Tip O' the day from the Village Idiot

[Rick Potter]

TIP: When making a cabinet face frame with Kreg screws, be sure and double check...twice.

I am celebrating another of my WW failures tonight.

I am making a kitchenette cabinet for the adult grand daughters cottage we built last year in the back yard. She wanted to help, so I am teaching her how to do a few things. Today I was gonna assemble the face frame. Laid it out dry and everything was hunky dory, two drawer stacks, and three cabinet doors in a single base. All perfectly square and planed/sanded to all the same thickness.

Disassembled it, got out the glue, put all but the last two pieces together glued and Kregged, when I stopped for lunch. A couple hours later, out to the shop to finish it but it looked funny. Why is that stile that is marked 'wall' on the wrong end? Hmm. Hey it's not on the wrong end, the whole face frame is built backwards!

It was the old upside down and backwards curse I have lived with all my life, coming after me again. I had pre-assembled the frame on the bench face side up, then took one piece at a time and assembled them in the same order turning them over to glue and screw.

Presto: A perfect, proud to be my best work, face frame assembled BACKWARDS.

Some teacher. I suppose I could just mount it as is, and claim all those screws on the front were planned that way. If this was for the shop, I might just do that.

[Ralph Boumenot]

I feel your pain.

[Brian Tymchak]

BTDT.

...I suppose I could just mount it as is, and claim all those screws on the front were planned that way...

Hmm, you might be starting a new look in cabinetry!!

[Jim Becker]

You actually taught her a good lesson.... ...and it's unlikely that there anyone among us who hasn't done this, too.

[Mike Kees]

I actually have never done that. Perhaps it may have something to do with never building face frames, pretty sure if I had that I would be able to come up with a whole new mistake...

[George Yetka]

If you use the kreg plugs you could put it up

the one I make most often with cabinets is mirroring both side panels with kreg thereby putting the pocketholes on the outside of one.

[Ronald Blue]

Mistake? Rest assured everyone of us has made plenty of mistakes. If you never make a mistake you aren't doing anything. Besides it's time spent with your granddaughter and creating memories. Something to laugh about. Whatever you decide to do it will be what the two of you decide.

[Keegan Shields]

Any chance it will get painted? Maybe you can convince your grand daughter all face frames are painted? Glad to hear I'm not the only one doing things like this!

[Donald G. Burns]

Some 40 odd years ago I was helping my B-in-L put paneling up in their kitchen (a rage back them) and we cut one panel for an electrical outlet from the back side only to remember that we measured from the front side. That panel went behind the refrigerator.

[Scott Clausen]

Okay I'll add my most recent one of many. I finally got a Veritas LAJ and decided to make the Paul Sellers shooting board. It was perfect for a left handed planer but I am right handed. I never thought about it until I was ready to take it on a test drive. I did get the righthanded version done a little faster though.

[Andrew More]

It was the old upside down and backwards curse I have lived with all my life, coming after me again. I had pre-assembled the frame on the bench face side up, then took one piece at a time and assembled them in the same order turning them over to glue and screw.

Done that quite a bit, I've also got clinically diagnosed dyslexia. People with dyslexia have a cognitive bias to not see left/right correctly for whatever reason. Check twice, glue once.

[Lee Schierer]

I feel you pain, after I did that a few times, I always write on the back side with chalk. So that side goes toward the fence, etc.

[Jim Braun]

Stuff happens, I was going for a rectangle not a “Z”
8F907D52-50D1-44F1-A4C6-05E5249DAF4B.jpg
After a good chuckle, I redid the tail board and finished up.
A25C6EA6-36BA-47C0-9135-249F04F19A25.jpg

[Chris Luke]

Perhaps an opportunity to learn how veneers work!

[Bill McNiel]

Any chance it will get painted? Maybe you can convince your grand daughter all face frames are painted? Glad to hear I'm not the only one doing things like this!

I would assume (we all know what that leads to) that the choice of poplar means it will be painted. I would use the Kreg plugs, Bondo, sand and paint.

Woodworking is not about doing everything perfectly, it is how we fix/mask our blunders.