Maybe not the worst, but the most recent. Just last night I got lesson on building musical instruments. I tried building a xylophone from store bought bars for my daughter’s first birthday (today) I modified their design so it would have wheels and I could carve her name on the side. My design depended on the screws that hold the bars down to also hold the top of the piece together. Much to my dismay, the screws have to be quite loose in order to let them ring. I am now struggling to modify the design in time for tonight’s party.
Two lessons learned – one in musical instruments – the second in procrastination (I have already been taught this one many times over, but I have yet to learn it.)
Replies
Just stop messing about and make a start on her hope chest.
maybe this isn't so bad. at the end of a three day kitchen installation i gathered all of my tools together. couldn't find may favorite hammer anywhere. all the while i searched for it i had this nagging sense that i knew exactly where it was. i had left it in the 3" toe-kick at the bottom of the 10' base cabinet. its a drag to have to "un-install" a kitchen cabinet just to retrieve one's hammer.
eef
Nice!
It one thing to sign your work but you have taken it to a new level.
:-)
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
bob,
i really like the hammer. since the aforementioned incident,i look twice into the toe kick before buttoning things down.
eef
Upon building a house some forty five years ago, I accidently dropped a new Vice Grip in the cavity of the top course of blocks. A little store worn, but a nice new Vice Grip lying on the footing for someone venturous soul to retrieve it.
tink,
who knows when that will be retrieved. once when demo-ing a vintage 1904 house, i found the wrapper off of a hershey bar from that time period. i also once worked for a guy that would leave cryptic notes inside of the walls we built so that others at some future date might discover them.
eef
I've only made a mistake once and that was when I thought I made a mistake. ;-)
I've only made a mistake once and that was when I thought I made a mistake.......
You too, huh?
Denny
Denny, it's tough being us, huh?
it's tough being us, huh? ..........
Oh, the humanity.
Denny
I see where you are coming from.
As an engineer, I have NEVER made a mistake.
I have, however, made PLENTY of "revisions"...
`~<;^-+<
Mine was expecting that people would actually pay for "handcrafted" vs made in China. Hence the WAlMart pricing mentality............why should I buy from you when I can get one at WalMart at 1/10th the price"
Wicked Decent Woodworks
(oldest woodworking shop in NH)
Rochester NH
" If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"
John,
You say: why should I buy from you when I can get one at WalMart at 1/10th the price
I think the simple answers to this question are, you shouldn't if:
You are looking for handcrafted quality not cheap junk. You want a piece that will withstand the test of time. You aren't looking for something that you will need to replace soon. Here's a good one: you aren't green, i.e. you like putting your broken pieces out for trash pickup destined for the landfill!
My take on this whole Wal-Mart/Chinese mentallity is they are not the competition. If you think that they are then I feel you may be marketing to the wrong folks. In other words, set yourself apart from the also rans. Put a sign on your establishment that says, "If you're looking for Wal Mart they're just down the road. If you're looking for quality then step right in."
Oh yeah, and another reason why someone shouldn't buy your pieces is that if they want a piece just like thousands, perhaps millions of other folks, then they should buy from Wal-Mart, Cracker Barrel, et al.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Winemane,
Sounds like an eductaion these days. Have you seen the cost of tuition? A half-year course at Inside Passage is 15 grand.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
That means we don't know anything!! As they say, "ignorance is bliss".
It's actually hard to pick just one, but hey...
I once made a very elaborate entertainment center for a client. Solid oak. At the center of the unit the large screen TV was hidden behind 2 pocket doors. Don't know how it happened, but when I installed the unit, the TV wouldn't fit...it was only about 1" too wide for the opening, but an inch is as good as a mile in this case. The implications of widening the opening were staggering. Bottom line - after some deliberation I offered to buy them a new TV which would fit the opening. I actually got away cheap with that one.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
My worst nightmare was similar to yours. It was a cherry cabinet made to accommodate specific stereo components. The main cabinet was complicated and I was fitting a drawer when I realized I'd made things too small. I remember sinking to my knees with disbelief and grief. After gathering my strength, I decided to visit the electronic supplier again and remeasure the components. Turned out with just some minor tweaking (I sort of remember insetting the drawer slides into the sides to gain a little room), everything would fit. I just squeeked by on that one. I always check measurements triple now.
