 4x4 on top of one another, with a hole drilled through the center and make a lamp. 

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Tom,  I like it.

I may have to try that myself soon.

[woody1]

Thanks..The lumber is all 8/4. I don't have any problem selling ddd 4/4. Tom geat idea for the 4/4, though. I will give that a try. Phil, the end tables are a good idea. The smaller I can cut the pcs., the better.

[Ron Wenrich]

End grain flooring.  I saw this in a feed store one time where they turned the board on end and used if for flooring.  I think it was 2" thick, and it had incredible wear resistance.  It looked pretty much like a parkay type of floor.

[Cedarman]

Ron, that reminds me, our old basketball court in elementary school was made with 2x4 on ends.  Neat looking floor until it got soaked many years later.

[Ironwood]

TONS of industrial buildings in this region have the vertical flooring, good idea.

Ironwood

[rebocardo]

I like Tom's marketing ideas.

You could advertise the untreated stuff as "bug free kiln dried split firewood" and split the 8/4 into 4/4 and then shrink wrap into bundles. Many people buy firewood just for the weekends. One guy I use to sell firewood to only bought enough that would fit into (2) 19 gallon containers in the back of my wife's car because he had no room for more at his apartment. Many times I just gave him free firewood because I felt bad charging for so little.

[Woodchuck53]

There use to be a handicap work shop in town where all sorts of pcs. of wood ended up for the people there to use. They made survey stakes of all kinds and would custom cut for you anything material would allow. It used up the material and gave these good people a little self worth and a check. Most of the shops I knew about kept them stocked. Not sure if they are still located there but that would be a good use for all. Chuck

[SPIKER]

woodchuck has a good idea, they do some similar things locally for one or two slower gents to carve figures with ect.  they had a paper article in Mansfield Ohio News Journal last year about one making bowls and figures out of figure wood cast offs from local tree trimmings and asked for donations of more wood but I don't have the info anymore...

mark

[treecyclers]

I get a fair amount of what I consider Junk wood, and I do a few different things with it.
If it has figure, it gets cut for turning stock
If it's plain, it gets cut for shorts
If it has any interesting character in it at all, it gets cut into craft packs - 10-20 boardfeet of littles and skinnies
if it's totally screwed up, it gets cut up for firewood