gluing wood togather

[agaboric]

I have a question I was in my garage making some patterns on my bandsaw and the pattern height was say 8 in. the blocks that I had where 3in x 3in x 12in so on each pattern I had say 4 in of waste. My question is since I am a cheap skate is can I glue those extra pieces back together and create another new piece or just leave them be and wait until I have something that size and use them? Also when gluing these, if it is posible, should I pay attention to the way that the grain is going in the cut pieces?

[Jim-Iowa]

I would pay attention to how the grain runs. And try to match them the best you can,
It can have an effect on how it works , especially if your using hand tools.
I once glued up some blanks of maple for cutting boards and did not pay attention to the way the grain ran. All I had was a handplane, and when I tried to plane it one board planed nicely and the one next to it would rip out chunks. There are still a few of them in the attic. I need to get down and run my random orbit sander over them with some 60 grit discs to use them at all.
Or rig up a way to surface plane them with my router.

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

I throw all my scraps in a 5 gallon bucket, I can always use a small piece of wood for something or other.....takes a loooong time to fill up the bucket when you use out of it all the time lol

[squbrigg]

End grain doesn't hold glue well, doesn't have the strength. While you can glue the off cuts side to side to make something wider, I wouldn't suggest gluing end to end unless you dowel the pieces together.

Bob