What do you do to use up your scrap other than use it for firewood?  Seems like I end up with a bunch of stock that is one to one and half feet long and one to eight inches wide.  I'd use it for cutting boards but mine is mostly red oak and poplar and I don't really want to use it for that.  The wider stuff I could use for bowls, but I haven't been doing much lathe work for the last year since I left the school.

Kindling Roy, unfortunately, I just don't have the room to store it. We could also cut em up for pen turning blanks for some of the guys around here too! I got some walnut that would make some nice pens. I might just make another run at that.

The small pieces of cherry I use in my smoker.

 

I also use pieces like oak and cherry in my smoker.  I also take my oak scraps and cut them into clamping pads.  Keep a small box of them under my workbench.

I give the neighbor some to burn in his fireplace for kindling. Some of it just goes to the curb and whatever I can use I hang on to.

Thin MDF (1/4 inch or 1/2 MDF) works better and won't leave marks no matter how hard you clamp.

Randall Farris said:

I also use pieces like oak and cherry in my smoker.  I also take my oak scraps and cut them into clamping pads.  Keep a small box of them under my workbench.

glue them up with T&G joints to make a board wider like for the sides of a small cabinet.

I will have to try that, never tried MDF blocks.

dragon1 said:

Thin MDF (1/4 inch or 1/2 MDF) works better and won't leave marks no matter how hard you clamp.

Randall Farris said:

I also use pieces like oak and cherry in my smoker.  I also take my oak scraps and cut them into clamping pads.  Keep a small box of them under my workbench.

Has anyone tried MDF in their smoker?

I've never used anything but hickory or mesquite. I am going to give the cherry a try next time. I don't know that I would want to put MDF in the smoker due to the glue in it. I may be way off but that would be the biggest concern.

Roy Boomershine said:

Has anyone tried MDF in their smoker?

as hard as it is roy, firewood is the best solution, I've found that so called scraps just takes up space and will continue. not sure about the size of your shop, mine is small, I now only buy what I need (by drawing things up first) for each job or project and that's it. Has worked out much better. The other is to chop material up and put in banana boxes, keep it for those who want firewood, they have to pick up by set time or it goes to someone else. Just took a bunch down to friends farm yesterday, had a winnie roast on dyke in sun, temp was -2, had a great fire.

 

We used to do a lot of plaques for schools and we cut our own from MDF that we had made up with a wood finish printed on it.  We put in a barrel stove and would burn the MDF scraps, and what a stink they made.  It keep us warm but the smoke and stink would just about choke us.  Have you ever seen a stick of it fall out of a fire and burn?  It just glows and smolders away and you're left with a line of ash, just like a cigarette left burning on the sidewalk.

Okay Greg, I know i am a wimp (translated geezers), I don't think I could have been out there at -2 and it doesn't look like you all have on near enough coats and insulation to be out in -2.

 

I went to the car wash to clean up my truck and it was 40 degrees here and my hands were numb. Give me sunshine and warm temps.