Materials Restrictions and Prohibitions

All outside materials, i.e. materials not purchased from our lumber yard, must be reviewed and approved by PW staff before use in our shop to ensure that their use will not result in any risk to our members, our tools or our shop environment.

• No dense, hard exotics like Ipe, Bubinga, Purpleheart or Lignum Vitae or woods with high silica content like Teak may be used on the saws or milling machines of the members-access workshop
  • Their use dulls our saws and milling machines and results in excessive wear-and-tear
  • Nothing harder than 2000 on the Janka Scale
  • Pre-milled pen, bottle stopper and turning project blanks in dense exotic hardwoods from companies like Penn State Industries or Woodcraft are fine to use on the lathe so long as PW tools and blades are not used to prepare them.
• No use of Pine as its resin gums up our blades and abrasives ruining them for other members’ enjoyment
• No wood with any evidence of bug infestation regardless of treatments like kiln drying, insecticides or fumigation
• No pressure treated lumber
• Reclaimed / salvaged lumber and materials may only be used with PW approval, subject to restrictions
• Materials prohibited from our Jointer & Planer
  • No glue bubbles anywhere on surface of panels
  • No plywood or end-grain
  • No sappy softwoods
  • No reclaimed or finished materials
  • No panels with epoxy or polyurethane glue
• No use of any type of metal without PW approval
• No use of noxious chemicals or materials that make air un-breathable like contact cement or excessive work with acrylics