Tell my wife I'm not crazy!

[Jerry Lawrence]

So, as a woodworker who uses a lot of exotic woods, I have to be prepared. Since exotics are such unique colors, I have several small (like cup sized) containers of fine sawdust (collected from my miter saw) from the different woods I use, which I can mix with glue to fill gaps etc. My wife thinks I am totally crazy for saving a bunch of sawdust, sealed in a nice, safe, dark place where they won't be affected by that evil color-changing light! Her logic says that if I am building something with a certain type of wood, and have a gap to fill, then I can just make a little dust with the wood I'm using at that particular moment, and I shouldn't have to have it laying around (she thinks it's going to attract bugs somehow). I know I can't be the only one who does this (or am I?). Someone please come to my aid and tell my wife that, at least in this instance, I'm not crazy!

[Tom Blank]

Jerry,

You are more sane than I am, you have a better collection of sawdust. That ought to fix her. 8^)

Tom

[Dave Zellers]

Sorry. Can't do it. Why? Because we're all crazy.

Welcome to the club.

Just tell your wife you love her, and you need her to accept you for what you are.

If that's too much of a gamble, just tell her all the guys are doing it.

Hopefully she rolls her eyes and walks away.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Sorry. Can't do it. Why? Because we're all crazy.

Welcome to the club.

Just tell your wife you love her, and you need her to accept you for what you are.

If that's too much of a gamble, just tell her all the guys are doing it.

Hopefully she rolls her eyes and walks away.

No .. you need to be more cunning and devious than that. Store up jars and jars and jars of it and hide it all over the house. Sneak some into the cassarole when she's not looking. Muahahaha . . .

[Dave Zellers]

Sneak some into the cassarole when she's not looking. Muahahaha . . .
Extra fiber...;)

[Mike Henderson]

One problem is that when you mix the sawdust with glue, it comes out too dark to really match the rest of the wood. A much better approach is to take a sliver of the same wood and inset it into the gap. You can make a repair like that almost invisible, especially if you take the sliver from an offcut of the piece you're repairing.

Mike

[Rich Riddle]

Coming from a psychologist, you are not crazy in the diagnostic sense of the word. On the vernacular level, you might just be a sawdust nerd.

[Wade Lippman]

Why does your wife even know what you have? Why has she been in your shop?!

(But yeah, I think you are crazy; on the rare occasion I need some dust I make it)

[Rich Engelhardt]

So - your wife thinks you're crazy because you have little cup sized containers of sawdust huh?

I bet she'd think I should be committed to an asylum where they'd chain me to a wall and drill holes in my head so the evil spirits could escape then? LOL!

I have rather good sized black plastic garbage bags filled with different sawdust! :D

[Bill White]

Nope! You're nuts. Face it, accept it, talk about it, and go to the meetings like you're supposed to. :)
Bill

[John TenEyck]

If that's all your wife has to complain about you're doing really well. Maybe I should start collecting sawdust to distract my wife from my greater transgressions. But I try to work close enough that I don't need sawdust to fill gaps, and when I fail I make some from the wood at hand.

John

[Peter Quinn]

If you suspect that the opinions of this odd group of woodworkers can sway the well formed opinion of your wife.....then I can only conclude that you are indeed crazy. Regarding dust attracting insects...it's probably not going to be the hermetically sealed containers of toxic exotics that keeps the bugs coming back for more. They say that crazy people never even suspect they are crazy. Regarding keeping small containers of dust for future repairs.....I'm not that organized, and each time I make such a repair I swear it will be my last, so from my perspective you are a concisely rational man capable of giving up the denial and embracing the inevitable future. Is that crazy?

[Dan Hunkele]

Nope! You're nuts. Face it, accept it, talk about it, and go to the meetings like you're supposed to. :)
Bill
The meetings are held every evening at 5:30 in the pool room or Jacks Bar. There is a cure but you will have to sample the elixirs until the one that works for you is found.

[Cary Falk]

I think you are crazy for thinking that anygap that is large enough to need filler is acceptable.:D:eek: just kidding.

[Ken Platt]

I'm willing to step up and say I do this also. I like having different colors of filler material handy. I tend to find the use for them mostly in turning, where there are often defects that can be filled to great effect. Also, having different colors lets us match colors in repairs, just like those little melting sticks. It saves time to have a shelf with all the different sawdusts at the ready.

IMO you are a lot more likely to have bugs interested in the wood of your home (nice softwoods, probably more moist than your sawdust) than in the probably-unpalatable exotic dust.

Ken

[paul cottingham]

The real problem here is that your wife has been in your shop. Tsk tsk. But as to whether or not storing sawdust means you are crazy, well, if you have to ask the question....
On the other hand, I think I may start saving sawdust. Which may or may not mean that you are crazy. :-)

[Dave huber]

Being right does not mean you are not crazy.

however, I don't see the advantage of stockpiling it. If you need it, you'll be in the middle of a project, and scrap will be handy.

That being said, it is your shop, so I'll butt out.

[Rick Potter]

Just don't tell her about the clandestine National Reciprocal Sawdust Center, where sawdust for all extant, and many extinct woods are kept. To become a secret member, you must come up with a viable sample of something they don't have.

Don't ask how I know this.

Unsigned

[Alan Lightstone]

Hate to admit it, but I do the same thing.

Doesn't come out perfect with glue, but it's a start. Works better with clear epoxy than wood glue.

[Dave Zellers]

The real problem here is that your wife has been in your shop.
Bingo.

The last time my wife wandered into my shop, I said, "How did you get past security!"

OK, I just thought it, but still...

[Keith Weber]

Her logic says that if I am building something with a certain type of wood, and have a gap to fill, then I can just make a little dust with the wood I'm using at that particular moment

You might be doomed. That's pretty sound logic, if you ask me. You best be careful -- you've got a smart one there. I'd change the locks on the shop doors!

[Steve Peterson]

I think you are crazy to ask advice about your sanity from a bunch of equally crazy guys.

I saved a baggie of dust from a dyed pen blank from a color called candy cane. There is no way that it will be useful as a color match in anything. My 10 year old daughter wants it for some art project.

Steve

[alan seybert]

You must use the force to your advantage. Make her think you will stay sane with more wood, money, and shop time.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Wait a minute - let me get this straight - - -

You do woodworking.

You have a shop full of tools.

You have a wide variety of exotic woods you use.

And - the sole reason your wife thinks you are crazy is because you save cups of sawdust?

One of two things is going on here:
1. No - really - tell us the true reason she thinks you are nuts. You are hiding something from us, or.............
2. Nicely done - she has bought off on the big lie. In which case, the best course is: "Yes, dear. You're right, dear." Make a show of tossing those cups of dust. except they are only half full because the other half has been transferred to other cups/baggies and hidden in a cabinet where they should have been in the first place.