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View Full Version : Forgive me, creekers, for I have sinned



Federico Mena Quintero
05-16-2011, 4:10 PM
I forgot to draw X's on the waste sections of a dovetailed panel for a small box of drawers.

So I'm there, all holdfast'ed and chiseling out the waste after removing the bulk with a coping saw...

And it didn't look like tails or pins at all. Yes, I had coped out the *wrong* parts. The panel, spoiled.

Off to make it again from scratch. Darn.

Maybe I can use the bad panel to turn it into a slapping board, to slap myself every time I make that kind of mistake. Ideas appreciated.

David Weaver
05-16-2011, 4:31 PM
Make it into a cheese tray and give it to an old woman.

I know that sounds rude. Maybe it is rude.

(Men don't want cheese trays and young women seem to like wooden things only if they like what's stored in them. I'm not sure what else you can make of a single screwed up panel for free).

David Weaver
05-16-2011, 4:34 PM
Wait, i have another idea.

If it's nice, and wide enough, maybe you could put it on a lathe and make a plate out of it.

Woodturners turn all kinds pieces of nice large wood into large wooden objects that nobody really wants. I do it all the time with offcuts I can't use for anything else, and so far, the only thing anyone has expressed interest in is "hey, can you turn me some wooden pens like we saw at the arts fest?"

If it's long enough, maybe you can make a cheese tray, cut the end off, and turn a plate out of the offcut.

Jessica Pierce-LaRose
05-16-2011, 4:42 PM
I did this once. Although I think I caught it before the chiseling. Fortunately it was early enough on the project it was simple enough to just cut off the "tails" and make the piece one board's width shorter.

David, your comments are just adding to the fuel that would justify that lathe purchase.

Charles Goodnight
05-16-2011, 4:49 PM
I believe you have made the famous dodo-tailed joint. They were originally designed to assemble dodo nest boxes until the bottom fell out of the project.

David Weaver
05-16-2011, 4:49 PM
I like to make fun of turning, and I don't have a large lathe, but I have to admit that I have turned a lot of useful things (useful to me), but the part about only getting a request for pens is true.

Go ahead and get a lathe. If you're a hand tool woodworker, you don't have as much chance of getting sucked into turning all the time - it does get boring fairly quickly, but a lathe is a good trick to have up your sleeve when you need to make a busted knob or some tool handles.

Jim Matthews
05-16-2011, 4:52 PM
I have never made such a mistake.

I have revised some projects to encompass a lesser volume after aesthetic consideration.

"What is it?" SWMBO
"It's a jewelry box." YT
"What fits in it?" SWMBO
"Earrings, one pair." YT

Pam Niedermayer
05-16-2011, 6:25 PM
Square them off and make a corresponding box joint board, then add 4 more boards and I'd bet it would make a good coffin for David. :)

Pam

Jeff Wittrock
05-16-2011, 6:54 PM
I wish I could say I have done this only once.
The way I figure it, I still have all of my fingers, so I don't fret to much over dovetail mistakes anymore.

Andrew Gibson
05-16-2011, 8:18 PM
Yep I have been there. No matter what I am cutting I always mark the waste. As soon as I don't I will cut on the wrong side of the line...

Ron Kellison
05-16-2011, 8:42 PM
If it were my panel I would drill a hole in it and hang it on the wall in my shop as a reminder of my fallibility. It would fit in nicely with a few others I have in my collection!

Regards,

Ron

Ed Looney
05-16-2011, 10:34 PM
My brother has a wood stove in his wood shop. He tells me he never makes mistakes but occasionally he admits to making firewood.

Ed

Jim Koepke
05-17-2011, 1:22 AM
Well, at least you aren't alone.

I have made smaller projects out of such big mistakes.

On one I had to hand bend a shelf because a dado was about an inch too low.

jtk

Steve Branam
05-17-2011, 6:22 AM
I like to think of this as the "gear-tooth joint". Lots of glue surface like a finger joint, but poor mechanical strength. Everyone makes at least one of these! I use one of my pieces as the string toggle on my larger bowsaw.

James Taglienti
05-17-2011, 7:53 AM
This is hilarious :D

Dave Anderson NH
05-17-2011, 10:01 AM
Pride cometh before a fall. You are not lonely Federico. I haven't done this since last summer.:D Sometimes a being in too much of a hurry or being too confident in your abilities comes back and bites you in the seat of knowledge when you take a shortcut.

In last summer's case I had been demonstrating at the largest craft fair in the state of NH but was lucky enough to not have completed the job or been ready to do the assembly. In reality, the dovetails were in the correct orientation, but the dados for the bottom of the serving tray would have ended up on the outside. That tray has now been reduced in height by 1/2". In my defense (read rationalizing excuse) I was interrupted constantly by people asking questions.

Jim Underwood
05-17-2011, 10:18 AM
If you're a hand tool woodworker, you don't have as much chance of getting sucked into turning all the time - it does get boring fairly quickly,:eek: but a lathe is a good trick to have up your sleeve when you need to make a busted knob or some tool handles.


