That feeling you get when you make it far into a project and make that one major...

[Michael Yadfar]

mistake that throws it all off! Today I was working on my first project in my new shop, a simple jewelry box. I got my black walnut and oak all resawn, jointed/ planed, cut to size and proper angles, them I do my glue up and the top of front of the box is 1/8" farther in than the bottom. Didn't realize it right away, was in a hurry. I may be able to disguise the mistake, but man, that makes me so angry when something like that happens, I'll never be proud of the box.

I'm just sort of throwing this out as a fun discussion thread, I've had so many of these moments in woodworking myself, I have cabinets I made and in the few I made little mistakes, that's all I see. I guess it's the frustration of a woodworker

[Tom Ewell]

Once did a fairly large built-in for a client, the casework was finished and installed to allow the rest of the trades to work to it. Back at the shop I was doing final assembly of drawers and doors readying for delivery.

All finish work was done and proceeded with the hardware, got to screwing the final hinge on the last door and the stile cracked (yes, pilot holed). Ended up remaking a new set of matching doors, reformulating the custom dye recipe and finished them up.

Fortunately the new finish blended well with the rest of the unit.

If it were my own, a repair would have been done and lived with.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, I know the feeling. I tell myself "It's just wood. I can make wood do darn near anything. I can fix this." Calm down, and relax. I built this thing (whatever it is), and I can build it again if I have to.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Most of us, if not all of us, have been there, done that, earned the t-shirt and didn't want it!

Few of my projects have been absolutely perfect but as I increase my experience and training, it's not happening as often.

[Leo Graywacz]

Was putting a wall to wall set of bookcases with a window seat between them Everything went well considering the floor sloped 1/2" over 9'. One of the last things that needed to be done was to size the top on the window seat. Measured twice and then proceeded to cut it 1/2" short anyway in the width direction. I thought about making a new top for it but it was an oil based paint, it would have taken 6 days to get the finish on it as it took 2 days to dry before sanding nice. Instead I made some moldings to cover the 1/4" gaps on either side. Since they were so small I was able to fast track the painting. Looked better with the molding then without.

[Dave Anthony]

I was building a QS white oak tool chest, my 1st all solid wood build. During the glue up I over tightened the clamps and wound up with a bow sided cabinet. Disgusted, I went on other projects, and wound up leaving the carcass on the side of the house when I put an epoxy floor in the garage. Had an unexpected rainstorm, plus debris from the neighbor's tree messed it up more. For some reason I decided to finish it, and everyone seems to like it. I pointed out the bow to one avid admirer and the response was "oh yeah, whatever."
Pics here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?101448-Toolchest-Dresser&highlight=
Made a walnut vanity for our bathroom remodel, came home from work to find the contractor had tiled over the top of the face frame. Scraped off the tile & grout and managed to save it: 303886
Mistakes happen , fix it and move on, it's part of the process. People who don't make any mistakes don't make anything.

[Joe O'Connor]

I recently built a set of built in bookcases for a client, the time constraints on the job forced me to make the shelves in my shop a couple weeks after the cases were installed. I dropped them off for the painter and came back a week later to install them. I had cut them all an inch too short, my measurements were correct I just screwed up my table saw setting. So I put them in the dumpster and went back to the shop to start over, I had them done in a day and after buying a 60$ gallon of paint had them painted in another day. When I went back to install they were all an inch too narrow! So now there were 30 beautiful shelves in that dumpster. The builder on the job asked if I couldn't use them for a shop project to which I replied I didn't want a reminder of such an expensive mistake haunting my shop. Third time was the charm and went much faster than the first two. The cases look great but that mistake does taint the way I look at that project. Now I heading out to the shop to make a set of shelves for a new project and I will be double checking all of my measurements this time, wish me luck!

[Jay Jolliffe]

Off our kitchen we have a pantry. In it is the washer, dryer & refrig. Decided to make some cabinets to put away stuff that was in boxes or bags on the floor for a few yrs. Made the top cabinet first that went wall to wall which was 8'. Had someone help with the install. What a surprise to find out I made it 16'' to short in height. Never make two sets of drawings. .....Glad I did it in my house. Added to the top & the doors cover up the mistake....

[Wade Lippman]

I made a butternut television cabinet for a customer and when I was almost done I found one side was a quarter inch higher than the other. I could have made the base an eighth inch bigger on the other side and no one would have ever noticed, but I couldn't do that. So I started over.

All done, the TV won't fit. She had given me the TV dimension, but hadn't included the base. I wanted to hang the TV inside the cabinet without the base, but the customer wouldn't go for it. I cut both sides of the cabinet and inserted strips of walnut in to make it larger. I didn't much care for it , but she tells me that everyone tells her that the walnut accent makes it beautiful. Go figure.

[Vince Shriver]

First job working in a cab shop specializing in fixtures for hair saloons. Lots of plastic laminate work. One particular job was given priority to get done as quickly as possible: rush, rush, get it out, overdue.... I'm routing off a table surface, when suddenly the router takes a turn where it shouldn't as the bearing hits a void in the plywood under the plastic. Sweating bullets on the mistake; took a half hour before I finally talked to the boss about it. He came over looked at it, told me to be make sure I checked everything before I turned on the router. Then said, "don't worry about it this time, that part will never show." Damn what a relief!

[James Nugnes]

I am a woodcarver. So the size of projects tends to be smaller than many here. However they have grown larger over time....maybe just one of those things that happens naturally for woodcarvers. I have not made many size or scaling errors so far (knock on wood). But when I do make a mistake is it usually a whooper. I will make an error in judgement about how the tool should address the wood and before I can blink......CRACK....project is instant trash at least as far as the public seeing it. I might glue it up so I can complete it and earn the knowledge I can gain off the piece but that is about all I will get out if it at that point.

You just feel so stupid as looking at the break it is so obvious that the wood was not going to take stress in that particular direction. Invariably it happens because I did not thinking about it before putting tool to wood....just can't do that.

[David Ragan]

Happens to me all the time. If fact, that is why it takes me forever to build anything. Fear of making mistakes, and inexperience.

One good piece of advise I got was to never tell the recipient about the mistakes.

Non woodworkers see our stuff in this way, I think:
-they have no idea how difficult it can be
-but, they don't see the vast majority of mistakes that we make

Most of the stuff I do is custom, one-off type. That is where the blunders are, of course.

[Leo Graywacz]

Don't get me started on how much time people think it takes to make something versus the actual time it take to make something.

Most of the time the finishing takes more time then they think the whole project takes.