How small does scrap have to be before you cannot make something?

The ridges work well for wood to fix a sloppy kerf and keep things tight, but that is because the wood gives and squishes.
With plastic, it just tends to force a crack on thin projects, or if thick enough body to resist a crack, will force a visible air gap on the pieces (no give with plastic).

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I ended up giving 2 smallish boxes of scraps to friends who do mixed media art - I’m hoping they’ll use them and assuage my guilt at otherwise throwing them out!

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I thought I could use mine as mini roofing shingles, but they were too thick to look nice. Today is garbage day, and I feel lighter having been rid of them.

I should look to see if there are takers in the art world here.

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Have you all seen the Make notebook on CNC joinery? Scroll down a bit and there are some great examples of different types of edge slots with detents

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Thank you; I had not considered that about the acrylic. Although, I did see them incorporated into a design for a top, so it wouldn’t come apart when it inevitably goes off the table. and why do I know that?

@ekla thanks for the link

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Just got some acrylic resin, I think I will try a ‘crazy quilt’ mosaic and see if it’s worth keeping the little scrap. Yes, I hate to throw out stuff that might have a use, but this is a small house, so…

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Cook? what is this ‘cook’ of which you speak?

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That design actually has a lot of “give” and I considered having them be just a hair narrow with a bit of a square area, matched by a square engrave on each side.

I know there is a lot of “give” as I have had these work in acrylic as well …

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Unfortunately, it’s the main chore I must do since no one will do it for me. :sweat_smile:

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Best weight loss diet ever- “You have to prep and cook your own food”

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Lol, I wish something like that would work, but unfortunately it doesn’t. I have one who will eat everything in a nasty hodgepodge collection she makes herself, and two who decide eating is not worth the effort. Since I can’t afford to keep buying new clothes and groceries daily, it’s a chore I must do for the rest of us to survive. :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

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My rule for scrap was to make meeples until they wouldn’t fit anymore.
Now I have too many for Christmas presents and a brand new pile of scrap to decide what to do with! :slight_smile:

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I had to google what a meeple is. That is interesting, I never considered using game pieces that didn’t come with a game before.

I think the majority of the scraps I was holding on to were more like “possible stud earring” size. A meeple wouldn’t fit. The remaining scraps I have would probably fit small things like that.

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Those are cool shapes! I would turn them into business cards (putting your shop contacts etc) and hand them out to any you meet. They will not be throwing them in the trash as they might any paper card,

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I use them to make small earring cards. the file came with an earring pattern i had so i just change the engraving to suit whatever the earring topic is

Too small to make Escher fish / lizards / birds

Look in the Escher folder on his Google Drive.

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How hard can it be?

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Mine didn’t look like that. They were rectangular walnut scraps from cutting dollhouse window frames for someone- .5"x 2" long, all 1/8" thickness…and they looked like one piece all put back together when I tried them. It just didn’t look nice. Anyways, I lost interest in storing them any longer.

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That is a gray map that if engraved could look much better.

Ah, I see. Not sure my tiny scrap was worth trying to engrave anything on.