Can I cover up my mistakes?

[Tom Porter]

I'm pretty new to woodworking and my work shows it. I'm making a storage shelf out of 3/4 plywood, using pocket holes and biscuit joints. Maybe not the best approach but I'm trying to learn different techniques. Anyway, I had trouble lining up the biscuits slots perfectly, which is how I joined the internal upright sections. As a result, the uprights (or whatever they should be called) do not line up perfectly. It's not horrible but certainly noticeable. OK, maybe it's closer to horrible than I would like to admit. Since it is plywood, I had planned all along to put a face frame on it. I'm wondering if I make the frame slightly wider the the plywood, could I hide these problems or would it make the problem more noticeable or worse? If I try this, would I be better off with a face frame only a little wider than the plywood (say an inch) or significantly wider (like 2 inches wide)?

There's probably a bunch of other things I did wrong but I'll worry about one thing at a time.

For some reason, when I attached the picture below, it comes up rotated 90 degrees.


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[HANK METZ]

If you’re talking about the way it sweeps out near the top, if you hadn’t stated it was an error, I’d’ve thought it was a design feature. Go with it man, sometimes the project will tell you what it wants to be, think about a simple edgeband, not a face frame- celebrate the implied movement.


- Beachside Hank
Improvise, adapt, overcome; the essence of true craftsmanship.

[Darius Ferlas]

Edge banding can be sometimes tricky.
If the edge is 3/4" and the tape is 7/8" there is not much room for keeping the curve, and curving the edge band won't really work. Wider band would be required.

I don't mean to be cruel, but the only way I would try to fix it is by salvaging as much material as possible and start again.

[Rich Switzer]

Storage shelf? For you or someone else? If it's for you, there's no way I'd scrap it. Finish it up, place it where you planned, stock it with storage items, and enjoy it. As your work progresses, I expect it might be one of your most discussed - and perhaps cherished - pieces with friends and family.

[johnny means]

I dont think its as bad ad you think it is. I would apply a faceframe with maybe an extra 1/4" on each side then apply a moulding around the offending areas to form a break in the lines. This would make it look like one case sitting atop another, thus reducing the need for visual alignment.

[Ed Edwards]

+1 for Rich
At most I would cover the edges with edge banding, either thin rips or hot melt backed. If you go the faceframe route, you'll have problems trying to slide anything in or out,
Ed

[Harry Hagan]

[QUOTE=HANK METZ;2068859]If you’re talking about the way it sweeps out near the top, if you hadn’t stated it was an error, I’d’ve thought it was a design feature. Go with it man, sometimes the project will tell you what it wants to be, think about a simple edgeband, not a face frame- celebrate the implied movement.


My first impression was that there might be some lens distortion in the photo; if not, go with it, as Hank said.

It looks like it has some Asian influence in the design.

[Andy Pratt]

If I'm seeing the picture correctly, I think he is talking about his some of his vertical sections (which are horizontal the way the picture is rotated) not lining up with the face of the piece. I can see at least one that falls short of reaching the face. Unless the piece is going to be high-vis in a nice area of your home I would say just use it like it is. If the defect is going to drive you crazy looking at it, or if it will stick out like a sore thumb due to where it will be in your house, then shim out the misaligned areas and put a face frame with some overlap on top of everything. I should caution that the face frame for this will be fairly complicated, so if you're not confident in your technique there you might want to just leave it like it is. If this is truly utility storage I wouldn't worry myself for a second leaving it the way it is.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the sweep on the left of the photo (top of the piece) is just camera distortion.

[phil harold]

A good Carpenter Makes Mistakes but can hide them
I think a faceframe strategically installed could cover all your ills
just try to keep them flush on the top of shelves

[Jeff Duncan]

Is it glued up already, or is it still a dry fit? If it's glued I'd hide it with the face frame and not worry about it too much;) If it's dry fit and you want to try to fine tune it fill the biscuit slots with Bondo, recut the biscuits adjusting for the prior discrepancies, and re-assemble.

good luck,
JeffD

[Bernie LeBlanc]

Rich and Andy are right on. My first build is still in use after 30 years and it was a learning experience I still like to show folks. Although it has serious flaws, our 4 sons still want it in their homes because it was the toy box they grew up with - so don't destroy it, use it.

It's hard to tell by the picture, but what mistake did you do? You mentioned your biscuit cuts did not line up... so before doing your cuts, did you line up your boards correctly, draw a line across both boards and make your cuts on the pencil lines? Dry fitting and measuring twice is half the battle to getting things right.

Welcome to woodworking and don't be discouraged by early projects. I've been on the journey for 30+ years and considered myself a butcher until I retired 3 years ago. Now I'm getting to be a craftsman. Be patient and ask questions.

[Steve Rost]

One measure of a great craftsman is how well he can hide his mistakes!

[Tom Porter]

So, the sweep pointed out by a couple of posters looks better in the picture than on the bench. Essentially, I think I made two mistakes which combine to look sloppy. First, my cuts may not be exact enough; I'm still learning how to set up my tools to cut square. Second, and more importantly, the biscuit slots didn't line up perfectly. I did fill and recut a few but a couple of them I thought wouldn't be as noticeable as they turned out to be. It's not a colossal disaster but a little frustrating. What I think I'm going to do is put a face frame on it, with rails 3/4" wide to cover the shelves and styles a little wider, say 1 1/4 or wider, to cover the lack of straightness in the shelf supports. This is plan is contingent on how I think this will work after I do some measurements. I'll dry fit it together and see how it looks.

Ultimately, I'm trying to build a useful piece for a spot in the house but even more, it's a project to learn more about what I'm doing. So mistakes were to be expected (though I exceeded expectation on that mark) and learning to correct them or not make them in the future is a worthwhile lesson. More than anything, I think my lesson is to slow down; I'm not overwhelmed with shop time and when I get some, I tend to rush more than I should.

I appreciate all the advice.

[Joe Angrisani]

Tom....

Clarify something for me.

Looking at the picture it seems the panels are aligned OK up-down and side-to-side? i.e...the grid looks good.

Is the "error" that they are not all flush to the front? i.e...if you put a flush face frame on the whole thing, there would be gaps between some of the plywood and the back of the face frame?

[Brad Cambell]

Trim can cover up a lot of mistakes. If it isn't a piece of furniture, so what if it isn't perfect.

[Tom Porter]

Joe,

The picture is a little deceptive. The upright sections, let's call them dividers, are not parallel and evenly spaced, most noticeably at the top. Again, the picture for some reason was rotated 90 degrees when I posted it, despite repeating it a few times. If you were to measure the spaces horizontally between the dividers on the top section (where the cubbies are the smallest), you'd find that opening size at the top is not the same as at the bottom of the divider. And there is a little variation from one cubby to the next, though they were supposed to be identical in size. They aren't off by a lot (which may explain why it's hard to tell with the picture) but enough to be noticed.

[Todd Brewer]

I've always said, it's not if you make mistakes, it's how well you can hide them. :)

[Dave Zellers]

I've always said, it's not if you make mistakes, it's how well you can hide them. :)
It's the first thing I was taught 40 years ago: A good carpenter knows how to fix his mistakes.

[Alan Bienlein]

I hope you don't mind but I rotated the picture for you.
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It looks like you might have gotten mixed up on which side to reference the biscuit joiner off of. It does look consistent though. I would just finish it and learn from it. Maybe if you could make some legs that go all the way to the top that get thinner at the top but have a gentle curve on the outside edge to accentuate the curve in the piece. Something like this but not this extreme.
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