Earth Day: Being Green

Being Green shouldn't just be for 1 day of the year.  Yes, it's Earth Day, but let's talk about some sound practices that can make a difference all year long.

In the spirit of that I'm recycling a previous post about how we are "Green" at our shop:

Most shops buy cups to mix stain in….I save my soda cans, cut off the bottom and have a cup.  After I’m done using it, I send it to the recycling plant.  

Most shops buy bottles to properly store stains after mixing them.

 Did you know that soda bottles (the plastic ones) are resistant to acetone, lacquer, thinner and basically every other chemical used in the common wood shop?   I've known this for years and use them all to store these items.  This saves money for the shop and reuses (recycles) these ‘throw away’ products giving them a second life before I send them to the recycling plant.  I pay for them once and use them twice.

Lumber.  I have a ‘firewood pile’ in the shop.  It’s all the scraps from projects worked on.  I even draw from it all the time in the shop if I need a small piece for a moulding , test piece, peg or dowel etc, etc. Then, as a last use, when the pile gets too big I take it out camping with me and…firewood it is (cherry makes some fine tasting marshmallows btw).  I’m currently using the sawdust in the shop to store my olive tree slabs to dry them for my Master’s Project.  Said and done right now only about 3% of all lumber coming into the shop ends up in a landfill.   Judging from the 17 other woodshops outside my door, other shops seem to average about 10-15%.

Rags come from friends, neighbors and old work clothes.  I haven’t bought a rag in the entire history of my shop.

Glass/aluminum are used whenever and wherever I can.  10yrs ago I bought aluminum bottles for my water out camping (the kind you can see in every environmentally friendly hand today)….all my friends said I was crazy and bought lexan bottles.  Mine are all still in use and all of theirs are now in landfills.

GLASS! The miracle product!  It needs no recycling! Hey people…it’s a ROCK it started a ROCK and it’s still a ROCK and it will return to being a ROCK when humans are all dead and gone from this planet!  There is even an entire beach in northern California, known for its beauty, that’s totally made of glass shards due to a now defunct glass factory located nearby.  It’s all been rounded by the sea and re-deposited on the beach.  And study after study cannot find any detrimental effects to the environment…it’s a ROCK people!

Am I an eco nut?...not on your life.  However common sense and a general care of where and how I live goes a long way towards being green.

It IS easy being GREEN!

Ok people here we go….I am so tired of hearing about ‘going green’ what about simply sound practices?

Most shops buy cups to mix stain in….I save my soda cans, cut off the bottom and have a cup.  After I’m done using it, I send it to the recycling plant.  

Most shops buy bottles to properly store stains after mixing them.

 Did you know that soda bottles (the plastic ones) are resistant to acetone, lacquer, thinner and basically every other chemical used In the common wood shop?   I’ve known this for years and use them all to store these items.  This saves money for the shop and reuses (recycles) these ‘throw away’ products giving them a second life before I send them to the recycling plant.  I pay for them once and use them twice.

Lumber.  I have a ‘firewood pile’ in the shop.  It’s all the scraps from projects worked on.  I even draw from it all the time in the shop if I need a small piece for a moulding , test piece, peg or dowel etc, etc. Then, as a last use, when the pile gets too big I take it out camping with me and…firewood it is (cherry makes some fine tasting marshmallows btw).  I’m currently using the sawdust in the shop to store my olive tree slabs to dry them for my Master’s Project.  Said and done right now only about 3% of all lumber coming into the shop ends up in a landfill.   Judging from the 17 other woodshops outside my door, other shops seem to average about 10-15%.

Rags come from friends, neighbors and old work clothes.  I haven’t bought a rag in the entire history of my shop.

Glass/aluminum are used whenever and wherever I can.  10yrs ago I bought aluminum bottles for my water out camping (the kind you can see in every environmentally friendly hand today)….all my friends said I was crazy and bought lexan bottles.  Mine are all still in use and all of theirs are now in landfills.

GLASS! The miracle product!  It needs no recycling! Hey people…it’s a ROCK it started a ROCK and it’s still a ROCK and it will return to being a ROCK when humans are all dead and gone from this planet!  There is even an entire beach in northern California, known for its beauty, that’s totally made of glass shards due to a now defunct glass factory located nearby.  It’s all been rounded by the sea and re-deposited on the beach.  And study after study cannot find any detrimental effects to the environment…it’s a ROCK people!

