Using up scrap wood
“There is no scrap wood, just pieces not yet used.”
– Woodworkers’ Guild of America
Everyone who builds woodworking projects will eventually have more leftover wood scraps than they know what to do with, and every woodworking channel on YouTube has videos on why you should burn your scrap wood, or what to build with your scrap wood, or both.
I spent much of the last year building bookcases for our home library, and by this summer my shop had become overwhelmed with scraps of white oak plywood and quarter sawn white oak lumber. It's gorgeous wood, so I kept all scraps more than a few inches across, and this post is about some of the ways I've been using up all of that scrap wood. I'm trying to use it all up so that I can clear up space for more projects, which will generate more scrap wood, and so it goes.
The three bookcases in our library. I made the first one on the left in the fall of 2024, then the second one in April 2025, and then the third and final one on the right this summer.
All of the horizontal trim on the bases and crowns of the bookcases is 1" deep and 1.5" tall, with a 3/4" X 3/4" square piece removed from the back so that the trim will fit the edge of a piece of 3/4" plywood and hide the end grain. Due to this detail of the construction, building these bookcases generated dozens of linear feet of 3/4" square scraps in lengths from a few inches to a few feet. So my first challenge was how to use up all of those strips of 3/4" square lumber.
My first attempt at using up some of the 3/4" X 3/4" scraps – a pot holder. It's held together with dowels and glue around the edges, and all of the inner joints are loose so that it won't crack if heat causes any pieces to warp slightly in the future. I also used some scraps to make a place to hang it in the pantry.
After making a couple of little things from those 3/4" square scraps, I realized that I could laminate them together to make 3/4" thick boards. Boards constructed in that manner are stronger and more stable (i.e., less likely to warp) than solid lumber – this is the principle behind glulam laminated beams, a popular sustainable alternative to concrete and steel in construction projects.
Laminating 3/4" square scraps into boards, which lend themselves to a wider variety of projects than individual scraps.
Building boxes from the laminated boards that I had made. These boards are very dense, resulting in boxes that feel heavy and sturdy.
Another box built from 3/4" square scraps laminated into boards.
In addition to all of those scraps of oak lumber, I had many scraps of 3/4" plywood left over from the bookcases. I've seen some woodworkers turning plywood scraps into interesting patterns (this tabletop, for example), so I decided to give that technique a try.
For my first attempt at patterned plywood, I went for a basket-weave pattern. I sliced some of the laminated boards into cross-sections, then arranged those pieces into the pattern I wanted and then glued them together and planed and sanded them flat.
One thing I learned in experimenting with patterned plywood is that the resulting boards are more fragile than plain plywood. Whereas laminating the lumber scraps into boards made for a sturdier end result than what I started with, the patterned plywood boards turned out more fragile than what I started with. The edges chipped many times, a couple of the boards broke during construction, and I spent quite a bit of time repairing those problems or working around the limitations. I like the look of patterned plywood, but it's a less versatile material than laminated lumber.
Building boxes from the basket-weave boards I had created. After assembling the box cases and applying the trim, I carefully cut the tops off. This approach makes the grain patterns line up perfectly across the seam between the bottom and top pieces.
FYI, the blue box interiors in the photo above are masking tape. I've found that carefully covering the interiors with masking tape before construction makes it easier to clean up any glue squeeze-out later.
A finished box made from basket-weave patterned plywood scraps, with strips of white oak trim around the top and bottom to hide the edges of the plywood. The top is a small scrap of the 1/4" plywood that I used for the backs of the bookcases.
Another basket-weave box. I made this one for my mother-in-law, who was visiting while I was working on these, and I added a Jamie medallion to the top. The two black walnut dots (tops of dowel pieces) in the right photo are to show which way to line up the top so that the seam between the top and bottom is barely visible. The top is square, so you can insert it in any orientation, but when the two dots are aligned there are no visible seams in the basket-weave patterns on the sides.
In addition to the leftover wood scraps, I had four assembled shelves (plywood with oak face trim) left over from the bookcases. We had to take a guess at how many shelves would be needed, and after unpacking all of our books and getting them on the shelves we found that we needed fewer larger shelves than I had estimated.
I've been needing some more small drawers in the workshop for organizing tools, so I decided to make those four shelves into a little chest and then built a set of drawers to go in it, using some other plywood scraps.
Building the chest of drawers for the workshop. You can never have too much tool storage, right?
Those projects have used up most of the small scraps I had left over from the bookcases. I also had a nearly full sheet of 3/4" white oak plywood left over, and Megan suggested that we make that into a blanket chest for storing quilts and comforters in the parlor. I researched several blanket chest designs and came up with a plan for how to build a sturdy one from that plywood and the last of the white oak lumber.
My current supply of scrap wood, after the projects mentioned in this post. Still have plenty to play with.
It was fun to try some new techniques while using up the scraps from the bookcases, and I'm looking forward to learning more in the construction of the blanket chest!
This viral video from the McFarlands last year has over 70 million views, because it so perfectly captures the joy of finding a use for scrap wood.