Boy, Do I Feel Dumb

[Vaughn McMillan]

I'm building a small (5' x 8') arched arbor for the back yard. Nothing real fancy, but a chance to practice mortise and tenon joints. Things were going swimmingly until Friday night when I cut the four main blind mortises on the wrong side of the arbor legs. Being the ever-creative mistake hider that I am, I figured I'd go ahead and cut the mortises through the leg, and cover the resulting square holes on the faces of the legs with rosettes. In fact, the rosettes will look as if they were planned and give me a bit of practice on my new mini lathe. Problem solved. Bit more work, but no sweat.

Fast forward to Saturday night. Things are again going swimmingly, and it's time to cut the curved details on the roof slats. My plan call for five pieces, shaped something sort of like this:

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I took all five slats, stretch-wrapped them together, and drew the cut lines on one face of the bundle of slats. Worked great:

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After doing the first cut (lovin' the bandsaw all along the way), I realized I needed the cut line for the second cut drawn on the other face in order to feed it safely through the saw. So, I quickly drew the curve and adjoining lines, made the cut (again, patting myself on the back for buying a nice bandsaw), and stood back to admire my work. Can you tell what's wrong with this picture?

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Nothing another trip to the lumber store and a few more cuts won't fix, but I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the result of my lack of attention. (It was then I decided to call it quits for the night. Figured it was a sign.)

I offer this up to the gang here, because I know I'm not the first to pull boneheaded moves in the shop. I'm guessing others here could commiserate. :rolleyes: Plus, I'm sure you all could use a good laugh. :p

- Vaughn

[Doug Shepard]

I dont understand the problem. You were just practicing your bandsaw technique right? Looks like you got it nailed. Now that you've assured yourself you can cut those shapes correctly, it's time to work on the real thing. Ain't that what you intended all along?:cool:

[Ned Bulken]

Vaughn,
we've all done it. In my case it was legs for my kids' bunk bed. there was a 'left' leg and a right leg... you got it, when I screwed and glued it all together, I had two left legs for one end of the bed. Nothing that another trip to the hardware store didn't fix in a jiffy. I hung onto those legs, however, and now they're supporting my buddy John's workbench.

[Philip Glover]

No big deal. That's your "set-up" piece.;)
But, you only get one.

PCG

[John Buzzurro]

Vaughn,

Being new to this hobby, I make mistakes like that all the time. One mistake I used to repeat was placing the wrong face of a board down on the router table when routing an edge profile, e.g. roundover - ending up with the profile routed on opposite faces of the piece.

[Pete Simmons]

Maybe a few cuts in error on this project but, Vaughn recently sent me a nice surprise package of nicely cut thin (<0.125) Bloodwood as a gift.

Now I need to come up with something nice to laser cut and inlay this Bloodwood into.

First I need to find how the laser cuts Bloodwood.

I had mentioned I wanted to try some Bloodwood when Vaughn and I were working on the cutting boards.


Thanks Vaughn!!!!!

[Jeff Horton]

Thank you! :) Been there and done that many times. Problem is I usually can't laugh at my mistakes.

When I made my Garage Doors I was SOOOOO careful not to make that mistake. I made others but I did keep my rights and lefts correct this time. That was a almost enough to make me brag about it.

I bet I checked everything a dozen times before I would make the next step. I could just see standing them up and have 3 lefts sides and 1 right.;)

[Jim Bunton]

Sorry Vaughn, but you are the first one to make such a bone headed mistake :D Oh wait I did once cut saddles in a pipe when building a sand buggy. They were supposed to run parrallel with each other cut one went to the other end cut the other with no thought to the first. Welded the first onto the mating pipe went to the other end started to fit the mated pipe was shocked to find it was at a 90 degree angle from where it should be. Those that don't make mistakes don't do anything.

Jim Bunton

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Been there.....Done that..........Didn't want the t-shirt.........And Jim's right......those who don't occassionally make mistakes aren't doing anything!

[David Mueller]

Signature line tell al :D

[Andy Hoyt]

Vaughn - The root cause of that mistake can be directly traced to the first mistake you made ---- Replacing the shag carpet in the shop with that tile.

[Jay Knoll]

Vaughn

Been there, done that, bought the T shirt, I'm sure I'll do it again, even though I measure,check, measure, check!

