Have you ever done something so dumb...

[Bill Huber]

Have you ever done something so dumb that you just turn out the lights in the shop and went in the house and watched TV?

I am making 2 jewelry boxes, both exactly alike.
Yesterday I glued the bottoms on, not a big job or anything, put the glue on, line the bottom up and clamp it, takes do brains to do it.

Got them both all done, clamped up and put them on the bench to dry.

About 2 hours later I just happened to look over at both of them setting on the bench............ what a dummy, I glued the bottom on the top of one of the boxes....

I just shut the lights off went into the house and set down and watch some TV, how dumb can you get.

Now I can save it and one box may be a little shorter then the other but how dumb can you be........?

I am sure there is no one else on the forum that has done a dumb thing like this, but if you have what was it?

[frank shic]

i blew close to $1000 on home depot maple lumber that i realized was mismatched in color so i wound up having to replace it... still a savings building my own kitchen cabinets compared to what kraftmaid would have charged! live and learn.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Have you ever done something so dumb that you just turn out the lights in the shop and went in the house and watched TV?

I am making 2 jewelry boxes, both exactly alike.
Yesterday I glued the bottoms on, not a big job or anything, put the glue on, line the bottom up and clamp it, takes do brains to do it.

Got them both all done, clamped up and put them on the bench to dry.

About 2 hours later I just happened to look over at both of them setting on the bench............ what a dummy, I glued the bottom on the top of one of the boxes....

I just shut the lights off went into the house and set down and watch some TV, how dumb can you get.

Now I can save it and one box may be a little shorter then the other but how dumb can you be........?

I am sure there is no one else on the forum that has done a dumb thing like this, but if you have what was it?

Bill,

Could you give us a little time frame you're looking for.....today..yesterday....last week...last month ....this year?:D

[Doug Shepard]

Does gluing your shoes to the floor count? Spilled some CA glue that I didn't notice then stood in it. Several minutes later when I went to move....

[David DeCristoforo]

"Have you ever done something so dumb that you just turn out the lights in the shop and went in the house..."

Umm...ahhhh...well.... nope. Never done anything like that....:p

[Bill Wyko]

i blew close to $1000 on home depot maple lumber that i realized was mismatched in color so i wound up having to replace it... still a savings building my own kitchen cabinets compared to what kraftmaid would have charged! live and learn.
I hear ya. I built my kitchen out of Teak, bought all the tools including miter saw, table saw and many other tools, plus all the fixtures, for less than Sears wanted for just a refacing.:D

[Jim O'Dell]

Bill,

Could you give us a little time frame you're looking for.....today..yesterday....last week...last month ....this year?:D

That was my thought. Which trip to the shop?:eek: :D :D Most times I'm dumb enough to stay out there though, at least after waolking around for a while to shrug it off. (And my best President Nixon verbage) Jim.

[Lean Angle]

Just last week, I was building a lumber rack, and glued up the supports facing the wrong direction. Boy was I pissed!

It's not about being dumb, but sometimes you rush a little, sometimes you're thinking about something else. It happens....I guess :rolleyes:

[Tony De Masi]

maybe the question should be " How many times have you done something stupid in the shop? " Even at that I'm sure we all have some we remember and some we would like to forget.:p

Tony

[Al Killian]

Yep, Last week I was making a replacement drawer for a night stand I am fixing for a guy. When cutting the hb dt on the one peice, somehoe I managed to flip the peice around and had the tails(?) on the side peicefaceing different ways. One was facing in and the other facing out.:eek: :rolleyes: Now this wouldn't be to bad but when useing curly maple, it is a very costly mistake.

[Chuck Lenz]

I'm not admitting to anything, but I'm sure if you asked my wife she could tell you a tale or two about what I have done.

[Danny Thompson]

Two nights ago I was making a wall hung mail organizer with three brackets--left, middle, right--for the wide mail slot. This included angled cuts, a routered dado, and a short hand-cut dado.

When I was done, I had three brackets--left, middle, . . . left! Uggh!

I did what you did--turned, walked out, hit the lights, grabbed an adult bev, plopped down on the couch, and flipped to ESPN. Done.

[Tyler Howell]

Some days I won't even go to the shop because I know the mistake index is real hi!!

[Don Orr]

Not yet.:D (Today anyway, but I'm still at work:eek: ) Wait til I get home!:rolleyes:

[Richard M. Wolfe]

Where do you want me to start? Yesterday? Last week?