I can't believe the heresy written in front of God and everybody. For shame. For shame. I dare ya to come over on the turning forum and say that! :D

Seriously, I've found that boredom is usually a limitation of the mind to make use of the available entertainment. And I confess I get bored easily. I almost never get bored on the lathe. I've got more projects started than I could finish in a year....:cool:

As for the dovetail, I recently attended a workshop where we cut a practice dovetail (yes, singular) on a small pair of boards. I cut it three times before I got it right. And once the teacher even told me to do it wrong... But then I make everything look hard...

john brenton
05-17-2011, 10:37 AM
You feel like such a dunce when you do stuff like that. I pulled a brain fart last year on a pair of shelf brackets for the house. I inlaid both with some spare luthier stuff I had laying around and did a little carving too...I did all that before I realized that I had done them facing the same way. Actually, it wasn't even until I put it together and I had one inlaid bracket facing the outside, and another facing the inside, that I realized my silly blunder.


Pride cometh before a fall. You are not lonely Federico. I haven't done this since last summer.:D Sometimes a being in too much of a hurry or being too confident in your abilities comes back and bites you in the seat of knowledge when you take a shortcut.

In last summer's case I had been demonstrating at the largest craft fair in the state of NH but was lucky enough to not have completed the job or been ready to do the assembly. In reality, the dovetails were in the correct orientation, but the dados for the bottom of the serving tray would have ended up on the outside. That tray has now been reduced in height by 1/2". In my defense (read rationalizing excuse) I was interrupted constantly by people asking questions.

george wilson
05-17-2011, 10:55 AM
I had an apprentice who was extremely talented. She told me about her hare brained mother who would do things like come bouncing out to the car to go play tennis. A few minutes later she would be back to put her shoes on.

This apprentice seemed to be exactly like her mother. Extremely bright and talented,but somehow she would make royal foul ups. She'd make a good violin. The next one would have some glaring mistake in it that rendered it useless. It went on like that for some years.

One day after work we went out back to where the cars were parked. Her car was gone. She flew into a complete panic. I called security,and the city police. After over 1/2 hour,all these police were gathered behind the shop. It seemed so foolish to me that I hadn't asked a simple question of her. Could she? Had she? After so long a time waiting for the police?. Finally,I asked her if she had driven her car home for lunch and walked back. SHE HAD!!!! I cannot figure out how she had managed to sustain her hysteria for over 1/2 hour,but she had!!! WORSE THAN HER MOTHER,for sure!!

So,don't feel too bad if you made a quick error in your work. Believe me,it could(and often can be) worse.

Nixon Roger
05-17-2011, 12:01 PM
It isn't a sin. It is an aide to practicing humility.

Federico Mena Quintero
05-17-2011, 2:01 PM
Ah, so *that* is the famed dodo-tailed joint. Hanging it on the wall sounds like a good constant reminder.

(Or a box joint! Why didn't I think of that! Maybe it's salvageable for another project...)

Jim Underwood
05-17-2011, 2:04 PM
It isn't a sin. It is an aide to practicing humility.

LOL!:D

Isn't that the truth. I should be the world's most humble man about now, but I ain't. Must not have taken those practice lessons to heart...:rolleyes:

Warren Street
05-18-2011, 11:29 AM
Hahahahaha - love this.



I have never made such a mistake.

I have revised some projects to encompass a lesser volume after aesthetic consideration.

"What is it?" SWMBO
"It's a jewelry box." YT
"What fits in it?" SWMBO
"Earrings, one pair." YT

george wilson
05-18-2011, 11:44 AM
Back in the 70's I was making an index plate out of brass. Index plates have several rings of holes around them. Each ring has different numbers of holes. I made the plate nice and fancy,with knurled fittings on it. It took all day to make it. I discovered after it was done that each circle of holes had 24 holes in it!! It would have made a nice sink drain if it were chrome plated!! Took a LOT longer than your dovetails,too.

Gary Hodgin
05-18-2011, 12:08 PM
I know a guy really well whose daughter and SIL had just spent a small fortune on landscaping but were experiencing an infestation of mosquitoes. This was in an area where the west nile virus had been found. They asked this, hum, friend to drop by to spray some insecticide. The friend sprayed late in the afternoon, actually was dark.

Next morning friend went out to cut some grass and noticed some weeds he wanted to spray. Went to get his weed killer and sprayer and could not find it in his garage. A terrible thought ran through his mind. He found his weed killer sprayer in the back of his truck where he'd used it the previous evening. Well, this friend spent the remainder of the day watering his daughter's lawn and shrubs. He paid his daughter $50 for the water and spent about $400 plus labor replacing some shrubs. Friend was extremely embarrassed and has been very sure to keep insecticide and weed killer separate since then.

kevin loftus
05-18-2011, 1:40 PM
I believe you have made the famous dodo-tailed joint. They were originally designed to assemble dodo nest boxes until the bottom fell out of the project.

:D:D:D:D:D Made me laugh out loud this one. :D:D:D:D:D

Mark ten Haaf
05-18-2011, 9:43 PM
My favorite:
I make a cut...
Am very impressed with my cut...
Am so impressed that I check with digital calipers to see how awesome I really am...
And it is exactly, to the thousandth of an inch, precisely one inch short.