Jay

[Steve Clardy]

That looks familiar.:eek:

Was doing some face frames this week.
Got a couple of pocket holes on the wrong side of a couple of rails. One hole on one face. One hole on opposite face of same board:rolleyes: :o

[Lee DeRaud]

First I need to find how the laser cuts Bloodwood.Works great, actually:
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=29243
Takes a little more power (or slower speed) than walnut or maple, but cuts a lot easier than most similar exotics.

[scott spencer]

You're a brave and honest man to admit it Vaughn, and maybe even a rare bird in that regard, but you've sure got alot of company on the mistake side of the equation! All part of the character building experience! :rolleyes:

It's a good thing wood grows on trees! :D

[Lee DeRaud]

Vaughn, you've obviously been watching me cut pieces for picture frames.:eek:

[Jim Becker]

Doh! I hate when that happens...but agree with Doug. You were practicing for the real cuts! ;)

[Bryan Rocker]

Been there done that yesterday. I was putting the decking 7/16" 4'x8' waifer board, on the roof for the current Habitat house. I measured the end board at 85 3/4" but thats not what I told them. When they handed me the 58 3/4" board and it didn't fit......muttered to myself and the crew lead.......I just calmly asked for the right size and said well thats my mistake for the day LOL!!!

[John Bush]

Vaughn,
I don't see anything askew. I understand that's how Escher got his start.. JCB.

[glenn bradley]

Vaughn, you're a class-act. I sometimes wonder what people think of me when I am so open about my goofs. I usually laugh harder than the person I'm telling; even years later.

My workshop mantra: It's a hobby, there is no due-date.

[Per Swenson]

Vaughn,

I know of no one who has a perfect record.

My list is real long. For instance, 12, 36 inch base cabinets.

24 right sides. I was zooming! The production was flowing!

Heck, I was counting the money........


Per

[John Miliunas]

Well, see there! Maybe that'll teach 'ya to be spending your time in front of the spinny thing instead of goofing off making stuff for the birds to sit and poop on!!! :D (Oh, BTW, don't feel like the Lone Ranger!) :rolleyes: :o :D :cool:

[Dave Falkenstein]

Nice looking chair!!!

[Frank Chaffee]

Vaughn,
My thanks to you for sharing this mistake of yours with the likes of me.

When I make mistakes similar to that I beat myself terribly. To learn that I am not the only one erring helps me a lot. Thanks.

One night I designed an aluminum extrusion ‘till three am and shot a drawing to the die shop. Hurry, hurry hurry, now, now now!!! This was done in hours after my normal 60 hr workload.

Problem was, I rotated angle Theta (+ or -) the wrong direction in my Second Moment of Inertia calcs, and of course we didn’t have time to schedule a sample billet of the extrusion for testing in our forming dies, so I cost my employer big bucks that night.

No matter tho, he is currently occupied with mundane challenges like buying houses that have large enuf slips to accommodate his big boats, while I know how to design complex shapes that will naturally form to a desired angle w/o highly expensive stretch forming or rolling machines.

Thanks Vaughn.
Frank

[Larry Norton]

Vaughn, I can't believe any of these guys didn't know the solution. All you gotta do is cut them in half, turn one end over, and glue them back together! Am I the only one to see this?

[Norman Hitt]

Can you tell what's wrong with this picture?

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- Vaughn[/QUOTE]

Yep,..............Looks exactly like the placement of the "Pocket Holes" in the left End Stile, on my project, "AFTER" I had already become distracted by pho calls and drilled them on the "Face Side".:o :mad: Like you, I determined that I could drill them on the back side and the holes could be hidden by a slight redesign of the decorative pieces I was going to glue on the front anyhow.;) Long story Short..........Phone rang again:eek: ............turned right around and drilled in the wrong place again. :mad: Verrrrrrrry carefully, unplugged everything, rolled up all the extension cords, and retired to the house for the whole weekend, as it was apparent that I was NOT meant to be in the shop this weekend.:rolleyes:

Monday........will be back at the wood store to TRY to find a piece that will be half as good of a grain match as this one was, and naturally, it was the straightest grain of all the pieces I had.

[Corey Hallagan]

LOL... well at least you can laugh about it, at least now!