Dumbest thing I did was to take measurements for three sets of double cabinet doors at a house. They were within a couple inches in height and width. Wrote them down in my notebook and went back to the shop and made them. Didn't write down specifically xxx HIGH and xxx WIDE. You know what I did. Felt kinda stupid with the homeowner standing there looking at me when I lifted one into place to fit it. Well, a little more than kinda.

Brain just goes into neutral. Like the first post, I nailed the bottom on the top.....but this was a full size chest. Another time cut out slots for hinge pins to fit for a chest lid....on the front.

Want me to go on?

Exit screaming, cursing and yelling at the idiot that did it, knowing that......

[Al Willits]

Ever?
Well...I could start with the to long, to long, ooops, stories, but they alone would take me several hours to type up....so I'll just say I do my fair share of them...and a half dozen other people's worth too..

Al

[Nancy Laird]

Does drilling hinge holes in doors (wrong side) count??? :o How about mis-indexing the 13-pin boring machine and having shelf-pin holes 1/2" out of whack? :o :o Or lasering the same plaque twice by forgetting to hit the "next file" button? :o :o :o Yep, been there, done that!!

Nancy (121 days)

[Greg Crawford]

Does almost starting a fire in maple count? How about if it's because you installed the slot cutter upside down (backwards) on the arbor?

[Steve Kohn]

How about having the walnut panel you just cut on your table saw slip out of your hand and drop onto the still turning blade. That broke the panel, shot one corner into the fence (and punching a hole in the fence side), while the other end of the panel went thru a double glazed, low E, Marvin window.

Just ordered a new sash last weekend for $130.

[Scott Donley]

Bandsaw blade install, upside down, then spend 20 min. adjusting and not notice. Still cuts, but not very good. :o

[Nancy Laird]

Bandsaw blade install, upside down, then spend 20 min. adjusting and not notice. Still cuts, but not very good. :o

Yep, I do that regularly with the scroll saw. :o

Nancy (121 days)

[Erik Christensen]

I got a new portable saw - blade was on the opposite side than I was used to. Swapped blades one time for a higher tooth count to rough cut some ply and used the no brainer label side out install process. Fired it up - what a bad cutting blade - lots of noise, burning, slow, rough cut and as I was about to pitch that brand new, but worthless blade, I noticed the saw winding down and realized the blade was in backwards!!! Take it from me that the back side of the carbide cuts much poorer than the front.

As Homer would say - DO'H!!!!

[Bill Huber]

This is sure making me feel better, knowing I am not the only one.

But its also fun reading about all the little things that happen....:D :D

[Greg Cole]

Trying to gang cut cement board siding for the first time (first cuts in hardie cement siding too boot). I expected the siding to cut fairly slow, be noisy etc.... talking to my Dad telling him to scram as he didn't have a dust mask on as I installed the 6 tooth blade for cutting fiber cement board. And I had a pil ol pile of lap siding to cut.
About 1/2" into the cut of 2 pieces of siding ganged up I notice the blade turning a funny color as in glowing red. Ok, that blade is trash.... take out the other "spare" I bought "just in case" and talking to my Dad all the while about how this stuff is hard to cut....harder than I thought it would be.
Ok, cut one piece at a time... same funny color of glowing red about 1/2 was through this board. Ok, what the _ _ _ I say rather loudly as as soon as the last sylable hit my lips I had to laugh at my own STUPIDITY for installing 2 blades backwards! And oh yeah, hop in the truck and go buy 2 more blades. At least they're cheap, but 2 blades and 2 very incomplete cuts is something....:rolleyes:
Had to share after reading another post about a backwards blade.:D

Cheers,
Greg

[Don Bullock]

Just this week I glued some dowels in to hold a joint together. As soon as I finished applying the glue to the dowels and pounded them all the way in I remembered that I forgot to put glue in the joint. :eek: Fortunately it was an easy fix. I just drilled out the dowels, applied glue to the joint and inserted two more dowels. Boy, did I feel stupid though.:p

[Jim Kountz]

I was drilling the cup holes for some hinges on some arch top cherry cabinet doors and after carefully setting up the DP jig, getting everything aligned I drilled the holes on 4 doors. Then realized the arches were all upside down as in the holes were all on the wrong side of the doors!! Point is we have all done stuff like this, doesnt make us dumb just makes you feel that way!!

Jim

[glenn bradley]

Done something foolish?!? Made a mistake?!? Of course not! The very ideeya!

[Bill Huber]

Done something foolish?!? Made a mistake?!? Of course not! The very ideeya!


