1. Once upon a time, my bench pan looked like this—not as messy as some I’ve seen, but far too messy for today’s reality.

2. The best way to begin a thorough scrap reclaim and cleanup is with a magnet to remove steel. I was surprised by how much drilling swarf, broken blades, and filings it pulled out—material I once would have tossed, but not anymore. Now I save them in a bin and bring them to the scrap yard for refining.

3. When I’ve used a consumable abrasive to the end of its life, I save what remains and label it according to the metal on which it was used. These pieces still hold a surprising amount of metal dust, so they go onto my reclaim trays.

4. I purchased a set of children’s art trays at the local teachers’ supply store in two colors: blue for base metals and red for precious metals. Each tray is lined with an 11 x 14 inch sheet of bond paper to catch shavings and metal dust as I work.

5. My reclaim trays are stacked on a side table, and, as I switch between metals, I place the appropriate tray under my bench pin in the sweeps drawer to catch anything that falls.

6. I also created a dedicated set of sanding sticks for silver only, allowing me to tear off and reclaim dust from the abrasive paper.

7. At the end of each project, I use a small, damp square of paper towel to wipe dust from my bench pin, sanding sticks, saw handle, and hands. As I work, I also tap my files on the reclaim tray to release any clinging scrap.

8. Finally, I remove the bench pin, invert it over the reclaim tray, and tap out any remaining dust from the surface and drilling pits.

9. The damp paper towels are left on each tray to dry. When I’m ready to send in my scrap, I fold the bond paper liner into quarters, add any larger scrap, dried paper towels, spent abrasive papers, and wire ends, and then slip the entire bundle into a labeled, sandwich-sized Ziploc bag to ship to my refiner.