I cannot believe I just did this

[Ryan Hovis]

working 14 days on and 1 off has really had a negative effect on my woodworking skills. as in I have almost forgotten how

for the past 3 months I have been making a small copy of David Marks' "saw the top off" black walnut and tiger maple toolbox. about 8x10x20. gives you an idea how much time I get in the shop, huh? I made the box and fit the bottom 1/2" birch plywood bottom panel in I think August, since then it has been collecting dust. in September I glued up the 1/4" tiger maple top panel, and tonight I finally got around to finishing it up. fit the top panel, assembled it with brass screws and glue, and sawed the top off. wow, that wasn't hard at all. a little scraping to remove the saw marks, installed the hinges, wow this thing is turning out really nice! I have outdone myself.

now which part of the box do you think I sawed off, the part with the 1/2" bottom or the part with the 1/4" top?

hint: anyone have any tiger maple veneer laying around?

pics shortly...

[John Schreiber]

I never make mistakes like that. Except maybe every day or so.

Just today, I'm getting ready to put the legs on my workbench and somehow I must have visualized them wrong when I was gluing them up. On two of them, the show side which I worked so hard to make look perfect, will be on the inside where no one will see them, and there will be knots and messy grain on the outside.

They will still hold the bench up just as well, but don't it just make you steam.

[Ryan Hovis]

when I built my bench I made the legs out of 4x4 oak, not much to mess up there.

I am thinking I can pop the 1/2" panel out and veneer over top of it, still doesn't fix the fact that the entire box is upside down. I don't normally make things with the sort of precision that went into this box, I worked so hard on it, it's supposed to be a gift for my dad, this project just was not meant to be.

[David DeCristoforo]

OK, lets see. You have a very shallow box with a really deep lid? No, no wait. You cut the top off, hinge that, put a false bottom in the middle section and its a writing box. Pens and stuff in the deeper top section which opens to reveal a well for paper underneath. Ok, ok, you throw the bottom away and attach a new bottom with a cool trim around the edge. Give me some time... I'll think of more. BTW, whenever you do something like this make sure you do not have a sharp tool in your hand when you smack yourself in the head.

[Wilbur Pan]

Got any maple scraps lying around? Make them into 3/16" strips, glue them to where you cut the bottom off, glue the box back together, and then brag about how you one upped David Marks by adding an inlay band to your box.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Ryan, you may have just struck on a fun new thread subject. When work keeps you out of the woodshop for too long, how do you get back in stride mentally? It's a tough one for me. Usually, I buy a new tool, and spend too much time here....

I like Wilburs fix BTW. Inlay can fix anything!

[Larry Fox]

Ryan, I do that type of thing all the time. Typically with me it is the orientation of things like John mentions above with his bench legs. I too think that Wilbur is onto something here. I also like some of David's ideas.

[Walt Stevens]

As a newbie, I've been reading a lot in this forum, but posting very little. If the Creek had a boneheaded mistakes forum, I could start contributing!! We all learn the most from our mistakes, right?

[Geoff Potter]

I was knocking together a simple bookcase for my SIL yesterday. Had one piece of ply with a deep scratch in it. I thought, I'll put this piece scratch down on the bottom. It will be hidden by the decorative bottom band. Marked "bottom" in pencil. Cut a rabbit on the edges. Went to assemble. Scratch side is up!! Luckily it will be painted.

[Ryan Hovis]

I finished the box and am giving it away to a friend as a "factory second"

[Ryan Sparreboom]

Pics? We'd still like to see it you know.

[Duncan Horner]

Yes, we'd like to see it, after all, no pics to back it up would lead us to think you'd never made that silly mistake, wait, um, nevermind. lol

[David Keller NC]

Ouch! Even those of us that have been around the woodshop for decades do stuff like that. The bad news is that it p$#ses you off just as much as when you made the first mistake way back when. My latest goof-up was reversing the tails and pins on a secretary that I'm building. The case sides are large, wide, and expensive figured mahogany boards. Fortunately for me, the 18th century aesthetic demands that all joinery be hidden by molding - so only the guy that takes it apart 150 years from now will know.

But - it seems to me that there was a reasonably easy recovery here. Why not plane off the "bottom" hinge mortises, glue the box back together, and no one's the wiser? I might not sell it to a customer, but I wouldn't throw it away either...

[Steve Milito]

How's two stupid mistakes that cancel one another.
I was building a subwoofer. I wanted to stiffen one of the panels, but a brace wouldn't work because the speaker driver was on the opposite panel. So I decided to add two 'ribs' inside the cabinet. Cut them perfect so that they were flush to the outside edge and glued them up. About an hour later it occurred to be that they needed to be 1.5" shy of the edges. I went to look, to see if I did the bozo move, and saw that I glued the ribs to the outside of the panel. Now the speaker has legs.

[Keith Christopher]

Yeah happens all the time...I made some stiles for as door I'm making and when I setup the saw for the cheek cuts on the tenons I didn't add the width of the blade to the equation....soooooo....more stiles to make.