You ever have one of those projects

[Keith Christopher]

Where you mill everything, cut your mortises and tenons, shape, rout, detail, put on some nice beads, some chamfers. The sweeping arch top is a nice gentle arc. The you dry fit everything is on, glue up then it dries. and you notice something is amiss. you measure up and well... it's not square. *sigh* it's times like these I wonder just how good I am at this.

[Jim Fancher]

Pretty much every project I try.

[John Miliunas]

Uhhhhhh, Keith, don't feel like the Lone Ranger! Been there, done that and will most probably go there again! BUT, with less frequency.

[Dave Shaffer]

Dont feel bad. My wife says all my tables are want-a-be rocking chairs.

[Gary Max]

The funny is just about no one else will ever see that it is out of square. Plus that is one of the things that make it --HANDMADE. If it was mass produced in a factory it would be square---and boring---and lighter. I like to think of it as personality.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

That's about the time the neighbors notice the blue smoke coming out of my shop.......my wife comes up and says "Kenny...you shouldn't talk like that, the grandkids might hear you"......I reply.."None of them are here right now....one grandkid lives in Clarkston, Wa about 4 miles away....some of them live in Goldendale Wa about 220 miles away and one of the lives in Portland Or about 300 miles away!" and she says...."I don't care they might hear you!" Roll with it Baby! Welcome to the human society! As stated by John M. Hopefully we won't make those mistakes as OFTEN in the future! We all do it.

[Tyler Howell]

Dont feel bad. My wife says all my tables are want-a-be rocking chairs.

ROTFLMAO good one Dave! I like you wife.
Keith
That's called built-in character!

[Michael Stafford]

The one thing I can tell you about woodworking is that you will know everything that is wrong with your last project. Virtually no one else will and those that do and say something about it are not your friends. Most of us are in the same boat and the last time I checked it was an ocean liner...

[Jim Becker]

Never!!! BTW, I have this bridge...

[Donnie Raines]

Thats the problem with making square projects...they need to be square....making them with some "personality" means square is not important.....

at least I keep telling myself that.....

[Keith Christopher]

Well I've been up since 7am and taking this thing apart as gentle a possible. (oh and besides allowing for wood movement floating panels come apart easily ) I had to trash er- make some new sacrificial fences and stop blocks- a couple of pieces and make them again. But I'm within 1/16 square now. so off to glue up.

I think I know why things being dead-on square is so important to me. I'm too much of a perfectionist. and then, I see guys like david marks and norm put this stuff together and I think man they get it dead on the first time. Now mind you I have been doing this since I was a kid and more seriously for income for the last 5 years and I know you NEVER get dead on first time you have to trim and pare to fit. But man I want to be like on TV , one cut dead on, from saw to glue up. ok time to wake up now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

[Steve Jenkins]

Keith just do like they do on tv. cut however many it takes to get one deadon and then only remember ( show) the one that worked. Selective memory works just as good as editing. Steve

[Jack Hogoboom]

I believe I captured this in my Murphy's Law posting: everything is always square until the glue dries.


This too shall pass.

Jack

[Don Abele]

Keith, I really agree with Steve. You only see what they want you to see on TV. I hope this isn't blasphemy , but I'm sure that Norm does make mistakes too. They just don't let us see them. Think about it - his show is 30 minutes long and usually shows him working over a 2 days period. That's a lot of time not seen. I don't think I've ever seen him change a blade, insert a dado (and then make a dozen cuts to get it to the right thickness). Nope...go from cutting the stock to length to "POW" plowing perfecting sized (and spaced) dados. Wish I could get my tablesaw to do that.

Anyway, we are all hard on ourselves when it comes to imperfection in our work. But as others have said, it's usually only us that sees them.

Keep making sawdust, and I'm sure (like me and others) you will also keep making mistakes (just try to keep their frequency down).

Be sure to show some pics of the project that caused all this.

Be well,

Doc

[Jim Becker]

but I'm sure that Norm does make mistakes too. They just don't let us see them.

Norm has readily admitted that "things happen", particularly when developing the prototypes for a project.