I screwed up

[Brian Kent]

Good night Derek. Congratulations on your new feature.

[John Coloccia]

As my sculpture teacher said: What makes a craftsman better is the ability to cut back into a finished surface and do it all over. We've all been there.

Holy cow, ain't that the truth. Putting "stuff" back when you took away too much really ups your game.

[Eric Brown]

Perhaps Derek made this mistake on purpose just to show that we all make errors now and then. Now he gets to document the "fix" and give hope to others that all is not lost. He's showing the way to approach problems in life, to first acknowledge the problem and then to directly figure out a remedy. Perhaps the bench will take longer to build, but so what. It is more important to do it right. He is approaching the problem as a challenge. It's a good lesson.

So Derek, cut it out and do it over. Remember, to go faster - Slow Down.

Eric

[george wilson]

John,your "left handed guitar" reference reminds me of one of my journeymen going down to Hampton to see a guy who made guitars. He brought back a few bits and pieces the guy gave him. One was a perfectly nice German spruce top with the soundhole bored in the LOWER BOUT!! That was a foul up you can't correct!

Another funny foul up: The supervisor of the maintenance area was seen trying to put a dollar bill into the TIME CLOCK!! Not sure what he thought he was trying to purchase.

[Pat Barry]

I don't exactly know how far along this is, but I think the idea of a larger hole, filled with a contrasting wood plug, then re-drilled correctly is a fantastic idea. I would be interested in seeing this done by someone because that is exactly what I've been meaning to do to fix my bench dog holes which are similarly tilted the wrong direction due to my improper drilling technique. I just haven't mustered up the wherewithall to do it.

[Jim Neeley]

Hmm.. drilling out a round hole and making the plugs (with square dog holes) in a contrasting ?harder? wood???? Artistic license?

It also just *begs* for the "Can-too put a square peg in a round hole!".

[Eric McCune]

Derek,

Thanks for posting. I have been following your build and working on my own bench. You probably just saved me from making the same mistake.

I'm sure your fancy Knew saw can help save the day.

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks to all that have responded so far ... and please do not let this post stop further ideas coming. All are helpful - even if outlandish they can spur a creative moment.


Firstly, after my initial realisation of the cock up I made (something that is not unusual in my spatially challenged life), my frustration remained mainly for the precious time it would use to make the repair. Repairs do not phase me that much. I think that they are part of woodworking and life. Evaluate, plan, do. This is an opportunity to do something interesting, to be creative. I want to be reminded one day of a success, not of a failure.


It strikes me that few are willing to start again when they make mistakes. I must cut out the dog hole strip and re-make it. Perhaps there is a simple fix, and I appear determined to do it the long and hard way, but modifications as repairs are rarely satisfying. Far better to have the Real Thing.


Reshaping the dogholes is not practical. It is not just that they slope at 2 degees on both sides of the shaft, but that the head of the dog faces the wrong direction. Even if you turn this around, the support for the dog hole head is now absent. I don't want patches.


In the repair I plan the dog hole strip only gets removed as far as the last dog hole. There is no need to touch the side board or the area for the tail vise, and the latter includes leaving the dovetail well alone.


The tool of choice is a power router with a fence running along the outside edge of the bench. I have a 1/2" bit to run in a large Elu router, and plan to take very shallow cuts (although I find the Oak so easy to work after Jarrah).


The advantage of a router is that I can create a perfectly vertical, smooth and parallel set of grooves. I can work the top first, which is the show side, to a depth of 2". Then flip the top over (flip is a relative term for something that weighs 100 Kg!), and make the identical cuts on the other side. I will work short lengths once I get to the underside, clamping each section carefully to prevent any movement of the top. This is not to avoid binding, as with a saw blade, but the inadvertant routing into the sides of the dog strip, which will affect its parallelism.


The alternative is to rout the top section, as described, and then use a hand panel saw to remove the remainder of the waste, with the sidewalls now able to act as a guide for the blade. Your thoughts on this are welcomed.


I have managed to order another length of Oak. This means that there is a good chance that the repair will leave the bench top better than before! The existing dog hole strip is made up of several joined sections. Now I can replace it with one long, continuous piece. An ill wind and all that ..


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Jim Koepke]

The supervisor of the maintenance area was seen trying to put a dollar bill into the TIME CLOCK!! Not sure what he thought he was trying to purchase.

Perhaps a little bribe to get the clock to cover his tardiness?

jtk

[george wilson]

I think it was time for him to retire.

Derek: I am certain that round plugs fitted into the holes,and bored out for the dogs would probably crack under stress and look bad.

[Jim Foster]

Derek, Glad to see your tackling this challenge full force. I think there are other workable options, but they would all take away from the excellent bench you've built (almost built )

PS: I made a dog hole glue up for my Roubo, and cut the first several dog holes backwards as well, luckily my board was long enough to cut the offending dog holes off and start again. However, I decided I liked a simpler bench better for my first bench, and did not use the dog hole board in the final glue-up. I wish making the same mistakes put me at the same skill level, but I've got a good bit ahead of me to get my skills up to the level of the work I've seen coming out of your shop. Good luck with the repair.

[jeff . whitaker]

If one of the "Wood Work'n Gods" like Derek can screw up like this...then maybe there is hope for a wood butcher like me..

[Alan Schwabacher]

You can rip the dog strip off, cutting with a circular saw from both top and bottom and finishing with a handsaw if necessary. In order to reuse it, you'd need to cut far enough over that you'd leave enough wood on the far side of the dog holes to become the new edge of the bench when you turned the assembly around. The piece you cut off would need to have dog holes right down the middle. Of course, to make the benchtop the same width as before you'd need to replace the kerf and wood removed in smoothing, but it might be worth it if there isn't a problem with mortises in the bottom of the benchtop. If you do need to work around mortises in the bottom of the benchtop, I'd use a circular saw to cut down the dogstrip from top and bottom, then handsaw or split the rest off if it didn't cut through. A planer would remove the rest of the spacer blocks from the small strip, and a chisel and plane the rest on the main part of the bench.

A router sounds to me like a pretty unpleasant tool for this task. That's a lot of wood to reduce to dust by a screamer.

[John Coloccia]

John,your "left handed guitar" reference reminds me of one of my journeymen going down to Hampton to see a guy who made guitars. He brought back a few bits and pieces the guy gave him. One was a perfectly nice German spruce top with the soundhole bored in the LOWER BOUT!! That was a foul up you can't correct!

Another funny foul up: The supervisor of the maintenance area was seen trying to put a dollar bill into the TIME CLOCK!! Not sure what he thought he was trying to purchase.

Mine was nothing a bit of stress, a good band saw blade, and some additional stress, couldn't fix. Cutting a sound hole off would have been harder. LOL. Maybe some fancy Wilson style marquetry could have made it right...

You know, once again I have to mention that someone should come down there and break your fingers. I think I speak for all of us when I say I'm tired of being shown up by a 70+ year old.

Happy birthday, and many more, for all of our's sakes. You're a treasure, George.

[Tim Davis 1947]

Can't you make up for the reverse dog holes by making changes in your dogs?