Now Glenn, watch out for lightening.....:D :D :D :D

[mike roe]

how about spending a lot of time building an edge grain butcher block counter top (milled the lumber, glued it up, sanded smooth, eased the edges) for a 46 1/2" wide counter... then trimming it to 46" even... yeah

[Norman Hitt]

Trying to gang cut cement board siding for the first time (first cuts in hardie cement siding too boot). I expected the siding to cut fairly slow, be noisy etc.... talking to my Dad telling him to scram as he didn't have a dust mask on as I installed the 6 tooth blade for cutting fiber cement board. And I had a pil ol pile of lap siding to cut.
About 1/2" into the cut of 2 pieces of siding ganged up I notice the blade turning a funny color as in glowing red. Ok, that blade is trash.... take out the other "spare" I bought "just in case" and talking to my Dad all the while about how this stuff is hard to cut....harder than I thought it would be.
Ok, cut one piece at a time... same funny color of glowing red about 1/2 was through this board. Ok, what the _ _ _ I say rather loudly as as soon as the last sylable hit my lips I had to laugh at my own STUPIDITY for installing 2 blades backwards! And oh yeah, hop in the truck and go buy 2 more blades. At least they're cheap, but 2 blades and 2 very incomplete cuts is something....:rolleyes:
Had to share after reading another post about a backwards blade.:D

Cheers,
Greg

Greg, just read MY Signature line and............well, you get the Idea.:rolleyes: :D

[Rob Luter]

I've pretty much lost count :o . The good news is there have been no repeats. You never forget something that you teach yourself.....as long as you pay attention.

[Jason White]

I've got that beat! Last weekend I'm building the back wall for my shed on the ground and I've got it all sheathed. I then stand it up and start nailing it off. Once I get a few nails into the bottom plate I realize it's not firmly attached to the deck of the floor. I then notice that there are 2 bottom plates and one top plate. There are supposed to be 2 "top" plates and one bottom plate.

DOH!!!

JW


Have you ever done something so dumb that you just turn out the lights in the shop and went in the house and watched TV?

I am making 2 jewelry boxes, both exactly alike.
Yesterday I glued the bottoms on, not a big job or anything, put the glue on, line the bottom up and clamp it, takes do brains to do it.

Got them both all done, clamped up and put them on the bench to dry.

About 2 hours later I just happened to look over at both of them setting on the bench............ what a dummy, I glued the bottom on the top of one of the boxes....

I just shut the lights off went into the house and set down and watch some TV, how dumb can you get.

Now I can save it and one box may be a little shorter then the other but how dumb can you be........?

I am sure there is no one else on the forum that has done a dumb thing like this, but if you have what was it?

[Dan McGuire]

I cut the mortise on the wrong side of a table leg about a month ago. I did just what you said. I shut down the operation went inside and stewed over it for about three days before I went back out to make a whole new leg. To make matters worse, the new leg a a visible glue line, but don't have enough lumber to do it a third time and still finish the table. I will just have to be careful how I place the table in the house.

Live and Learn, I feel your pain


Dan

[Rod Sheridan]

One of my more memorable mistakes was when I was making two Morris chairs out of quarter sawn white oak.

I had made enough arms for two chairs, they were bent arms with mortises and dadoes as well as holes for the adjusting pins all cut/bored.

I almost never use a router, however this time I decided to use it to put a tiny chamfer on the outside edges of the arms, instead of hand sanding them.

You guessed it, pilot bearing dropped into the pin hole, bit cut a big divot out of the arm and I got to make a new arm.

Boy was I put off!

A few weeks later Diann and I are out in the back yard, having a fire in the chimenaea, when Diann picks up a piece of the ruined arm, tosses it in the fire and says " I bet we have the nicest firewood on the street".

Even I had to smile............Rod.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I made a mistake once.

I thought I had made a mistake however, in fact I had not.

[Bert Johansen]

Never! Unless . . . like the time I mistakenly framed a white oak panel with red oak and couldn't figure out why they didn't look the same after I applied the finish. Or the clamp images that remain (to this day) on a pre-finished project for which I failed to use glue blocks. Or the time I was proudly showing off the horizontal mortiser on my (then) new combo machine and (when the smoke cleared) realized I had selected the jointer and the bit was running backward. Or . . . and the list goes on!

[Michael Schwartz]

I screwed up the face frames for a base cabinet when in a rush to finish it. I was cutting the rails and styles to length on the chop saw.

and well, on the last cut :rolleyes:

I was rushing, and had left the cut pecies on the infeed support, and one of them extended onto the table into the cut line the blade.