Well then, here's another experience I won't easily forget:Made kitchen cabinets for a 3rd floor apartment on a busy street in Tel Aviv. I always measure not just the intended wall spaces, but I check the passages into the room. A hired truck delivered the cabinets at the sidewalk in front of the building, and all goes well until I realize that one corner cabinet won't go through the front door of the building. Sure, I measured the apartment to perfection, but it didn't occur to me that I might not get through the main door. Now I've got a cabinet sitting on the sidewalk and no way to return it to the shop even if I wanted to.Desperate measures! I sent my helper to buy a winch and some rope. The 3rd floor apartment had a large window that overlooked the street. I set a very large anchor into the ceiling of the apartment, hung the winch, and we started pulling the cabinet up the outside of the building. It was really precarious, and all the while people are walking along the sidewalk underneath, as if nothing could possibly go wrong. At one point I lean out the window to yell at them, and we almost lost the cabinet because it was a toss-up who weighed more - my skinny helper holding the rope or the cabinet on the other end. Well, we finally got it in the window with only some minor bumps and scratches...Nowadays, I not only measure twice, I walk through the entire route of an installation.regards,David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
We must live parallel lives. Another of my not so great days was when we delivered a wall unit and found that we couldn't make the turn from the hall into the room. Fortunately this was a ground floor but it was wintertime, lots of snow. We removed a window and got the cabinet in that way. This was quirky enough for me, I don't envy your experience.
Then there was the time I had a router bit slip down and it ruined a drawer front. Got so mad and frustrated that I chucked the router onto the floor. Then I had to fix the router also. This was for an early job.... 26 years ago, maybe? To this day whenever something goes awry with a hand held machine tool, I recall that incident and DO NOT throw it onto the floor.
I don’t have any good “mess up” stories of my own because as a rookie I produce firewood all the time. However, a master craftsman who I take classes from when ever I can has lots of entertaining stories. One I have heard a couple of times is about a large conference table he made for a company and when he went to deliver it he couldn’t get it around bends in the hall way to get it into the conference room. He ended up making another table that could be moved in sections. His point to us students is to make a full sized cardboard mockup and use it to be sure the real thing will make all the bends it needs to. Seems like a good idea if it is going to be a tight fit.
hey ring,
did something similar. showed up at the job site with three cabinets 30" deep, 35"wide 95.5" tall. of course i was by myself,as usual. they would not fit through the front door. i had to lie down for a while at this rude shock. knees wobbling, i tried again. still to no avail. i walked all around the house looking for another point of entry. the double-hung bedroom windows of where these cabinet needed to go was big enough. spent a scary hour taking out the window and hoping my client wouldn't show up. got all three through the opening, re-installed the window and proceeded to get on with the cabinet installation. i will never forget to include pythagoris in my cabinet planning again. 30"deep and 95.5" tall will not stand up in a room that has an 8' ceiling. i had to cut all three in half and then stand them up as six 15" cabinets.
all told it was somewhat a rough day.
eef
All this talk of tools and things left behind.
I had some work done in the attic space above my shop 3-4 yrs. ago. After the attic hatch was shut, the contractor left and all was well. Next day I get a phone call saying he forgot his "expensive,new" caulking gun up there hanging from a rafter.
Expensive, but not worth his while to come back to get it out.
It's still there :)
I poke through the attic hatch every so often to check on things and it's hanging at the far end. There is no way I'm going to crawl around up there to retrieve it, phobia related.
It should be an interesting find for someone decades from now :)
Norman
norman.
you reminded me of yet another story. about ten years ago, a friend of mine had a sister who bought a turn of the (last) century house. the same family had owned the house since it was erected. when my friend's sister needed to enter the attic, she discovered it to be full of late nineteenth century furniture, artifacts,books and papers. she now owns all of this stuff as the previous owner is no more and left no forwarding info.
eef
Last century? Would that be the nineteenth or the twentieth century.
tink,
the house was built early in the last century and furnished from the nineteenth century. what a find,huh?
eef
If it were appraised, it might make him richer than he realized. Can't say that I would want the stuff though. I got too much junk around here now.
good thinking!
OH........man!!!!! late 80's, pre-mobile phones, large entertainment center many pieces into Yorktown (upper eastside), New York City, delivered for installation. The scene......rushing, elevators, truck double parked.....ooy!!!!
Begain assembly, in between 2 piers, a 1/2" mdf black lacquer backpanel ...MISSING!!! Installation stops!!!!
So right away.....must have left it on the truck "$##$&@!@"......... 2 guys wages; delivery fee, electronics guy scheduled, the Int Dec show now on hold and we have to come back.....nothing worse that leaving an installation 1/2 done with a frustrated ID.
That night, make some calls, no back panel in truck...........turns out before completely unloading the elevator, back panel begins an up and down elevator journey until the Super after seeing it too many times takes it off the elevator so it didn't get damaged. I don't find this out until super puts back-panel and the days deliveries together and contacts my customer. Next day we finished up, but simply........a Fiasco!!!!!
My video blog.........up a level
http://furnitology.blogspot.com/index.html]
Wineman, that's why I never larned nuthin.
Denny
Not a huge failure. but most recently when remodeling my own kitchen I didn't order enough veneer to do all the cabinets. Now I have one half of my kitchen in one shade of maple and the other half in another lighter shade.
Only the very latest in a very long history of mistakes:
I got a commission from an architect a few months ago to build a small, six drawer walnut chest of drawers. Over the past couple of years I've made a bed, two nightstands, and a couple of other small things for his vacation house.