Am I an eco nut?...not on your life.  However common sense and a general care of where and how I live goes a long way towards being green.

The Greening Blues

I was reading an article today about a company out in Arizona that has done some very Green projects. Using water-based finishes, formaldehyde-free items, recycled, reclaimed and salvaged products.

But the article brought up an important issue. To quote the article: There are several new products that Clark says she would like to incorporate more into her architectural woodwork projects.

Last I checked, a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" think bamboo plywood is $300 a sheet, making it 9 TIMES more expensive than the typical sheet of oak plywood used to build your furniture. At this point products coming solely out of Asia are at a high price point, but items where the raw material comes from America, ships to Asia and then is shipped back to America as a final product are basically dirt cheap. Why are our natural resources so cheap and disposable and there's aren't?

They go on to offer a suggestion: . . . until demand lowers the price, it is unlikely for now, she adds.

I think this is backwards. If the price lowers, the demand will go up. There is all of this funding for greening coming out of the government. Instead of using it to reward a large company for switching from paper cups to ceramic mugs in their break room, how about using it to subsidize some of these innovative, sustainable products coming onto the market. Lowering the price will bring the product to more and more companies, and the raised demand will help to keep the price down.


While we wait for this to happen. There are ways that our industry can go green without going broke. Surprisingly enough, woodwork is a very green industry.

Here are some of the things already happening in our shop and many around us:

• We use low-VOC (275, lowest in the Country). In California, EPA laws are stringent. My fellow California woodworkers will know that "stringent" is me being kind.
  
• Many local suppliers are LEEDS certified. We are hoping to get our certification soon.
  
• 90% of our waste is sawdust. We do our best to use up every part of the wood. There is a pile in the shop of off-fall that is often dug through to be used as part of other jobs, and anything not used gets given away as firewood. (Cherry makes a wonderful campfire.) .
  
• In the last 6 years, we haven't bought a single rag. We recycle old clothes and linens from our home instead.
  
• We rarely generate any paperwork - other than the necessary receipts/ invoices. Much of our work is done on the phone or in e-mails.

The next step can be to look to the local area. Trees are everywhere. And many get pulled out for different reasons. Too many of those end up at the dump. This is a wasted resource that can and should be tapped.

Unfortunately, I'm finding that local tree removal companies aren't as willing to work with me as I would hope. They are more willing to pay the dump and waste the resource than to let me take the tree. It's really discouraging to know that it's often the more basic green ideas, the ones that don't cost as much, the ones that could save everyone money, that are the least used.

Hopefully I'll be able to report back about some companies that are willing to work with us in a mutually beneficial way.

A very "Green" Drafting Table

The drafting table is completed!

As mentioned before, this was built so that I can have a space to work on the design of my Master's Project. (see below)

This is made, primarily out of spare wood from around the shop. Even the butcher block top.

The top was a butcher block (Northern Soft Maple) from a home (where we built the replacement). The "I" of the legs was shop scrap left over from building that replacement butcher block.

The cross member, foot rest, was a fall off from a production built butcher block used for the island in the same home. Also Northern Soft Maple




The Fiddleback Maple of the pencil lip on the front of the table was from my personal stash. I try to pick up any in the lumber piles at my suppliers when I'm lucky enough to find a figured piece.

The back and front connector of the legs were a remnant from a large mall job a friend had. These are pieces of maple that were rejected for their grain, on a job that wanted straight grain.

The African Mahogany "/" of the legs were a remnant after a large job of trophies.

The four hand turned pins were random maple scraps from my firewood pile.


Two pieces of All-thread that were donated from a friend who was replacing lighting, are set at the back with hand turned Mahogany handles (also from the trophy remnant above).

The drafting arm itself (Bruning) was given to me by my high school woodshop teacher when the high school disbanded the drafting class. Sadly, the other 29 drafting arms in the class were left to rust and sold as scrap metal along with the desks. Worse still, I kept in contact with my wood shop teacher until he no longer remembered his wife, due to severe Alzheimers. A dear friend, sorely missed.

Because almost all of the parts were either kept from being discarded, left over from jobs, or donated, it was a very green job and in the end it cost $10.70 to build this. Well that was the price of the hinge and some copper plumbing end caps.