My favorite wood I hate...today


Eric.

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I'm building a small project partially out of padauk. It's splintery, hard on my machines, irritates my nose and throat, leaves an orange mess everywhere, and poses finishing problems due to its oily exoticness. Yet I cannot resist its beauty. I must use it, and suffer through.

What's your latest favorite wood that you hate?

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Funny, I've used Padauk a couple times and I found it a pleasure to work with. I must have been doing something different. I will say this, all I used for finish was some simple wipe on poly.

I'll go off the board here and tell you my love/hate is with MDF. I love it for raised panels on painted cabinets. I use it all the time for fixtures and jigs. I love it for under veneers. It is square and stable. But I hate the stuff. Even the smell of it. I hate that a sheet of 3/4" MDF weighs a metric ton. I hate that you have to rub your glue on it, wait 5-10 minutes and then glue it up. I hate that it won't hold screws even as well as plywood.

MDF = Useful + Annoying

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I hope you wear a respirator when you work with that stuff .

Yep, I do. Only take it off when I'm smoking. :blink: Kinda like ordering a super-sized Big Mac value meal and a Diet Coke. Oh, the irony.

Chet, yeah I do find it a quite workable wood...it machines and sands nicely, albeit a little rougher on blades and bits than your average domestic. Mostly I just hate the toxic perfumey smell and the orange dust that seems to stain everything.

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Eric,

It's a funny thing about that dust. The first time I used the Padauk I was fascinated by the dust. I actually saved a half full gallon zip-lock bag of it. What am I going to do with a 1/2 gallon of Padauk dust, you ask? ... I have no earthly idea. But like I said I was fascinated by it. It reminds me of the red dust they used to get rid of the visitors way back during the 1980's television mini-series "V". Hopefully there is somebody out there in their 40's who gets that reference.

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Funny, I've used Padauk a couple times and I found it a pleasure to work with. I must have been doing something different. I will say this, all I used for finish was some simple wipe on poly.

It buffs amazingly too. To be honest I found Padauk, a joy to work with the few times I have, seemed to work almost like butter, unlike purpleheart which gives me nasty splinters if I so much as look at it :)

And V was one of my favourite shows as a kid!

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