Talk me out of giving up -- follow up

[Dan Bundy]

A couple of months ago I posted about my frustration after gluing in a base rail upside down. A number of you were kind enough to post encouraging words and possible solutions to get the rail arranged properly. Below is the (finally) completed project, an armoire from plans in Woodsmith (142, I think). I probably should have waited until fall to start it instead of so close to the end of my WW season (have to quit during the summer because my shop (garage) is uninsulated and it gets too hot, plus there's a yard to mow and golf to be played).

By the way, the fix was to chisel off the legs, clean the tenons and make new legs.

LOML is happy with it, so I guess that's all that matters. I can't look at it yet without seeing the numerous "oops" I made (I call them "Dans").

Thanks again for the encouragement. I guess I'll try it again in the fall. LOML's already coming up with projects. DB

Here's the armoire:

[Tim Morton]

That looks awesome!!! You can coem up to vermont anytime this summer if you get the urge to do some woodworking and help me out. Your "dans" are way nicer than my mistakes. Looks good from here..keep going!!!!

[Martin Shupe]

Now that looks very nice!!! Aren't you glad you didn't give up?

I love the cherry. What was your finish?

It was 98 in Texas last week. Sure wish my garage had AC! I hate it when I get sweat drops on my project.

[John Miliunas]

Looks awesome Dan and, in one of my favorite woods, no less! I'm with Tim...Wish my mistakes were as "bad" as yours!:) Well done and I hope you have an early Fall!:D :cool:

[larry merlau]

you can come up my way, i got cooler weather, and a golf course just a 1/4mile away tops i can see it from my frt door. and you wonthave to wrry about takeing my tee time i dont knock little white balls around in the middle of a hay feild.. and i do have shop that you can work in.. and bring some of the nice cherry you used fo rthe armoire. coffee is on me nice job and the dan's dont show at all, you should see the larry's i got :D

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Dan,

That looks great! You did the right thing in re-making the legs. Great job on getting the project done right!

[Jim Becker]

Excellent recovery!! That's a beautiful piece of furniture to be proud of.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Nice recovery Dan! Don't be too hard on yourself. As I am in the "finishing" stage of an oak buffet (my first piece of furniture), I see every little mistake I made but......my wife loves it and wants it finished before our family descends upon our place in about 2 weeks. Of course you see the mistakes but like me and my mistakes, I learned from it and hopefully won't repeat those mistakes. Nice piece Dan! Great recovery! Hope fall comes early for you!

[Pete Lamberty]

Beautiful project Dan. I really like the grain patterns in the panels. Nice job.

[Tim Farrell]

Great work and recovery. It gives me hope. I have had similar frustrations in looking at my work. Congrats.

[Erin Stringer]

Nice work Dan, I would never have known that there was a "mistake" that was almost bad enough to give up.

And something I learned a couple months ago about the "Dans" or "Erins" in my case... They are everywhere, on everyone's work. I was in a furniture store that features a lot of Thos. Moser, I was carefully evaluating some of the pieces to see if I could come close to reproducing one or get some inspiration from one. What do you know, I found "mistakes" on a few pieces! They weren't huge and would never be noticed by the casual user or even a lot of people that were looking closely, but they were there. After seeing a "master" that sold pieces with "flaws" I realized that my work will never be absolutely perfect and is usually appreciated for what it is, something made by a hobbiest that is presented as a gift made with care and hard work. SWMBO has been trying to convince me of that for a long time, I guess its finally sinking in.

[Bill Grumbine]

Dan, very nice looking! I missed the first thread on giving up, but if I gave up every time I felt like it (translated, have a bad day, make FUBAR mistakes, etc) I would be quitting almost once every month or so. Keep on trying, and remember, this stuff grows on trees. There is always more wood.

Bill

[Lee Schierer]

That's a nice dresser. It came out great. You have to remember that you are the only one that will notices the goofs. Most people looking at it have no idea they are there. I think all of us can show you some little area on every project we've made that wasn't quite what we wanted it to be.

Like Bill G says, the stuff its made from does grow on trees! :)

[Dan Bundy]

Now that looks very nice!!! Aren't you glad you didn't give up?

I love the cherry. What was your finish?

