What "Practice" wood for a NEWBIE

[Tomcat104]

What wood would you guys suggest for a "practice" wood?

Do I need to choose a hardwood of some type? Would MDF suffice? Will MDF make too much dust?

Need some help here please.

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[ger21]

I'd just use whatever is cheapest.

You are going to want a dust collector and dust shoe asap, as there will be a LOT of dust, regardless of what type of wood you are using. MDF makes a more powdery dust that hangs in the air, but is fine if you have good dust collection. However, MDF is hard on bits.

[Tomcat104]

I ordered a dust shoe with my machine but have not bought a "dust collector" vacuum yet. I want to try a Harbor Freight unit but can't find the space to put it in yet. How bad do you think it would be if I just when with the most powerful shop vac & cyclone that I can fit in right now?

Is Red Oak as hard on bits as MDF? I'm not too concerned with the extra dut bust I prefer to take it easy on my bits.

[awerby]

I wouldn't go with oak as a practice wood; it's stringy and too prone to tear-out. You want to use something that has less grain directionality and better adhesion across the grain. I'd suggest poplar, which is usually cheaper than oak and is also more machinable. But get a cyclone dust collector first (although I wouldn't get it from Harbor Freight, which specializes in things that look like tools but don't work like them.)

[bostosh]

Practice in scrap acrylic fish tank material from the city dump. (Pictured)
or some of the wax-type, no wood dust, expensive

[Tomcat104]

Couple of good ideas! I am an old graphics guy with access to "tons" of scrap acrylic.

And I don't know one wood from the next yet, but Home Depot has plenty of Poplar. I may have a few scraps too.

Now don't be hatin' on H.F., sometimes.....I say sometimes that have some good stuff.

I was going to make something like this:

[bostosh]

Really, really, invoke the old " make it - or - buy it " decision

[Tomcat104]

Yeah, I'm gonna try and make.

Since I'm disabled from a stroke now....this should be fun!!! Well at least fun to watch anyway!

[mikeyd895]

i made one of these too, I'm really happy with how it works
thien baffle
still gotta make the shoe for it but with what I've vacuumed up in the garage it works pretty good