Post Your Woodworking Mistakes - Be Humble

[niget2002]

Throw in words like "bespoke" "rustic" "Ranch-style" "handmade"....

"Custom fit joinery"

 

[Jgaz]

Throw in words like "bespoke" "rustic" "Ranch-style" "handmade".

Or my favorite, “country”

 

[Milton Shaw]

One thing about cutting a door off the wrong end. It's very hard to cut just a blade width cut of a door. It's much more accurate to cut and inch off and then glue it back on to get the door just an accurate blade width off. At least that's what I told my wife.

 

[BSWS]

I must do a really good job of getting over my mistakes once I "fix" them because I'm only remembering one of hundreds right now.

My wife and I decided we needed a comically large clock that we could both see from anywhere in the room. My 24" clock is now our 22" clock after my table-mounted router had it's way with some soft pine end grain. I would have preferred another inch or so of red at the top and blue at the bottom but this is working just fine.

 

[Lumpy102]

Had some beautiful old fir, reclaimed bowling alley, full of nails, screws, angle iron, and tarred on the bottom, a real treat to work with. Cleaned it up, ripped all the boards to size, cut off the tar, cleaned my table saw with solvent, and the fence and my band saw and my hands, clamps, workbench, etc.
Made a countertop (bakers table or some such thing) for a dear friend. fit on her cabinet, 3 drawers underneath. glued the drawer slides to the underside (after it had sat in her house for weeks) all installed and feeling pretty proud. Over for dinner one evening a few weeks later and there's a quiet few minutes while we are eating, there is the loudest POP! It split from edge to edge straight across the middle. Its still there, I'm planning to do a stealth repair when she's away skiing next winter.
I always forget to factor in shrinkage.

 

[MongoTA]

Keep mistakes to minimum by never working from plans, or at least never let anyone else see your plans. Then every 'variance' becomes an 'improvement to the original'. They'll have to take your word for it.

How true, Ken!

My daughter wanted to design and build a desk for her husband for him to use in music production. She lives a couple of hours away in the next state over, her place has a bit of an industrial vibe so she was looking at combining steel and ebony-stained wood.

Initial "what do you want it to look like" talks were over the phone and the design and dimensions were in constant flux. She came home for a long weekend and we got to it, but even after building began the design and dimensions were changing on the fly. We went through a couple of erasers just getting to a rough dimensioned sketch and the design was even changed from that after we'd already been cutting wood and steel.

We finished at around 11pm and she was itching to pack it up and have me deliver it to her place in Boston. I insisted on a quick dry assembly, so we put all the components together to discover that the steel desk legs were about 1-1/2" too short. Looking back I remember when and how it happened, there were a flurry of changes made after some components were already completed. The desk top is made out of 6/4 ash, so I took some of the offcuts and made some 1-1/2" slightly tapered blocks and one became the foot of each steel leg. The desk was back to the correct height and the blocks added a nice detail, allowing calm to replace that bit of "oh ****!" panic.

Though a pretty hectic and time compressed weekend, it was enjoyable to work with my daughter but perhaps not on her design schedule!

 

[PugetDude]

I've had 1.95 thumbs since High School woodshop in 1974.
Does that count?

 

[lilscorpion]

Cut, dovetailed, sanded and ready to assemble three drawer boxes. Except that they’re the wrong size. Had to re-cut from scratch. I figure I’ll use these somewhere, they just need bottoms cut and some glue.

I did this a few months back. I cut a few cabinets full of drawers on my CNC only to find that they were 1/4” too wide AND 4” too deep. It happens to me more than I care to admit.

 

[PCustoms]

Not woodworking, but close enough, and pretty substantial...

Took some 5/4x4 PVC trim and made a custom profile to fit over window nailing flanges and act as J-trim for the siding. Did rabbits, pockets screws and glue in the corners.

First one worked perfectly. Started gluing the second one, caught I didn't trim my horizontals to finish size (had rough cut for milling) , then promptly cut 1" too short.

Found this out standing 20' up on the ladder, with trim/frame covered in OSI Quad and screws started ready to go...

Damnit.

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

I'm back..

Working on another butcher block table, tried to re-saw a piece of walnut on the band-saw with the wrong blade (should of swapped it to the 7/8" or ripped it on the table saw). A smidge bit wavy and I couldn't save it even using the fancy magnetic fence. I may find another piece and try again. I cleaned most of it up by running all 4 pieces back through the planner, but thinner than the plan in my head. The edge in the first picture is what will be exposed.. I'm not past the point of no return, but I don't currently have any walnut stock long enough. I have time.

 

[Mtpisgah]

I dominoed in the wrong place for this table. I inserted dominos and cut them flush and then put them in the right place. I really should have cut some sycamore to fill the holes. It is in our bedroom, so no one sees it.