I went to make the cut, and when the blade grabbed the peice, it shot it out and it hit my wrist leaving a nice welt, and when I let go of the saw and jumped back, the peice I was cutting no longer held down kicked back and hit my stomach.

No injuries, just two ruined peices of wood, and a nice welt on my fore arm. Even worse, I didn't have enough scraps to remake the two peices that day.




I was cutting some birch plywood with my Milwaukee V28 cordless circular saw. I had installed one of those cheap HSS plywood blades, and I didn't realize that on that saw, the direction of rotation is opposite because it is left bladed. Well, I installed the blade backwards :o I made four cuts climb cutting, wondering why it was cutting so slow, and burning so much. Afterwards I was looking at the blade pondering why it was so burned up, only realizing that I had it in backwards.

So many more stories that I could write a whole book.

There is a saying, The only difference between a professional and an amature is the professional knows more ways of doing it wrong.

[Dave Trask]

I thought I made a mistake once, but as it turned out .....I was mistaken.:rolleyes:

[Dave Trask]

These ain't woodworking mistakes, but are shop mistakes...

I got in a hurry changing the oil in my riding mower this spring
and just like that ...... I picked the gas container and proceeded to
fill the oil funnel with gas! :eek:

How about pouring two quart's of oil back in my car engine before
I noticed the oil at my feet. I forgot to put the oil plug back
in the oil pan. :mad:

[Ken Shoemaker]

I've PO'ed myself in the shop so many times and left to sulk in front of the TV, SWMBO thought she'd help and bought me an 60" HDTV. :o I guess she thought she was making it better. :rolleyes: Humilliating... Once thing's for sure. If I can' do it right, I can "clearly see" how Norm And David do it!!! Ughhhhhhh!!!!:cool: Once I even thought about selling my tools and buy golf clubs, but I found that golf is "the other four letter word" and I suck at that too. Well, given enough time, I might get it... Rome wasn't built in a day either.. Good luck to you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[George Sanders]

I built an entertainment center with raised panel pocket doors out of solid red oak. When I went to install the pocket doors I found that they overlapped the opening by 1/4" on the width.:eek: I went over my math three times and never did find the error.:confused: I solved the problem by cutting 1/16" off of each side of both doors. Hey, now it's a custom cabinet!:rolleyes:

[Brian Knodel]

I’ve had my share but I’m too embarrassed to post them here … sure does my heart good to read about every body else’s blunders though.

A telephone lineman friend of mine heard this from friend that heard it from another guy, so it must be true. A large electric drill is used to drill a 5/8 hole in the pole and then the bold goes in the hole, remove the bit from the drill and replace with a 5/8 socket to tighten the nut. The nut got stuck in the socket and he put his finger in the socket and through the nut tying to remove the nut. He some how hit the switch spinning the nut onto his finger and up to his knuckle, only way to get the nut off his finger was to reverse the drill and spin it off.

Ouch … that’s going to leave a mark.

Brian

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I just shut the lights off went into the house and set down and watch some TV, how dumb can you get.

I bet you weren't watching any woodwording shows either! :)

welcome to the club,
Jeff :)

[Chris Barnett]

RIP FEED WITH DIRECTION OF ROTATION...DON'T RIP FEED........
Who....me?
Wonder why the guy who bought my house didn't ask about the hole in the garage door [the hole fits a 2x4 which didn't like being fed in the direction of rotation of a carbide tipped 7 inch, 8 cutter tip adjustable dado...my first time using radial awm saw...no experience with power tools other than electric drill. Boy...did that thing fly...thought I broke my brand new toy....the OPERATIVE word...not a toy! Maybe power tools should be sold only with hands-on classroom instruction package unless one has a chit from a friendly neightbor who amuses him/herself with wood and is willing to provide instruction ... even if fee is involved :D ] But I have survived 34 years since then....still embarassed but much more aware and careful. Still too afraid to use the molding head on RA.

[Jerry Spencer Mings]

After making a half-dozen one-up displays I figured I'd made all the mistakes possible and decided to make a "production run".....

Twenty-four left sides.

Did ya ever say to yourself "Well, I'll never make that mistake again."?

Do ya consider a project sucessful if it dosen't have blood on it?

Stopped dowell holes and/or dovetails on the wrong side/edge/piece?

Did you ever forget to bring your tools in ... and it rained?

Measure twice and cut oversize - you can always use the belt sander if it's too big.


DAHIKT (Don't Ask How I Know This)