How do you deal with remnants

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FrameMakers

FrameMakers

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Mar 20, 2001
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Loc
Powell, OH
I am currently in heavy cleaning mode. My problem is having more stuff then space to put it away. I feel pretty good about my mat remnant storage but am wondering how others deal with fabric, glass & FC remnants?

In these tough economic times, efficient use of remnants is good for the bottom line.
 
Dave -

My matboard, FC and fabric (too small for RM mats) is available to school teachers for class projects.

Small scrap glass goes in the dumpster. Acrylic is sold in RM sizes. I cut it on my table saw very quickly with a plastic blade.
 
I'm not recommending anything but will share what I do.

I'm a tosser. I'm more profitable if my mind is free to explore the framing world. I get claustrophobic, scatterbrained, and short tempered when my workspace is a mess.

Once I get a pile of matboards I donate everything smaller than 1/2 a board.

For FC bigger pieces go into the bin with full sheets. For those 10" - 15" strips I have a box beside the wall cuter. It's not a large box but it will hold 30 or so strips of FC. When that's full I start replacing bigger strips with the smaller ones. The smaller ones end up in the trash. But I never keep more strips than that box will hold.

I'm heavy handed with glass. Anything smaller than 10" or so, regardless of length, gets busted up. As I pull first from the cut pile, I find that pile doesn't grow much. It's sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller but all in all it stays a manageable size.

Fabric? I don't make dresses. If I did, I'd still toss anything that wasn't likely to sell. The bigger pieces I'd probably fold and put in small shoebox sized Rubbermaid totes (man I love those things). I'd stack those nice and neat with a small piece of what's inside taped to the outside.

All in all I prefer a cleaner more productive work area rather than hanging on to every dime I can in stuff that may or may not sell before it's destroyed in a pile.
 
If I can't get at least a 16 x 20" out of what's left over its donated, glass is trashed.
 
As to glass, I am talking about larger pieces. I just did an 18x38 CC this morning this leaves a 14x40 remnant. This just feels to big to toss. As to the fabrics, I am not talking about fabric mat boards, I am speaking to the leftovers from hand wrapped mats.
 
I have a glass box for "shorts" - CC and Museum are wrapped in Kraft paper with a marker notation as to size.

Yard goods, are given to teachers (above)
 
Very handy if you can find one...this rack is from an art supply store that went under..held drawing paper....works great for handy small scrap that I have a hard time tossing. Also lets me give a discount to the local artists...if I can find a color they like in this rack they get a good break. Keeps the hobby artists and bargain art artists happy and coming in.
 

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Once a mat is 16 x 20 or smaller I either cut them into 16x20s or 11x14's and sell them to artists at .10 or .25 each.

Smaller than 11x14 get donated to my son's teacher.

Glass tossed.

FB gets used down to 5x7, narrow strips get used as spacer between mats, which we do quite a bit of and it's all profit
 
If the fabric is less than 3/4yd and full width, it used to get made into stock for classes. Now it gets thrown into a bag.

If it can be made into something for the wall.... we cut the mat THEN, and marry the two in a flat bag and gang the stuff as one Sunday project.

If not.... and the quilter doesn't come by like she said..... trash.

Remember as you process "Scrap"..... you are doing so at $1+per minute.
Is standing there whacking a stack of mat off-fall into 5x7 note card worth your time when there are orders to be fit?

This was the "fun job" of Shar's granddaughter..... now 16 and :rolleyes:.... so it's fallen to her retired husband that she needs to keep busy.
 
Essentially what almost everybody else said. Anything smaller than 16x20 is trashed, except for Mus. Glass, maybe.

Nothing is worse than a frame shop littered with useless scraps. And those scraps end up destroying full sized pieces sometimes if kept together!
 
Dave, how's your selection of hand-wrapped liners? This might be a good time to round it out using the fabric remnants. Order a bunch of unfinished corner samples and wrap them with the remnants that are most likely to appeal to your customers. Use the rest of the remnants to clean your compressor, toilet, underpinner, etc. I recommend anything red and/or silver for cleaning the toilet.
 
FrameMakers said:
As to glass, I am talking about larger pieces. I just did an 18x38 CC this morning this leaves a 14x40 remnant. This just feels to big to toss.
Click to expand...

Suggestion: If you had cut this piece out of a 40x60, you would have nice 42x40 remnant to use on the next project. Sometimes it's better to generate a larger piece of scrap to avoid wasting square footage $$$$$$$$$.
 
JFeig said:
Dave -

My matboard, FC and fabric (too small for RM mats) is available to school teachers for class projects.

Small scrap glass goes in the dumpster. Acrylic is sold in RM sizes. I cut it on my table saw very quickly with a plastic blade.
Click to expand...

Plastic blade ??? never heard of one....can you tell me were i can get one?? does it cut smooth??? is it only for acrylic?
 
My sister who does alot of scrapbooking, tells me I am sitting on a gold mine with my scraps of center cuts from mats. I guess they love virtually any size and color, so I now have a box under my mat cutter, and all those tiny to small scaps that I would have thrown out, I am keeping. The intention is to bag them in small groups and sell them.

She tells me to go into any Michaels and see for myself. They sell crappy straight cut pieces and when my sister saw the bevel on my cut outs she was thrilled. There is no M around here so I haven't looked and I'm still skeptical. So I'll bag these up and give them to her to sell for whatever she can get. I'll offer her 50% for her troubles.

Might as well try, I was throwing these out anyway!
 
all mat scraps under 16 x 20 go to the schools ...all foam board small pieces go to a friend who uses them in shipping packing for his business..all glass is wrapped and size marked after using remnants in ready made photo frames...all moulding is scrapped after making ready mades as small as 4 x 6....all non cc and museum glass is scrapped if smaller than 11 x 14, cc and museum as per above wrapped and size marked if larger than 8 x 10....all fabric is made into liners for ready mades then used for cleaning before discarded if too small to make a liner...
 
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