5 Tiny Scrap Wood Projects You Didn’t Think About

“What am I going to do with all this scrap?”

If you’ve been woodworking for any length of time, you’ve probably asked yourself that question. I sure have. After 50 years in the shop, I think the two things I’ve made more of than anything else are sawdust and scrap. And to be honest, I hate calling it “scrap.” Most of the time, it’s just unused wood. It only becomes scrap when there’s truly nothing left to do with it.

In this article, I’ll share five tiny scrap wood projects you can make with that leftover wood. These are tiny builds — nothing huge — but they’re still woodworking. More importantly, they’ll help you put that growing pile of “someday wood” to good use.

Let’s start with preparing the wood.

Preparing Thin Strips on the Table Saw

Most of the pieces I use for these tiny projects come from offcuts — the kind of cuts you make when you’re just trimming a board down. Say I’ve got a 1x4 and I need to bring it down from 3 ½ inches wide to 3 ¼. When I run it through the table saw, I get a nice, clean ⅛-inch strip. That strip goes straight into my scrap pile. It's perfect for small parts.

For some of the upcoming projects, though, I need strips that are even more specific — about ⅛ inch thick and ¼ inch wide. So here’s a little trick I use to get those cleanly and safely on the table saw.

First, I start with a board that’s jointed and trued up on both edges. I set the blade to just over a ¼ inch high, and I space the fence so the blade cuts a groove about ⅛ inch in from the edge. Once I’ve got that set, I go ahead and cut three grooves spaced evenly across the face of the board.

With those grooves in place, it’s time to flip the board up on edge and cut the strips free. I raise the blade high enough to go through all three grooves, and I move the fence over accordingly — about ¼ inch. One key safety note here: I always make sure the narrow strips fall to the outside of the blade, away from the fence. You don’t want those little pieces getting caught between the blade and the fence — they’ll bind or get destroyed.

With that cut made, I’m left with three nice little strips — close to ⅛ inch by ¼ inch — just what I need.

Using a Thin Rip Gauge for Perfect Strips

Now, here’s another tool I use all the time when cutting thin strips: the thin rip gauge. This is one of those simple but super handy gadgets that makes a huge difference, especially when you want a bunch of strips that are exactly the same thickness.

The gauge mounts in your miter track and gives you a consistent stop to set your fence against. It’s great for ripping narrow pieces — the kind we use in a lot of small, detailed projects.

Now, most folks will mount this in the miter slot to the left of their blade and cut to the left side of the fence. But on my saw, the left miter track is pretty far from the blade, so I mount it on the right side instead. Works just as well — you can cut from either side depending on your setup.

The idea here is to set the gauge to the width you want. I align it with one of the blade’s teeth to get an accurate starting point, then lock it in place ahead of the blade — that’s important. You don’t want to trap the wood between the gauge and the blade, because that creates pinch points and is a safety hazard.

Then I slide my fence over to meet the gauge. That would give me zero cut — basically just shaving the edge — so I back it off slightly. The gauge has both metric and imperial markings, so I adjust it to give me a cut that’s just about ⅛ of an inch.

Now I can bring my board up to the fence, lock it in, and make the first cut.

After your first cut, you’ll have one clean, straight edge to work from. Then it’s just a matter of setting that new edge against the fence and making repeat cuts. The gauge ensures each strip you cut matches the last, giving you repeatable, reliable results every time.

For building small jigs, boxes, trim pieces, and other detailed projects, a thin rip gauge is a simple but powerful addition to your shop.

Sanding Thin Strips for Glue-Ups

Once I’ve got my thin strips cut, the next step is prepping them for edge-gluing. If you’ve ever done panel glue-ups, you know how important it is to have clean, square edges — and that gets trickier when the pieces are tiny. Jointers and planers are out of the question here. Even a random orbital sander is too slow.

My solution? I turn my oscillating spindle sander into a makeshift thickness sander.

The jig is simple: just a flat base with a fixed fence at 90°, and a hinged fence with a knob to fine-tune the spacing. It sits on the table with a pin at one end and a clamp at the other end for stability. I use my largest sanding drum, and I position the fence about 1/32" to 1/16" off the drum.

For each strip, I start by sanding the face to remove saw marks and ensure even thickness. Feeding into the rotation helps me control the strip and avoid kickback. For example, I cleaned up some Purpleheart with just one pass and could feel when certain areas had more resistance — a sign they were slightly thicker.

If the strip isn’t square, I make a second pass with it on its edge. Sometimes that takes a couple of adjustments to the jig, especially if the strip is unusually wide or uneven.

This setup has worked on strips as thin as 1/16" by 3/16". The key is being patient and dialing in that spacing just right.

I even used it on a piece of Acacia hardwood flooring that had grooves on the underside. After a few passes, it was flat, smooth, and ready to use.

