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!

[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. 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