I guess I am still just a wood butcher......

[Bill Huber]

My last little project was a doll highchair for the grand daughter, just a little project nothing that big.

Well I guess this has been one of the worst projects I have ever done. The mistakes I made and the problems I had were many.

Problems, working with compound angles, I just could not get my head wrapped around them and made a lot of scrap getting there.

Mistakes, like not setting the bit depth correct for dowels and making them to long.
Putting the doweling jig on the wrong reference face and having to plug the holes and redrill them.
Putting the doweling jig on the wrong set of holes and drilling 2 holes in the wrong place.
Gluing 2 legs on before I make and installed the cross brace.
Having the router speed set to slow and taking out chucks of the legs and I rounded them over.
Mismeasuring the tray width and having to make adjustments for that, was running out of wood.
The seat is square and I put the legs on with the grain going the wrong way.

But its done and ready for some finish. I really don't know why I had so many problems with this little project.

Does this type of thing happen to others??

I guess I am still far from a craftsman and still just a wood butcher.

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[Ken Fitzgerald]

Yes it does happen to others and....


She'll love it and you for making it Grandpa! That is all that matters.

[Paul McGaha]

Bill,

I think the highchair looks really nice.

Sorry about the do-overs. I certainly have my share. In my case more mistakes when I'm tired or trying to go faster than I should.

PHM

[Bill Huber]

I am sure she will but it still gets me on how many screw ups I had. I normally think things though better and can get a handle on things but the compound angles had be going around in circles.

Maybe I am just getting old....

[Bill Huber]

Bill,

I think the highchair looks really nice.

Sorry about the do-overs. I certainly have my share. In my case more mistakes when I'm tired or trying to go faster than I should.

PHM

I just worked on it in the evenings and times like that and I really never try and work in the shop when I am tired. I don't know if I was just getting over confidant and not watching what I was doing or what. But if the next project goes as bad as this one I just may have to go back to making baskets...:D

[John Coloccia]

I am sure she will but it still gets me on how many screw ups I had. I normally think things though better and can get a handle on things but the compound angles had be going around in circles.

Maybe I am just getting old....

The only time I DON'T make a lot of screwups is when I'm in production mode and I have a process down pat. That's why one offs take so long and are so expensive. I have to either spend a lot of time figuring out a new process, a lot of time fixing my mistakes, or some combination of the two.

That's something amateur woodworkers are always beating themselves up over, but it's only because you don't see the weeks I put into making jigs, agonizing about my process and making test runs that don't work out. Making just one of something is a very difficult undertaking!! The next time you make a high chair, or something even remotely similar to a high chair, you'll have it nailed.

edit: I'll also mention that I RARELY actually ever make one of anything. I always make at least two of a new design, with one trailing the other by several steps. This way I can confidentially charge forward with the prototype and find all the trouble spots before actually digging into my real project. This alone has saved my bacon more times than I can count. I just use whatever scrapes I have laying around.

[Gregory King]

Turned out fine, Bill. I'll bet your next project goes smooth as glass. Always seems to be the simplest of projects that give the biggest headache. One of the best tools for me is to cut an extra piece or too from the word go. Simple and effective for every test cut or hole drilled. Especially with router bits. They may look sharp until contact with the best piece in all of the project.

[Jim Rimmer]

That's a great looking high chair. I know the feeling. I've got two bedside tables on my list to start in a few weeks. The delay is because of other items on the Honey do list. I have the wood and am agonizing and thinking out the steps because the wood was so expensive ($9.90 bd/ft). I think I', going to build one out of pine before I cut into the high dollar wood. But I'll probably screw something up and beat myself up over it.

Keep "butchering"; you do a nice job of it. :D

[Rod Sheridan]

I am sure she will but it still gets me on how many screw ups I had. I normally think things though better and can get a handle on things but the compound angles had be going around in circles.

Maybe I am just getting old....

Yes Bill, you're getting old, that sure beats the alternative.

I always look at stuff I built and see only the flaws. Funny other people don't, however I remember every little mistake........

The chair looks good, keep up the good work Grandpa.............Rod.

[Bob Riefer]

Your post made me feel great actually! I have had projects go smooth as butter, and then had the next one be a complete mess until I save it at the very end somehow. So, I'm happy to know I'm not the only one! :)

(also, to John's point... I'm about to make a whole mess of adirondak chairs.. I'm going to make one to learn it and set my process, and then make the other 10 chairs.. The first one will be a donation to a neighbor or whoever, the rest will be good chairs because I'll have the kinks worked out)

[Timothy Wolf]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who butchers wood, but I will say this, that chair looks better than anything I have made to date.

