Stupid is what Stupid does! And I did it!
I am making two sitting/dressing/storage benches for my little grandbabies. I wanted them to be for their Easter present.. Well, not sure I’ll be finished by then!
Guess what I did… I made all the legs and glued up everything. I put in the all the mortise for the face and back panels. I was still working on the side panels… Guess I forgot to do… The mortise for the end panels!!!!
Should I consider myself unfit for finewoodworking? Damn! I have never been so pissed off at myself!
I have a ‘fix’ BUT!
Replies
Will:
I'm sure you're the only one to make a mistake like that and it was probably your first.
We all do dumb things especially when we're in a hurry. I am making a chest of drawers with dovetails as carcase joinery on all four sides. Everything was going fine, the cherry was matched and glued into panels. The tails were cut and the pins laid out, I was looking forward to sliding those pins into those tails. I laid the pin panel on the band saw table and proceeded to cut the tails rather than the pins. I had to make a new panel and start over. I've yet to cut those pins. Very frustrating.
Since you have a fix you're probably the only person that will know, no one else will have a clue.
Good luck ,
Jim
My memory's good, it's just short.
Welcome to the world of engineered firewood.
Some of my most creative work involves fixing screw-ups and then swear I'll never do that again.
Mistakes, and the lack there of, is what makes success so sweet...
Will,
A long time ago, when I was a young man (very long ago), I admiringly asked an older craftsman, "Don't you ever make a mistake?"
He looked at me and said, "The difference between a good craftsman, and a poor one, is that a good craftsman knows how to fix his mistakes, so they don't show."
Ray
Will
I remember I once made a mistake, back in '52 or '53 I think it was. The mistake was actually thinking I had made a mistake..............
Glad to see you are a human like the rest of us... now how about a pic so we can (can't) see your mistake.
wot
Will:
Mistakes seem to be an endemic part of woodworking, at least as it is practiced as a craft. I don't think mistakes, of the the sort you described, happen when it is a large-scale manufacturing process.
One way to deal with this is to get good at fixing things in such a way as they won't be noticed. But where's the fun in that? It institutionalizes errors, whereas the goal should be to eliminate them, as they do with your friendly airline.
I am going to suggest a few things that I have found to be very helpful:
1. Create a shop drawing. I use Google Sketchup, which allows me to build the piece virtually, thereby showing design flaws, but it helps you visualize each part and what needs to happen to it.
2. Write down a build process noting the steps you are going to take to build each part and sub-assembly.
3. For each session in the workshop, make an action plan of what you want to accomplish and check the items as you go.
4. Refer frequently to your shop drawing to make sure that you have remembered correctly.
5. Before cutting, or doing anything with an expensive piece of wood, i.e., one that has a lot of time sunk into it, or is rare, do a quick sanity check with someone (I ask my wife).
If all this sounds rather balls-aching, it is; but it is less troublesome than having to discard a nice piece of wood or hide a mistake.
With all that said, I carefully made a CNC routine according to the shop drawing, went out to the shop and loaded board A and ran routine B. Totally bone-headed move — which brings us back to the title of your post — Stupid is what stupid does!
Regards,
Hastings
"loaded board A and ran
"loaded board A and ran routine B"
How about "I compiled the software for Micro 1 and uploaded it to Micro 2."
A half hour job turned into a morning's backup restoration work and the plant was shut down for that long.
However, as the chairman pointed out to me once, the only people who don't make mistakes are the ones who don't do any work.
A Human tendancy
Morning Will , Don't be too hard on yourself , as my Father would say ,,
" that should be the worst thing that happens to you "
" how good we are is how good we fix our mistakes "
regards , dusty
I never make tupid smistakes. ;-)
"Design Revisions" vs. Mistakes
As a trained, professional engineer I've never made a mistake in the shop. I've made a ton of "design revisions", though...
One time I was making a jewelry box for a lady I was trying to woo. The box was done and it was perfect. The dividers had to be installed before the top. They were in place and I knew just where to cut the lid free. Thinking how impressed my conquest was going to be I went to the table saw and proceeded to cut the BOTTOM off of the box.
I turned out the shop lights, got in the truck and drove around for two hours. I didn't go back to the shop for a week and a half. And as for the lady, ... no dice...
Im signing on to this idea that there ia no such thing as a mistake, merely a design concept that was, subliminally, waiting to be discovered. It has happened to me more than once. I am cheap when it comes to wood. Given an offcut that is almost to spec, ill rearrange the spec. Given a mistake Ill think " Ok so I cant do what I originally planned but what does this mistake call out to me as its calling?" I am a professional ( cough cough...... starving artis is more like it!) wood worker and I hate to throw away anything unless its a total f/u. I did one of those today...... spilled wood dye on a finished piece. Id love to think of a way of saving it.....but, sometimes you just need to cut your losses. just remember.............mistakes need a daddy too!! Mistakes still have BTU's
Schtupid yep ur E....
Will, you made two mistakes.
1. Not putting in the mortise.
2. Was telling someone about it.
So the real question is why are we so compelled to discuss it to begin with!
LOL, Morgan
Mistake
A mistake is just a challange waiting to be solved. Seems like I've been challanged a lot lately.
ZABO
Hi Will, do dis mean you gets to ware one uh dem pointy hats?, I think you should be lookin at the wood more then them grandbabies picshures, so you can cut down on the oooop's facter. garyowen
Post was... So the real question is why are we so compelled to discuss it to begin with!
Because it was so dumb on my part. I cannot imagine what I was thinking of. I dry fitted the parts that I had already made and then overlooked the end palels because I was still working on them.
No firewood though. In fact, I think it looks better than what I originally had in mind. I did have to trim the panels a bit.
I made some 'U channel' with a decorative outside profile. I glued the U channel into a mortise that I cut in the legs with a trim router. The U channel was a bit of a challenge because I made it in two half peices along the length (front aqnd back parts) . I glued in the outside half, set in the panel and then glued in the back half. I finished the panel first and then applied some wax just in case some glue went astray. I force moved the panels every once-in-awaile to be sure that the panel was free to move.
All in all, It turned out to be a fun 'fix'.... My sitting benches will not be finished for Easter, but I will NOT rush the rest of my project. Besides, my sister-in-law fills Easter Eggs with money for all of the family little ones to find. They would be more excited over finding the eggs and money than they ever would be looking at a bench!
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