Shaving related project

[Brodie Brickey]

I've been looking at the pile of shavings that I accumulate when turning and I'm looking for something else to do with them besides composting.

I was reminded of a fire log maker that I saw as a kid. You soaked the newspaper, put it into the form and compressed it down. Let it dry for a couple days and you were in business.
I've settled on making vase blanks for the AAW Symposium coming up. To do this I need a binding agent. CA is kinda out, I doubt I'll get the gap filling necessary to hold it all together. So I'm leaning toward T-88 which is epoxy based. If I can mix it all together thoroughly, it should all bind in the form.

Can anyone think of a better binding agent? I'll post pictures and the process as soon as I get it done.

Thanks in advance,

Brodie

[David Walser]

Brodie,

When I worked at a furniture mill, we would "make our own wood" for some parts using a mix of shavings, sawdust, and PVA (Titebond) glue. This was for non-weight bearing parts (where we just needed something to take up space). It worked well, but we put the mix under a lot of pressure. I'm not sure how much, since I didn't work in that part of the mill. So, I'm thinking you could do the same thing if you were able to compress your shavings into your mold with adequate pressure.

Good luck!

[Brodie Brickey]

David,

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking of forcing all of it into a 4" piece of PVC pipe with a couple C clamps to apply pressure. I'll give Titebond a shot also.

[alex carey]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLKKO3uDRyw

this is what I do :)

[David E Keller]

I like Alex's idea.

[Ron Howard]

Hi;

I would try Minwax Wood Hardner you can pick it up at Home Depot, I saw an article in Woodturning Design a while back where a pen turner was doing the same thing to create pen blanks from wood shavings using Minwax Wood Hardner

Ron

[Reed Gray]

Maybe we should all send them down to the Gulf coast to soak up all the oil. Would really burn well then.

robo hippy

[Karl Card]

This is not a large cure for wood shaving but when I turn redheart, purpleheart, yellowheart, and basically any woods that are colorful and come off in dust or small particles I try to keep some of them for inlay work. Kinda ads a little color to some woods and the such.

[Joe Wiliams]

Got a pellet stove?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chxL9ias3Xc

I wonder how efficient this really is...