[Douglas Clark]

I don't know how old you are Bill, so I'm not sure I know what qualifies as old but I just hope that I'm able to do anything when I get old, even if it's just "making mistakes". I say that only because I lived in a community once that had a heavy retiree population and I saw both sides of the spectrum. That community had the highest number of "cool" older people per capita than any place I'd ever been, but I also met many people that had just stopped doing anything, at all, and they weren't so inspiring.

I consider myself a recovering perfectionist who was afraid to do much of anything when growing up for fear of revealing my imperfections. However, I've accomplished a lot more in life during the times when I have been able to remember the following saying...

"He who makes no mistakes, usually makes nothing at all."

[Michael MacDonald]

that chair is a great design, and it looks good... my probablems usually come in the form of fractional calculations that I screw up... I just caught a big screw up last week... I was almost to a point where I was going to cut come glue-up panels too small, when I decided to re-measure and re-calculate... and boy did I catch a bad error... that really would have pissed me off, what with the fancy cherry grain I had picked out of the stack and all the work gone into it...

I also dropped a board on its dovetails the other day... best tails I have cut to date, and I killed them on the concrete...

night work probably does have an impact. I probably need more sleep than I get...

[Neil Brooks]

So ....

The chair looks BEAUTIFUL.

When we see a movie, we usually don't see what they cut, on the editing room floor.

My brother is a hobby photographer with an incredible eye. But ... when he posts ten pics on his website ... there are 100 that he DIDN'T post.

Meaning: I won't try to speak for everybody, but .... I make a LOT of mistakes along the way -- sadly .... including many of the mistakes I've made before.

Some are along the "lapse of attention" lines, I'm sure ... when I'm paying plenty of attention to safety, and not quite enough attention to what I'm actually supposed to be DOING ;)

Some, though, are because I'm trying new techniques, difficult techniques, or old techniques in a new way.

Which makes me think of a saying about skiing: if you aren't falling, then you aren't pushing yourself.

That's how I view my woodworking. I beat myself up over my mistakes -- when they happen -- but at the end of the day, I remind myself that I'm learning.

And ... for me ... that's a source of pretty significant satisfaction.

[Bill Huber]

The only time I DON'T make a lot of screwups is when I'm in production mode and I have a process down pat. That's why one offs take so long and are so expensive. I have to either spend a lot of time figuring out a new process, a lot of time fixing my mistakes, or some combination of the two.

That's something amateur woodworkers are always beating themselves up over, but it's only because you don't see the weeks I put into making jigs, agonizing about my process and making test runs that don't work out. Making just one of something is a very difficult undertaking!! The next time you make a high chair, or something even remotely similar to a high chair, you'll have it nailed.

edit: I'll also mention that I RARELY actually ever make one of anything. I always make at least two of a new design, with one trailing the other by several steps. This way I can confidentially charge forward with the prototype and find all the trouble spots before actually digging into my real project. This alone has saved my bacon more times than I can count. I just use whatever scrapes I have laying around.

I agree with most of what you have said but still, stupid mistakes like drilling the wrong holes when you have a jig that is just awesome and you have to work at screwing things up.....

I do make templates a lot and that does help, I even make them when I am just going to make one of an item. I just wish I could not have to waste so much wood to make a small thing like this chair.

The biggest waste was with the compound angles, I just could not get it in my head what I needed to do to cut them right. Then once I got the correct angle I would cut both sides the same when they should have been the opposite.

It was just a very flustrating project, but I will say I did learn some things, I hope.

[Bill Huber]

"He who makes no mistakes, usually makes nothing at all."

Very true and that is what I have always said myself but there is another one "To error is human, but why must you be so human"

[Bill Huber]

my probablems usually come in the form of fractional calculations that I screw up...

I had that same problem and then I got one of those $30 calculators for Lowes and that took care of that. For fractions it is the greatest thing I have ever got.

[Don Jarvie]

Hang in there Bill. I am in the process of making Radiator covers (5 total) for a co-worker (paying job) and have issues with all 3 so far, some minor some major.

A few things that have helped. Made a full size drawing then a cut list off the drawing, then made a prototype to check the overall size. I only had to adjust the top a bit. The full size drawing really helps you visualize the piece and you can work out design issues before you waste wood.

Another help has been to break the project down into steps. I keep a log of what I did in each session and write what I want to accomplish in the next one. This way you plan your next seesion while its fresh on your head.

Finally, were all perfectionists and our harshists critics but in the end everyone loves what you made them.

[Jim Rimmer]

It was just a very flustrating project, but I will say I did learn some things, I hope.

For those of you not familiar with Southern, that's a combo of frustrating and flustered. :D

[glenn bradley]

We all have those runs . . .


stupid mistakes like drilling the wrong holes when you have a jig that is just awesome and you have to work at screwing things up.....

It is doubly distressing when I work so hard to make the wrong cut ;-) I chalk it up to "when it rains, it pours" and start the next project with an open mind and as much positive thinking as I can muster.