Corey

[Dave Fifield]

No big deal. That's your "set-up" piece.;)
But, you only get one.

PCG

A Mulligan?

[Gary Herrmann]

Uh, cut it in half and do a huge floating tenon in the end mortises?

Just wait till I post about the drawer I did earlier this evening. Didn't have enough 1/2" material, made it out of 3/4". Accounted for the width change, but forgot about depth...

[Keith Christopher]

Could be worse, that could be some 8/4 curly maple or ebony. ;) ;)

[Sam Chambers]

Vaughn, been there, done that. When I was building 4 chairs for my patio set, I cut all the slats for the seat, rounded the edges, sanded everything. When I went to install them, I found that I had cut them all to the inside dimension of the seat frame. Yup, they fell right through! I still have a stack of very nice looking, but too short, cypress seat slats in the shop. Maybe I'll make a too-small table with them!

Seriously, I think part of this hobby involves learning to hide our mistakes. And when the can't be hidden, we learn from our mistakes. Then we get to make another trip to the wood store, so it's not all bad!

[Michael Adelong]

Sounds like you should make a few kiddie chairs. :)

[Jerry Olexa]

You were just practicing...I've done that myself many times:)

[Tyler Howell]

Vaughn:eek: ,
You didn't show these things before you started that Spin Crack:mad: .I warned you about them folks.
They take all your money and make you do bad things:( .
At least you didn't talk about it:rolleyes: :D .

[Dave Carey]

What's the problem? You've got an unique design that nobody else thought of! Part of the family of excuses as "I'm not lost, that U turn is part of my surveillance detection route!"

[Mike Zozakiewicz]

Thanks Vaughn, I actually laughed out loud. I, like many others have done that before, and will again. My last one was on some cedar recipe boxes I am making. Spent a great deal of time matching up the pieces, picking out the best stock for the top and front. Came back a week later to cut the tops off and cut the bottom off instead! Which of course was now the top with the worst piece of wood showing!

Thanks again,

Mike

[Tim Solley]

You should mount that thing on the wall as a constant reminder to slow down. I found that just slowing down and not being a hot shot and flying through things helps dramatically. If I had a dime for every time I made a boneheaded move like that....

If anyone asks about the funky shaped board on the wall...it's a template :-)

Tim

[Frank Chaffee]

Vaughn,
I don't see anything askew. I understand that's how Escher got his start.. JCB.
:D :D :D ;)

[Vaughn McMillan]

Vaughn,
I don't see anything askew. I understand that's how Escher got his start.. JCB. :D :D :D ;)
Sorta like my chessboard?

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:p

- Vaughn

[john whittaker]

OK Vaughn....I've been silent long enough. I must say I am very disappointed in you. What were you thinking??? Oh... that's right, you WERE NOT thinking because you were dizzy. I agree with Tyler....I didn't see these kind of misadventures before you got all spinny and went "bonkers". I feel like you are a traitor to the flat liners. I supposed you will claim you go "both ways"...but we all know once you are bitten, the infection spreads and will soon consume your soul.

Can Andy possibly be correct....no more shag carpet??? Another symptom of bonkeritis. Been nice knowin ya buddy. Maybe I'll see ya on the dark side some day. It's been callin my name but so far I've had the will power to resist.

P.S. Lemon oil on finger boards???? Hummm thanks for the tip.

[Ken Werner]

Like the man said. "I feel your pain"
Just 'nother piece of wood. In the big scheme, it's good for a laugh. Thanks for giving me one. Loved the step wise photos too.
Ken

[Pete Harbin]

Symetry, schmimetry...who needs it! :D

Pete

[Scott Vigder]

Can you tell what's wrong with this picture?- Vaughn
Errrr, your woodshop is loacted in your kitchen?

[Vaughn McMillan]

Errrr, your woodshop is loacted in your kitchen? Good eye, Scott. The green shag carpeting in the shop was being steam cleaned, so I set up shop in the kitchen. Using the range hood for DC ain't all that bad. :p

Actually, I had taken the cut pieces into the house to show LOML and give her a good laugh. (It worked, BTW.) Since by then I'd sworn off going back into the shop that night, I just grabbed a dining room chair and my camera and took the photo for posterity. :)

- Vaughn