How to fix this goof?

[Paul Richard]

Oops, I mean upper left.

[Andy Giddings]

Paul, looks from the main picture as if something is out of square as you have an angled gap bottom left and top right? The other two joints look reasonably tight

[Jeff Leimberger]

I would plow the groove a little deeper and cut the rails again (actually, I would shoot the end of the rails).
Yes, it sounds like you are starting over, but it would be correct.

[Justin Ludwig]

Do you have a miter saw? Lower your blade, butt the piece against the saw blade and raise and cut. It will shave the piece back to square. Put a sacrificial board under and behind it so you get no tear out. And don't freehand sand end-grain pieces that are part of a joint.

[NICK BARBOZA]

Paul

5. why would you sand the end of the stile??? if tooling is set up close to accurate (even if off a little), a saw cut end from the table saw or miter saw should be ready for glue up (or at least that's how i'd approach it). It sounds like you may be doing extra work in sanding areas like this...

Cheers,
NWB

[Paul Richard]

Paul

5. why would you sand the end of the stile??? if tooling is set up close to accurate (even if off a little), a saw cut end from the table saw or miter saw should be ready for glue up (or at least that's how i'd approach it). It sounds like you may be doing extra work in sanding areas like this...

Cheers,
NWB

It's a good question. It was a stupid thing to do with a ROS. There was some glue residue, but I probably could have cleaned that with just a few swipes by hand.

[Paul Richard]

I'm going to try to trim the ends of the rails, ever so slightly and see how that works.

Thanks for everyone's help and feedback!

Someday I'll learn how to avoid having to do all of these reworks....someday.

[Richard Hash]

You could always plow over with a straight bit on a router and stick in strips of walnut and call it a design feature....

[Todd Burch]

Glue a fat piece on the stile where you sanded it too far down and recut it to size. With a tight fit, you'll never see it.

[lowell holmes]

Or, sand the stile to make the mismatch disappear.

Just a thought. . . .

[Floyd Mah]

Jeff L. has the answer: shoot the end of the un-square end to make it square. Try the fit without the dowel, it might be that your dowel holes are not angled properly, causing your joint not to come together at right angles. If the dowel is the problem, you might need to shave the dowel or alter the dowel hole. Maybe just shortening the dowel is sufficient, since your frame doesn't need a lot of strength. (If the dowel is a problem, just cut off enough to allow the adjustment and drop the offcut into the hole so that your remainder dowel doesn't fall into the hole during glue-up).

It looks like your frame can tolerate some adjustments like shortening the lower rail, so as to minimize the effects of trimming of the upper rail, if that is the problem.

[Eric Commarato]

I've used edge banding veneer, you can scrape the heat activated glue off the back and slide it in with some Titebond on each side.

[Ray Newman]

Floyd Mah: has it -- both rails must be the same length and 90 degrees.!

[Floyd Mah]

I just wanted to add that there is a simple way to square your stock if you have a table saw. Make a sled. Doesn't have to be fancy, but it would make it a snap to square off ends and, with a stop block, allowing you to easily cut pieces that are identical in length. It's a tool that is indispensable for handling smaller pieces of wood on a table saw. (Be sure to make it with a blade guard on the exit side...I see too many on youtube that aren't safe.)