Quick tip for Purpleheart — once sanded, it turns brown, but it’ll return to purple after a bit of time exposed to sunlight. I like to let mine oxidize before finishing or gluing.

No Spindle Sander? Use a Drill Press Instead

Now I know not everyone has an oscillating spindle sander in their shop. But if you’ve got a drill press, you can still thickness-sand thin strips of wood with just a little setup. It won’t be quite as fast, but it definitely gets the job done — and it's a lot more affordable.

 I use a drum sanding kit I got from Harbor Freight years ago. It’s simple: wrap the sandpaper sleeve around the drum, tuck it in, and chuck it into your drill press like any other bit.

To guide the wood, I built a very basic jig. It’s just a 1x4 for the stage and a 1x2 as a fence, joined at a perfect 90°. I added a cutout so the drum can spin freely, and I mount the whole thing to the drill press table with F-clamps.

Now, just like with the spindle sander, feed direction matters. The drum spins toward the back, so you want to feed into that direction to avoid the piece launching off your table. 

One tip: if your sanding sleeve feels loose or isn’t tensioned right (like mine was during filming), you’ll get poor results. I recommend using self-adhesive sanding sleeves — they hold much better and make setup easier.

While this setup won’t sand as fast as a spindle sander, it still gives you control, safety, and consistency — and it works great even on small bench-top drill presses. That’s actually how I started doing this years ago. So if you’ve got a drill press, you’ve got everything you need.

Edge Gluing the Thin Strips

A lot of these tiny projects start with edge glue-ups — just like in bigger builds, except the pieces are way thinner. That makes everything more delicate. The edges have to be perfectly clean because you can’t rely on clamp pressure to force them into alignment. If you try, the whole thing will bow or even pop right out of the clamps.

These strips were already prepped on the spindle sander, so I’m just applying a thin layer of glue. No overdoing it here. The strips are resting on waxed cauls to keep them aligned and to make sure they don’t stick to the workbench.

I’m using a mix of woods here — Purpleheart, Walnut, Maple, and a bit of Oak with some interesting grain. The layout’s in a mirror image pattern, just to add some visual flair. 

Clamping is where it gets tricky. You can’t crank down like you would on a tabletop — it’ll ruin everything. I’m just using light pressure with some fast-acting clamps.

Once it’s all clamped and aligned, I add a couple of weights on top and move it out of the way to dry.

Thickness Glue-Up

Another glue-up technique I use a lot for tiny projects is the thickness glue-up. This time, I’m not edge-gluing — I’m stacking the strips on top of each other like we’re making our own plywood.

In this example, I’m working with two strips of oak, a strip of maple, and two narrower pieces of walnut. I’m combining the walnut to match the width of the other layers, but that means I need to be really careful with alignment. If I mess it up, I’ll have a gap down the middle — like a void in a sheet of plywood.

After gluing the walnut pieces together, I added a strip of maple, then capped the whole thing with another piece of oak. That gives me a four-layer sandwich, and now it’s time to clamp it up.

Because the material’s so thin, I can’t just put clamps directly on it — I’ll end up with uneven pressure. Instead, I use a couple of wood blocks on each side to distribute the clamping force evenly across the whole glue-up.

Unlike edge glue-ups, I do apply a bit more pressure here. I’m not worried about pieces popping out, and I want to help flatten everything as I go. Still, you have to watch out — screw clamps can make things shift, so I always double-check alignment before tightening all the way.

Lastly, I wipe off the squeeze-out. These blocks aren’t waxed like my cauls, so if I don’t clean up, there’s a real risk of gluing them to the piece — and I’d rather not chisel them off tomorrow. Once everything’s clean, I set it aside and let it dry.

Project 1: The Thumb Twiddler

Let’s start with the first — and probably the simplest — of our tiny scrap wood projects: the thumb twiddler.

Now I know, it sounds like a gag gift. But trust me, these are fun little stocking stuffers. One Christmas, my wife and I made a bunch of them and tied them to the baked goods we gave out. People loved them. Whether they used them or not… well, at least they got a laugh.

All it is is a small piece of wood with two holes in it. That’s it. But it makes thumb twiddling oddly satisfying.

To make one, grab a piece of scrap wood that’s around ¼ to ½ inch thick, about 1½ inches wide, and roughly 3 inches long. I used the drill press to bore two 1-inch holes into it — spaced about where your thumbs would naturally rest.

Then I rounded the corners just to make it more hand-friendly. After that, a bit of sanding — especially inside the holes — to remove any splinters and make it comfortable to hold.

And there you go — another thumb twiddler out in the world. It’s a quick project, it’s fun, and it uses barely any wood. Great way to get started with the scraps.

