Router miskate

[Bill Berklich]

Minor bobble with my router. I'm making a hall table, Pine with a maple strip inlay
391018
391008

And the router wandered a bit.

391019

So now I have a divot 3/16" wide about 3/8" long and 1/4" deep. No finish (so far) on the maple and Jacobean stain on the pine. The Maple is not yet glued in.

My first thought is to chisel a chunk out, glue a new piece in, level it and stain it. Any other thoughts?

[Bill Dufour]

Do the same on the other three corners and call it a butterfly.
Bill D

[Jim Becker]

What you propose is a very reasonable and common way to fix this kind of, um...thing. :) Just be very careful to cut in a piece of pine that exhibits the same part of the grain. In your photo, you can see an annular ring just to the left of the cut...be sure that your replacement piece doesn't have an annular ring so it blends in.

[glenn bradley]

I would do as you suggest and cut the mistake to a size and /or shape that allows a similar piece of pine to be laid in. Should be fairly invisible. Here is a smaller example where I got some blowout.
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I chiseled the mistake into a rectangle, found a piece of well matching material, glue a plug in place and planed it flush.

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Once the finish was on this repair disappeared even though it was in a very visible place.