In order to keep the drawer spacing even, I made a story pole that correctly set out the drawer dividers; four 7.25 inch drawers below, two 4.75 inch drawers on top. Simple.
After joining up and surfacing the side panels and top, dadoing and then dovetailing for the drawer dividers, I did the final sanding on the carcase and set about to start cutting the drawer stock.
Just to make sure I had everything right, I measured the drawer openings and found one of them 7 1/8 and one 7 3/8. How one can mess this up using an accurate story pole is quite beyond me, but I sure did it.
Because my client is an architect and, presumably, would notice the discrepancy, I had to start all over building a new carcase. It put me days (and dollars for the lumber) behind. The good thing is that my wife is getting a nice little walnut chest this summer - with "special" sized drawers!
ZoltonIf you see a possum running around in here, kill it. It's not a pet. - Jackie Moon
Wine,
First one that comes to mind was the time I gave an estimate for a partner's desk, by figuring only one half of it, the side with a stack of drawers on either side of the kneehole. I built the other "partner's" side, the one with cupboard space and doors below a row of drawers, for free. You might say, the knowledge thus gained is priceless, as in, nobody got paid for it. :(
Ray
I once cut the miter the wrong way on a walnut goose neck molding. It is amazing how fast one can (re) carve such a molding when they have to. I still can't see how I made that dumb mistake.
I also dropped a paint roller on the top of a linen press, making a good size dent. This is where I learned of the virtues of padding lacquer.
The other disaster I had (which wasn't my fault), was a lock failing on a Thomas Jefferson lap desk, a few days before it was to be sent. The lock wouldn't open, so the drawer had to be busted out and a new one made. Here again, it is amazing how fast you cam make a drawer when you have to.
Rob Millard
http://www.americanfederalperiod.com
Your post brought back a memory when I worked for a telephone company back in the 70’s
The boss sent out two of the new guys to remove a phone system from a company down in the city. He handed them an ax and told them to chop through the cables and then just roll the unit out and bring it back to the shop. About mid day the boss realized that he gave the guys the wrong address. :>
The same boss told one of the other guys to take some equipment to a customers location. Well it wouldn’t fit in the van so the boss told him to strap it on the top of the van He then told me to follow him to make sure everything was Okay. With all that weight on top of the van it wobbled like a weeble and it came close to falling down a number of times.
Ha, i've got one at least as bad as that. When my wife started her business we had another phone line put in. The plan was to replace the existing 2 pair wire with a 4 pair wire, requiring that a new hole be drilled. Our phone line entered the house right below the electric meter. The installer drilled the required hole. I had a late night the previous evening so was still in bed at 8:00 when the work began. All of a sudden my wife comes rushing into the room, shaking me out of my slumber, all worried because the installer said we had a fire inside the wall space. I jumped up and ran downstairs. The fire was out and so was our electricity. The installer never bothered to check the backside of the rim joist he was drilling through. He drilled right through our service entrance cable -- 200 amps. He got both hot legs and the ground. I got a new panel out of the deal plus $500 left over from the insurance claim.
To make this even more bizzare, 2 years later my mother's family had a reunion. My mother got her days mixed up and we went the wrong day. No big deal, we visited with her cousin for a while. About a half hour later the cousin's son-in-law shows ups -- he works for Verizon -- yep, the same clown that smoked my service cable. I just acted like I didn't recognize him (but he sure recognized me -- shoulda seen the look on his face).
Edited 6/3/2008 9:58 pm ET by pzaxtl
I'm still working on mine. I'm sure it's coming.
So far I've been going with what my godfather said "You don't know how good you are until you fix a mistake."
I've fixed a lot of mistakes.
Len
"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time. " J. S. Knox
Are you sure it is a xylophone? When I think of a xylophone, I think of an all metal instrument - not to heavy, and can be easily carried by a member of a marching band. I found one once but it was missing so many pieces that I eventually hauled it to the trash.
My biggest woodworking failure was a mohagany queen sized bed as a gift for my mother. When all was said and done, I just didn't like my design. The headboard was too one demensional, too 'designed', too thin. I'm remodeling the bathroom adjacent and I just kind of have a sinking feeling every time I look at it. The bed has a lot of good features, but I didn't pull off my vision. It just looks like I tried too hard. I'd take a rail cut short any day.
Brian
"What would you have done if it were a 52” plasma HDTV?"
I don't know. The entertainment unit was priced at around $10,000, and widening the opening would have literally meant making a whole new unit. It would have been a tough call.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Ten years of WW no major mistakes just a lot of bad joinery!
Still got all 9 I mean ten fingers although had a few learning experiences!
Chaim
Make your own mistakes not someone elses, this is a good way to be original !
Okay it’s time to come clean, what is your biggest woodworking failure to date?
I tried to carve some shells? for a Queen Ann project.. I ended up buying some and glued them on! LOL.. Big mistake... me and carving!
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled