Surprise when I opened the dust bin on my tablesaw

[Tom Hoffman]

I know that I shouldn't let the dust accumulate this much, but heck, I was between dust collectors at the time. Switchinig from a Jet portable to an Oneida cyclone. I just thought I'd share this very pretty archeology investigation showing the history of sawdust. Lets see.... walnut, maple, redwood, purpleheart, pine .....

[Neil Brooks]

My first thought was ... Mmmmmm. BLT

Very cool picture !

[Myk Rian]

The wood workers smiley face.

[george wilson]

Yep,seen that many times. Looks good enough to eat!!

[Dan Hintz]

Very cool, indeed!

[Jim N Burke]

Is that a Cheshire Cat hiding in there?

[Peter Quinn]

Is that a humpback whale there?

[Van Huskey]

Kinda cool. Reminds me of those sand sculptures people did back in the mid 70s, well that and BACON!

[Mike Heidrick]

Wink wink wink

[Josiah Bartlett]

That's better than the surprise I got when I opened my dust door after waiting too long and cutting MDF with a dull blade- I had a smoldering fire under there. Its a very good idea to clean it out often, at the expense of pretty patterns.

[Harold Burrell]

Isn't that the way it is supposed to look in there???

[David Prince]

I would think some artsy-fartsy type would pay big bucks for a sawdust sculpture like that!

[Michael Arruda]

Okay, I just got an idea- make a box with a piston that fits into the top. Use it as the outlet for your DC, then when it's full and you have these paterns, pour some clear casting acrylic into the box, put the piston in the top and put it into an H frame press and compact it, leaving it there until the acrylic has cured. Remove from box, machine as wood- make nifty things with swirly, worthless sawdust!

Whatcha think? Maybe a vacuum press would be better.

-Michael

[Dan Hintz]

Might make for great pen/bowl blanks

[Dan Karachio]

Tom, is it my eyes playing tricks on me or is there indeed an unusually higher level of shop activity just after the Early Mid Pre-Walnutian era?