Adding to my offcut collection

On Wednesday I went to Wenban’s to see what they had in their offcut section.

I was mostly looking for some suitable hardwood to edge the top of my drill press stand with, but there were a few other nice bits of timber that will no doubt come in handy for something.

Today I’ve emptied some tools and a few odd bits of pine, ply & MDF off the shelves above and below my existing timber store to make space for the new arrivals.

Along with some more Iroko & Idigbo there were a couple of nice lumps of Birch, some nice bits of Ash and a length of Cherry, but the star purchase as far as I’m concerned was 6 short lengths of black walnut.

I’ve been thinking of trying an end grain chopping board for a while, but a lack of contrasting timber has been holding me back (or at least providing me with an excuse for procrastination).

All I could find for edging the drill press stand was some Oak. At £1.80 + VAT for each of the 4 offcuts it cost little more that I wanted to spend, so I may change my mind and use it for something else.

My total spend on this load of offcuts was £60 and it’s all fitted onto the shelves, with the exception of the oak edging which I may use soon.

At some point I’ll take all the shelves left by the previous house-owner and put up some proper (and stronger) timber storage racking there.

That depends on me finding another home for my ladder, which is currently mounted on the wall to the right of the shelves, as seen in this early shot of my workshop from January 2012:

Once the ladder’s gone I’d like to build something like the hinged sheet timber storage in this post on UKWorkshop.