Project 2: Wooden Business Card Case

One of my favorite little scrap wood builds is this wooden business card case. As a woodworker, it just feels right having my cards tucked into something I made myself — from scraps, no less.

So how do we make one? Well, earlier I cut a thin strip of oak — about ⅛ inch thick — from a rough, old block I had. I squared it up and sanded it down until it was about 0.105 inches thick. Then I laid out my opening: business cards are 2 inches by 3½ inches, so I made the inside cutout just a hair over 2 inches tall and a smidge under 3½ so the cards would fit without sliding out. I also added a notch at the open end to make the cards easy to grab.

Once I had that laid out, I headed over to the scroll saw and cut it out.

Now, this is one of those rare times where I actually use super glue in a project. Why? Because you have to hold the pieces in place — there’s really no good way to clamp them. So I started gluing on the walnut frame pieces one at a time, trimming them as needed.

Once the last piece was glued in place, I sanded everything flush on the belt sander and rounded the corners. That’s really all there is to it.

And the result was a simple but classy case that fits standard business cards perfectly.

It’s a great little project to keep or give away — and hey, what better way to showcase your skills than by handing out your business card in a case you made yourself?

Project 3: Book Holder 

The thin strips we clamped up before gave me a great base for a couple of small projects. The first one is a simple book holder, which I call the "Book Lover's Friend" — a little gadget that slips over your thumb and holds your book open while you read. I’ve made a few different designs of these before, but this one is straightforward: just trace a template, mark the center for your thumb hole, and cut it out.

If you're making holes in small objects like this, do it before cutting the shape. It's much easier (and safer) to drill while the wood is still square. But if you forget, a good clamp — like a screw clamp — can hold it safely on the drill press.

Once the book holder was cut out, I moved to sanding. First I used the oscillating spindle sander to clean up the scroll saw marks, then I rounded over all the edges with an ⅛-inch roundover bit using my trim router.

Yes, it may look like my fingers are close to the bit — but the workpiece was always between my hands and the cutter, and I kept control the whole time.

After routing, a little hand sanding cleaned it up and it’s ready for finish. For something this small, it’s the kind of sanding I like to do while watching TV — not a bad way to unwind.

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After flattening my mixed hardwood panel — oak, purpleheart, maple, and walnut — I had a beautiful, thin board ready to turn into several tiny projects. These are the kinds of pieces I love to make from scrap: simple, small, and personal.

Projects 4 & 5: Pendant and Money Clip

From this one panel, I made three different items: a pendant, a money clip, and a hair barrette. The barrette wasn’t completely finished because I didn’t have the hair clip, but no matter.

The cutting for all was done at the same time, and they all used the natural contrast of the wood grain to create something eye-catching and one-of-a-kind.

Planning and Cutting

I started by laying out my cuts carefully to get the most out of the glued-up panel. For the pendant, I used an off-center placement to avoid cutting directly through the glue seam—this helps reduce the risk of splitting when drilling. The money clip piece was marked out to 1 inch wide by 2¼ inches long. For the barrette, I traced an oval shape using a simple paper template.

Once the shapes were marked, I took everything to the scroll saw. This tool is perfect for cutting small, detailed pieces like these.

Gluing and Assembly

Once the pieces were cut, I did a little sanding and repair. If your glue-up has any small cracks or voids, this is where glue and sawdust come in handy. Just dab a little glue into the gap and press in sawdust from your sanding — no need to mix beforehand.

The Money Clip

The decorative wood top was glued to a stainless steel clip using five-minute epoxy. I sanded the metal first to give the glue something to "bite" onto, then clamped it carefully to set. These money clip backers are easy to find online — I bought a pack of a dozen from Amazon.

The Pendant

I drilled a small hole near the top of the pendant and added a split ring (like you'd use on a keychain), followed by a braided leather cord. These cords are easy to find at craft stores or online — great value, and perfect for gifting.

Bonus Idea: Knife Scales from Scrap Wood

Another great use for small wood scraps is making knife scales. If you’re not familiar with the term, knife scales are the two pieces of wood attached to either side of a knife’s tang to form the handle.

You don’t need large pieces for this project—tiny, flat scraps are actually perfect. Unique, character-filled pieces of wood make especially beautiful handles. To make the scales, you simply attach two thin slabs of wood to the metal tang using wood glue and a couple of brass pins for reinforcement. It’s a rewarding project that turns even the smallest pieces of wood into something useful and personal.

Final Thoughts: Scrap? Not Quite.

In my view, it’s not really “scrap” unless it truly can’t be used. Most of the time, it’s just good wood waiting for the right project. Small projects like these let you stretch your materials, practice your skills, and enjoy the beauty of fine woodworking—without the large investment.

So before you toss those offcuts aside, ask yourself: is it really waste—or just wood waiting for its moment?