Member projects gone wrong?

[Bill Wyko]

If you look at my post on the humidor, you'll see where my latest project went horribly wrong. I thought some of you might post pics of things that, well we'll say, didn't go quite as planned.

 

[tvgordon]

Sorry Bill, but all my projects go perfectly.  Smooth as silk.  Not a single problem.  I can't understand what you must be going through, but I'll keep a camera handy just in case anything would ever go wrong so I can post a picture of it for you. ;D ;D ;D

Tom.

 

[robtonya]

That looks bad, I thought I was the only one to have problems. I am having problems with the Kreg pocket holes, and the screw protruding on the other side. Live and learn I guess.

 

[danrush]

Would a pic of my first boat under water count??? 

 

[10digit]

Rob - that reminds me of when we did a gut rehab of our bathroom.  I built my own countertop complete with oak bevel inserts on the edges.  I was installing the final screws to mount the counter to the cabinets and was pushing down with my left hand and running a drywall screw up from below with my right hand.  The piercing pain in the palm of my hand let me know that I had grabbed a screw about 1/2" too long.  Yup, I put a hole right through the countertop and drew blood.  Ouch!

 

[slb]

I'd post some pictures of my latest drop-leaf table with the hinge screws sticking up through the top, but fortunately I broke the camera in time!

Steve

 

[robtonya]

this is a great thread. I didn't think I was the only one messing up.  ;D

 

[Bill Wyko]

I guess persistence pays off. I finally fixed that lid and it looks good now. I'll probably be done this week some time with the rest of the build. Tonight I'm building some wooden hinges so I can actually put the lid on the box.

 

[Dave Ronyak]

this is a great thread. I didn't think I was the only one messing up.  ;D

Rob,

I once had the pleasure of meeting Tage Frid and attending a brief teaching lecture in which he purposely made a poorly fitting handcut dovetail joint and then demonstrated how to fix it so that few would ever discover the error.  He shimmed the loose fitting sides between the associated pins and tails with veneer stock, which he left standing proud of the joint and hammered to smash the veneer into the joint to fill it completely.  He said that the difference between the pros and the amateurs is that the pros know better how to hide their mistakes.

I make plenty of mistakes.  If you check, most commercial pieces of furniture have some mistakes that you can find.  Ditto for custom made pieces, too.  But it takes a skilled woodworker to find most of them, most people will never notice, and those mistakes generally don't detract much from the overall positive attributes and value of the piece.

Dave R.

 

[Bill Wyko]

I don't know about you guys, but it drives nuts when I notice my screw ups. I tell myself "self, no one will notice" but then I tell myself "self....you noticed" :-\ As far as the latest box goes, I removed veneer and re-did it a total of 6 times before I was satisfied. I've never had complications like this before. This one just had gremlins. Couldn't find a Priest to do an exorcism so I had to keep trying until I got it right. I think I got it right the last time though. I'm aaalllmmost done......if I don't screw it up again. ;D

 

[Bill Wyko]

BTW a little trick I learned to fix those pesky growing screws that protrude through the top. Slightly drill the hole out, grind a piece of like wood to make it into a round pencil shape but with the grain running perpendicular to its length and sharpen it using a pencil sharpener. Now put a drop of glue in the hole and push the "pencil" in making sure the grain runs the same way. Wait for it to dry and trim off the excess with a Japanese saw and sand it flush. WHALLA you have a grain matched repair. ;D I figured this out because Necessity is the invention of a mother....or something like that. ;D

 

[slb]

Rob,

I once had the pleasure of meeting Tage Frid and attending a brief teaching lecture in which he purposely made a poorly fitting handcut dovetail joint and then demonstrated how to fix it so that few would ever discover the error.  He shimmed the loose fitting sides between the associated pins and tails with veneer stock, which he left standing proud of the joint and hammered to smash the veneer into the joint to fill it completely.  He said that the difference between the pros and the amateurs is that the pros know better how to hide their mistakes.

I make plenty of mistakes.  If you check, most commercial pieces of furniture have some mistakes that you can find.  Ditto for custom made pieces, too.  But it takes a skilled woodworker to find most of them, most people will never notice, and those mistakes generally don't detract much from the overall positive attributes and value of the piece.

Dave R.

My dad used to say much the same thing as Tage (though he was never near Frid's league ).  But we woodworkers must have some kind of psychological defect.  When I look at a piece I made, all I can see are the flaws.

In a course I took at North Bennett Street School in Boston, the teacher referred to errors as "design opportunities"   Case in point:  I made a cabinet a few years ago that had four drawers (2 rows of 2) above a pair of doors.  I cut the dados for the drawer dividers and bottom, and then proceeded to make the cutouts for the legs at the top of each side  :'( :'(.  My wife saved this one.  She said, "why not put a shelf inside each door using the dado that was supposed to be for the top divider, and cut a new dado for the top drawer divider?".  It worked so beautifully that everyone who sees it thinks it was meant to be that way!

Steve

 

[robtonya]

I too look at my projects and just see defects. I like the idea on how to fix the screws holes. Some of mine were so small that you couldn't see them until you studied them (run your hands down it. ect.) I replaced all the bad ones and the real small one I used wood putty, and I hope no one sees it. It is supposed to be stainable, but we'll see.

After I started this woodworking, I have been looking at some of the furniture we bought. On our bedroom set whoever sprayed the poly ran it real bad. I didn't notice it before, but it has about a three foot run that is about a foot wide. If I had painted a truck like that it would of been my ass. ;D

 

[Dave Ronyak]

BTW a little trick I learned to fix those pesky growing screws that protrude through the top. Slightly drill the hole out, grind a piece of like wood to make it into a round pencil shape but with the grain running perpendicular to its length and sharpen it using a pencil sharpener. Now put a drop of glue in the hole and push the "pencil" in making sure the grain runs the same way. Wait for it to dry and trim off the excess with a Japanese saw and sand it flush. WHALLA you have a grain matched repair. ;D I figured this out because Necessity is the invention of a mother....or something like that. ;D

Thanks, Bill, for this great tip!!  Hopfefully, I won't need to make use of it soon.  In the past, I have used plugs cut from the same or similar stock.  I have a few baby food jars filled with plugs of different sizes cut from different scraps of different species of wood so I can usually find one that is pretty close to what is needed to hide an errant hole.  The plug cutters I have create plugs that are slightly tapered and with a chamfered end to faciliate insertion.

Dave R.