Money from Scrap Wood

Where once wood is used to build houses now they are made out of bricks and/or concrete. Most however of our cabinets, tables, desks and so on are made out of wood. If we get work done using wood there would be inevitably be scraps of wood leftover. We usually just throw them away but do you know that even scrap wood is bought and used by people?

If you go to e-commerce sites such as eBay for example and type “scrap wood” a list of scrap wood products for sale would appear. The scrap wood for sale come in various types, shapes and sizes. From plain scrap wood to finely grained scrap wood. Hard to come by wood types also command higher prices.

Naturally those people who do woodworking as a job are the best people to take advantage of this demand but even people who do not do woodworking can have access to scrap wood which they can resell. The obvious way would be to find woodworking shops and construction sites who give them away for free or sell them cheap.

Incidentally you may not consider wood dust as wood scrap but you can also sell this waste material from wood. Again looking at eBay as a guide we can see that if you type “wood dust” there would be sellers who sell wood dust by the bag. Wood dust is used in barbecuing, gardening, pet bedding and so on.

Wood dust can also used for sculpting. Wood dust is mixed with flour, clay or other sculpting materials to make sculptures. It could also be used as a wood filler for woodwork. I remember during my woodworking classes mixing glue and wood dust to fill the gaps between the different wood parts of my wood project. It was strong and blends well with woodwork.

So if you are unable to sell some of your wood scrap because they are either too irregularly shaped, old, stained and so on you have the option of grinding them down to be turned to wood dust. Since wood dust comes in a regular form you would have the tendency to have regular clients as well such as barbecuers, gardeners and pet owners.

As you can see no part of the wood will be wasted as even the smallest part of the wood can be sold. In many impoverished areas of the world for example there are people who live in cities who make a living by scavenging scrap wood to turn into wood coal and then selling it. This is an unhealthy way to make a living. Maybe they could have earned more and would definitely be healthier if they sold wood dust.

Pallets for those who are not aware of them are flat and square wood or plastic structure used to hold products together. Forklifts and other lifting equipments are used to handle them. They are usually made out of cheap wood meant to be discarded. They can however be used for any woodworking project if you are creative enough.

Perhaps one of the best uses of pallets is their use in making houses for people. Houses made from pallets may not be the most flexible in design due to the relative short size of the wood but they can be beautiful and big. It all depends on the creativity of the builder. Google “houses made of pallets” in Google Images to see some samples. You can also do a search in YouTube.

If houses can be built from pallets it follows that furniture and other house decorations can also be built from pallets. There are in fact who make good money from using pallets as wood for their woodworking projects. Google “furniture made out of pallets” in Google Images to see some samples. You can also do a search in YouTube.

One thing that you should be aware of is that there are pallets that have been chemically treated which may not be safe for human use. There have been cases were people sold products made out of discarded pallets to people who later became sick from using their product. Ignoring this issue can land you in serious health and legal problems.

So how do you know which pallets are safe to be reused again for human use? There are product stamps on some pallets that inform you if they are safe for reuse. Unmarked pallets are suspect and should be treated with care. For more information regarding this Google “how to know if a pallet is safe to use” and you will see a lot of articles about this subject.

If you want to earn more from wood besides selling them as scrap or by making simple creations from them you can if you have the skills or equipment make sculptures out of them. Even the smallest or irregularly shaped scrap wood can be turned into a sculpture. Wood cutouts are one of the basics you can do. See Google Images “wood cutouts” for samples.

Another kind of simple wood art you can do are wooden robots. Wooden robots do not require a lot of sculpting skills but does need a fair bit of creativity. Because wood robots can be made fast out of scrap wood blocks there are a lot of people who make them and even sell them. See Google Images “wood robots” for samples. Wood robot sculptures simply have character built in them which makes them adorable.

Another relatively easy way you can make use of a piece of scrap wood is to paint them. The more elaborate and beautiful the design is the more you can possibly earn from selling it. For example a piece of wood block may sell cheap as scrap wood but if you paint designs on it there is a strong possibility that it would be bought at a much higher price. See Google Images “painted wood blocks” for samples.

You may not have the artistic or creative bent but there are products that are so simple that all you have to do is to make them based on a pattern. Wood dices for example can be made easily. Dices require only a square shape which is easy to do you just need to be precise and the pattern number dots can easily be drawn on. See Google Images “wood dice” for samples.

Conclusion

As can be seen nothing is wasted from wood if you know all the uses for it. You can sell wood in its original scrap form or grind it as wood dust. You can further make money by using it to build woodworking projects such as houses and furniture. You can make much more money by making them as art objects. The important thing is to find reliable sources of scrap wood and clients.