I finally found a good use for old CD's.

And I do the old microwave thing from time to time when I don't have anything particularly useful to do at the moment. AOL et al keep me in regular and cheap entertainment.

I hang them from strings in my vegetable garden to keep the birds out. Puff

I keep my table saw blades on a wood dowel and space them with CD's to keep teeth from touching. Also can use as spacers with a dado blade. Warren

I keep my table saw blades on a wood dowel and space them with CD's to keep teeth from touching. Also can use as spacers with a dado blade. Warren

Damn, why didn't I think of that. I've been using three thin wood strips between blades (blades laid horizontal on an upright dowel) in a drawer. Think I'll do some replacing.

They make a great survival/signalling mirror. I don't go too far into the wilderness without a couple packed away.

Barry Lennox

That's rather hard on the microwave though

Somewhere online I saw a very cool (and apparently very heavy) lamp made from a ~12" stack of these with a cold cathode light tube through the middle. The light shines out through the edges for a nice diffuse effect.

I've been pirating junk from the net for ten years. I burn 3-4 DVDs a day now. I collect it like stamps. I have at least 6000 CD/DVDs most are junk now. That would be a stack about 40 feet high.

I wonder if I made a light post for my front step how long it would shine exposed to the weather. Could I drill out the center and put in a long flourecent light? I'm thinking of making a lit post and a mailbox on top of that completely out of CDs.

I use them for tons of other stuff. You can cut them and heat bend them into fan shapes that spin like crazy in the wind. Scares away critters from the garden.

Thanks for the warning. I mean, ever since I found hair growing on my palms I learned to take such cautions seriously.

Seriously though, I suppose all that snap crackle pop *might* come at some expense. But why and how is it hard on a microwave?

Joe Barta

Most of what you have burned is "junk now" yet you still burn "3-4 DVDs a day"? I mean, we all collect and accumulate bits of crap we find on the internet, but if we figure 4.7 Gb per disc, that's like 15 GIGAbytes of stuff per day! You are trying to set a record? What on earth could you be collecting at that rate?

I tried using them for targets once, but they're too easy ... all my shots were apparently bull's-eye's.

I do about 350 gigs a month.

Movies, games, software, a few TV shows, especially TV not available here like British stuff and Canadian Stuff, MP3s, just about anything. I have working computers going back 27 years and collect software for all of them. Some I buy on ebay like carts for my TI994A and Com64. I have macs and compatibles back to 1982.

Right at this moment I'm downloading KingKong, The Matador, Walk the Line, Corner Gas and assorted softwares and books on CD and as text files. I'm mostly wheelchair bound these days and live 60 miles dangerous winter miles from a theater. Before I found this hobby to go along with the Woodworking I can do I used to sit in a bar a wallow in self pity. This is cheaper.

On 12/30/2005 12:51 PM TwoGuns mumbled something about the following:

On 12/31/2005 10:58 AM Ralph E Lindberg mumbled something about the following:

Not at all, doesn't harm it one bit.

The Joe Barta entity posted thusly:

Much, if not all, of that noise is caused by arcing inside the magnetron (the part that actually produces the microwave energy).

Sigh... do you know what a Standing Wave Ratio (SWR)is? Do you know what a bad SWR means to a tranmission tube? Have you read the manual about putting metal in the microwave? Do you know that it's the metal in the CD that causes this reaction?

Why do I think the answer to the above questions are no

On 1/1/2006 11:26 AM Ralph E Lindberg mumbled something about the following:

Funny how one of my microwaves has a metal rack in it, and it doesn't say to remove it to use the microwave. Do try again.

If you're really bored and looking for kid's toys to make:

Please remove splinters before emailing