It was 98 in Texas last week. Sure wish my garage had AC! I hate it when I get sweat drops on my project.


The outside is just 3 coats of Minwax wipe-on poly, satin finish. I did the insides with shellac so my clothes wouldn't smell so bad.

I wasn't going to quit before I finished this thing; had too much invested already, but I was seriously considering making it my last project.

It does look very good from the distance of the internet. Up close, some of the "dans" are pretty glaring. Thanks for the kind words.

[Corey Hallagan]

Dan, obviously you just had yourself a bad day cause your work appears to be pretty top notch to me. I wish I could do that good on my bestest day :)

Corey

[Greg Mann]

To paraphrase Mark Twain: 'Quitting WWing is easy. I've done it hundreds of times.' We all know where every dent, bump, you name it, is on our projects. Think of them like driving down the road. We all twitch the steering wheel, just minor corrections. Beautiful work. Too bad you need to suspend the season.

Greg

[Mike Stanton]

:D Looks good here. We all make midtakes but the idea is to hide them best you can. Only you can see them not other people. I know every thing I domn't like about things but not other people. Don't give up it will get better for you.Itis a good thing to do and forget about other things. mike

[Jay Knoll]

Dan

Super looking piece of work, I'm sure that you're going to get a lot of satisfaction from it (and from telling the recovery story :) )

At one of the wood working shows I attended, the instructor urged us to take pride in our work. "When some one complements my stuff he said, I smile and say thanks! By the way, he mentioned, I've been trying to teach myself to do that for the past 5 years. Don't know what it is, but wood workers seem to enjoy beating themselves up. "

So, go with it, you learned something and have a great outcome.

Jay

[scott spencer]

Can you teach me the trick to those "Dans"? ....looks like a nice skill to master if you ask me! Nice work!

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

It is a beautiful piece of work (or should I say pieces).
It even looks wonderful in the photos.
You can't give up, the folks here, in the creek, won't let you. And besides it's therapy.
Daniel

[Ted Shrader]

Dan -

That looks GREAT! What a nice piece. I can't see any mistakes.

When you show your work to folks, just let them admire it and graciously accept the compliments. No need to point out all the imperfections or other attempts at modesty. Just a "Thank You" following the appraisal is all that is required. (Took me waaaay to long to learn that.)

Nice work,
Ted

[Jim Hinze]

Dan, the finished product and the LOYL's approval is really what matters. Besides, your probably the only one who will be able to see the "oops" or "Dans" without a very close inspection...

I don't know who said this, I'm sure someone can put a name to this quote (or close to this, not sure of the exact words) but

...the true sign of a craftsman is not the number of mistakes he makes, but how well he covers them up....

[Larry Browning]

Dan,
That really looks great! I am in the final stages of making the very same armoire. I hope to have it in the bedroom by the end of the long weekend. However I have modified the plan a little to try to have a mission inspired look to it. I also split the top drawer into two drawers. This was a pretty tough piece for me. The inset doors and drawers were really hard for me. Everything must be exactly square. This was also my 1st attempt at drawers. Just so you know, one of the drawers had a bow in the drawer side which caused it to get stuck in the drawer pocket. I finally had to squeeze the drawer together with a clamp just to get it unstuck. I ended up taking my belt sander to sides of the drawer to make it fit. I think if I were making this to sell I would have had to rebuild the drawer. Hey, if woodworking was easy and not chalenging, I would find another hobby. (not much chance of that happening :) ) If I did everything perfect I would get boared with it pretty quickly.

Larry

[Keith Christopher]

Dan,

We as the creators know every flaw every little mistake even if no one else will ever. Awesome work, you should be VERY pleased with the outcome !

[Kevin Herber]

Beautiful job, Dan. Just think - In a hundred years those 'Dans' will be worth about $1000 apiece! Those are what make our craft what it is. We all contribute a bit of ourselves to each piece we create. Machines do repeated tasks perfectly. The human factor is what drives the high value market and inspires us, whose 'Dans' are far more obvious than yours, to eventually conceal them as well as you did.

Keep at it. I bet Sam Maloof can point out a few 'Maloofs' in each of his pieces.

-- Kevin