Q. We have some trees in our neighborhood and throughout the city that came down during the recent hurricane. It seems a shame to let these go to the clean-up piles that are sent to the dump. Are there any issues with using these trees for lumber?

Q. What is the main difference between MDF and particleboard? I see a lot of variations in weight it seems in MDF. Is this important?

Q. We bought some lumber and it is a bit too high in MC, probably because it was stored incorrectly. How do we lower the MC safely?

Q. We have some white oak lumber that has been air drying for about a year as we do not need it. I noticed that it seems to smell more like vanilla than the acid oak smell. Is this possible?

Q. As we look at improvements in our cabinet operation, we seem to believe that improvements in yield are much more valuable than improvements in the cost of labor or machinery. Does this make sense to you?

Q. We are seeing some end checking, and rarely some face checking, in the solid oak panels that we manufacture. The checking is right after finishing. We are thinking that our ovens might be too hot, or maybe the residence time is too long. Any guidance before we start changing things?

Sanding wood is a process that, if done correctly, makes the wood surface very smooth by "machining" the surface of the wood with a multitude of very small sharp edges; in other words, sanding is the process of removing surface imperfections, including scratches, from a surface and thereby making the surface smooth.

Q. We have begun to use wood with more knots showing in the final product. We finish these knotty pieces and they are flat and smooth. However, after finishing and shipping, we sometimes hear about a customer that says the knots have grown and are protruding up a small bit higher than the surrounding wood. Obviously, the wood is dead so the knots are not growing. Can you explain what is going on?

Q. We are noticing that our plant yield seems to be gradually decreasing, year after year. What comments or direction can you give please?

Q: We are using composite cores now and would like to measure the moisture using an oven test. Does the amount of adhesive affect this test?