Do you live with mistakes or redo

["Gary Smith"]

It's been awhile since I've been in the shop but I started a Sideboard last week and while putting a decorative cove on the legs, I turned my stop board cross ways and made two sides of the one leg with a longer cove design. The legs are tapered and the one that I made (2") longer is a rear leg. So I have three legs that are the same design and one of the rear legs with the design running past where the taper starts.
Anyway my first thought was to redo the leg to match the others, then I realized that unless your were laying on the floor or standing on your head no one would likely notice it. You really would need to be looking for flaws before you would ever see it.
So I was just wondering if others routinely do such things and allow flaws or would you take the time to glue up, taper and attempt to match the cove design to the other legs.

[Carroll Courtney]

For me,with little suttle mistakes like the one you made I would live with it.Those type of mistakes make the piece one of a kind even if it is one of a kind.---Carroll

[Dennis Ford]

The best answer I can give is YES. Mistakes are a fact of life, some should be fixed, some have to be fixed, let the rest be. It is often a struggle to decide which pieces to redo, considering the effort involved and the possibility that the repair will look like a repair and the original mistake would go unnoticed.

[keith ouellette]

For me I correct mistakes because I don't have a lot of experience and its a learning process for me.

Believe it or not , If (or when) I have a lot of experience and have successfully made many different things I probably wouldn't bother if it wasn't something a person couldn't readily see, but for now I try hard to get as close to perfect as I can.

I know what you mean about a mistake people can't see in normal use. When we moved into this house I had to redo the bathroom from the studs out. When it came to the tub we could have replaced it with a plain jane model that was perfect or I could have bought this fancy looking heated whirlpool jacuzi for the same money. The jacuzzi had a crack in the outside and my wife turned her nose up at it and immediately started looking at new jacuzzi tubs. I told her good luck paying for it and explained that no one would see the crack. I was right. Unless your cleaning the floor in between the tub and the toilet you just can't see it and the tub does wonders for a soar back.

[Jack Camillo]

For me, mistakes are an opportunity to redesign. For the most part, only if the mistake is crippling, will I redo. That's because all my pieces are one of a kind - no one is dictating what the final product must look like. That would be too much like a job.

[Gary Gleave]

I seldom leave mistakes alone with out fixing them. If I do leave them, it seems to be all I look at, and I get no enjoyment or satisfaction from the piece.
I do get satisfaction from figuring out how to repair or rebuild though.

[Michael Schwartz]

It really all depends on weather or not the mistake can be successfully repaired or covered up, and how it affects the fit, form, function of the piece.

Your going to make mistakes, it is inevitable, and dealing with them is a part of woodworking. Otherwise if you try to make things to Nasa tolerances your projects will be billions over budget and you would only get something done every few decades.

[Bill Arnold]

Whenever practical, I plan for errors by milling a little extra material from the same boards so it can be used to remedy errors. As an example, milling a fifth leg to the same rough dimensions as the first four. If I don't need it, I'll use it for something else eventually. It's like buying insurance when you hope you never need it.

For the situation you describe, I would have repaired the leg or made another one. Although the error might be visible only in rare circumstances, I would know its severity.

Not having seen the error in question, I can't say what I might have done. It could require anything from a patch inserted to allow redoing the portion of the cove beyond the taper to complete replacement. A four-side taper gives one more options than a two-side taper, also.

[glenn bradley]

I am at the stage where I try to do something different on each new piece to enhance my skillset. Since I am learning, I make mistakes. I have gotten a bit better at the timely identification of ones that are "OK", can be "fixed" or fall under "stop wasting time and just make a new part". I have no firm answer but, on things that show or will haunt my dreams till the day I die; I make a new part.

[Jacob Mac]

I am at the stage where I try to do something different on each new piece to enhance my skillset. Since I am learning, I make mistakes. I have gotten a bit better at the timely identification of ones that are "OK", can be "fixed" or fall under "stop wasting time and just make a new part". I have no firm answer but, on things that show or will haunt my dreams till the day I die; I make a new part.

I'm the same way. But for some projects, I can live with a lot of imperfection. For instance, my work bench is a comedy of errors. I made a lot of mistakes. But, it is functional, and does everything I need it to. And since I am the only one looking at it, I decided to live with sloppy mortises, and... a lot of other mistakes.

If I am building something for my wife, it has to be as close to perfect as possible. So, I will toss a lot of parts aside. In the end, I guess I want perfection if it is going to someone I love. If it is just for my utility, I can live with a lot less than perfect.

[Fred Belknap]

Sometimes......

[David DeCristoforo]

Mistakes? What are those? Are you referring to "impromptu design elements"? Or "spontaneous deviations from the original plan"? Or "unintentional brilliant epiphanous moments"?

[Jack Camillo]

Mistakes? What are those? Are you referring to "impromptu design elements"? Or "spontaneous deviations from the original plan"? Or "unintentional brilliant epiphanous moments"?

+1, that's what I meant

[Dennis McGarry]

Me? I usually try to fix it if it is highly visible, within reason.

Now in your case, what I would do is turn a second leg to match the "mistake" leg. The mounted them corner to corner, giving the piece a little call it "signature" flare that one would have to look for to find.

[Art Mulder]

Several years ago I remember seeing a magazine cover -- perhaps American Woodworker -- featuring Andy Rooney, with a table he had made, that clearly had mismatched turned legs. When asked about this he reported that he did it that way on purpose. He said something along the lines of not being that interested in making 4 identical legs.

I also try to live by maxim that a that the mark of a woodworker is not that he or she necessarily makes fewer mistakes, but that they make those mistakes look like they were supposed to be there all along.

(but yeah, sometimes I just toss and redo it... )

...art