[Craig Ryder]

Tourbuzz

I guess I am still far from a craftsman and still just a wood butcher.

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NA, just human. I'm sure you granddaughter will love it.
And thanks for sharing the mistakes.... Makes all of mine easier to swallow!

[Brett Clark]

And thanks for sharing the mistakes.... Makes all of mine easier to swallow!

I just throw mine in the scrap pile. :D

[Sean Nagle]

Bill that's a fantastic chair. Your granddaughter will love it. I made a doll highchair for my girls years ago, but the design wasn't nearly as ambitious as yours.

I hear what you're saying about making errors. There seem to be days in the shop when everything goes as planned. Those days build confidence. But then there are days when you feel it would have been better to not have worked at all. I especially hate the mistakes that erase work that's already been completed. The worst outcome is when mistakes make me timid and apprehensive to move forward with a project or to confidently take on the next project. These are the times when I miss watching Norm's show. He always inspired me to get off my ass and get back to the shop. Mistakes are simply part of this hobby. We just have to give it our best effort. Hang in there.

[Hans Braul]

Bill,
As you can tell from all the other replies, you are not alone! Many of the mistakes you list are the same kind I make most frequently. I call them symmetry errors. Doing something backwards. There are so many opportunities to mess up in the average project that just come from reversing a piece in its orientation. I've come to use a new mental tool in my shop. Every time I do an irreversable thing like a cut on the tablesaw or router, I first ask myself, "is it possible to do this backwards?" I look at the piece from both sides and only once I conclude that either there is no possible way to do it backwards, or it's possible but I've got it right, then I allow myself to make the cut. I've caught myself quite a few times, about to make a silly error. It's worth the extra few seconds!

I love the chair.
Hans

[Leo Graywacz]

Bill, I never make any mistakes. All my holes are the perfect size and depth, all my cuts split the pencil line right in half. My inside and outside dimensions on my tape measure are within .001" of each other, my sawblades never dull and are sharper than a surgeons scalpel. My stains never blotch and my finishes never drool.


Oh, wait..Are we talking reality here or just what happens in my head?

Happens to everyone Bill, that is just the way it is. Chair looks great.

['Jacques Malan']

One of those occasions where the destination is more important than the journey.

[Glenn Vaughn]

Woodworking is just another word for challenge. When I first got started my second project was replacing the beveled siding on a 100 year old victorian house. Nothing was square - this made it really interesting. It took me 2 years to replace over 12,000 linear feet of siding. The biggest challenge was replacing a small corner transition section of the water table (about 4 X 6 inces). The darn piece had 6 different angles and I ate up an 8 foot 2X6 before I got it right.

[Bruce Page]

Bill, every so often I will start a project that just wasn’t meant to be, at least not easily. It will fight me every step of the way. Back when I used to ride motorcycles I used to occasionally get the same feeling and I would park it and take the truck. For all your trials & tribulations the highchair looks great!

[Terry Beadle]

A true craftsman learns more from his mistakes and fixing them than he does from his successes ! You've just had a craftsman experience.

I like the chair. Compound angles are a trial. Next time take a pencil and paper and draw the joint from two angles. Like front view and side view. The drawing gets your brain woke up and the pencil is easy to erase and redraw etc.

Take care and enjoy the process because the process is where it's at not the product ( just ask the baby doll...hoot! )

[Don Morris]

Bill,

I have read some of your posts and used the info in them. But your comment about your problems sounds soooo familiar. About 2 weeks ago someone posted a whole lot of photos about how they made something and he said he was a hobbyist. His photos show superb quality, absolute perfectionism, total attention to detail,etc. I said if he is a hobbyist, as I used to claim to be, I'm reclassifying myself to a wood tinkerer. Then I remembered my elderly aunt telling me something that I fall back on in moments like this: I'm not going to let it bother me any more. So he's a better hobbyist than me. Good for him. I make mistakes. If it wasn't for people like me, he wouldn't look good. Good for me. I've traveled through the northeast recently. There's a good supply of wood. Don't worry.

[Ronald Blue]

One thing to remember is that you know every mistake and miscue in it. When you look at it you in your mind think it's far from perfect. However when others look at it they think WOW! you did that. We are our own biggest critics and we always look at things we have made and think we could have done better. That's because we all want things perfect. I am an amateur wood worker compared to most of my fellow creekers. I always admire peoples work whether it be a box, a cutting board, workbench or whatever when they post photos on here. Your high chair is no exception. You look at it and see everything that went wrong. Others look at it and see all that went right. It looks very nice to me and others as well. I thought I was the only one that marked things and then cut, drilled, or whatever on the wrong side or wrong place. I view part of being a good woodworker as being able to correct and overcome our miscues. I just wish I didn't have to figure out a solution so many times and did it right to start with. I guess it is part of what gives our projects character. Great job on the high chair. Its a keeper.