While working in heaven today, I miscut a piece of wood (imagine that!!) and began to wonder if others of you made mistakes AND, if so, would you be willing to publically admit such (maybe w/ a short description).
I was once told by a poster here that no woodworkers uses wood filler so I seriously doubt that there will even be one response to this post 😉
Thanks,
dlb
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The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
Replies
If you aren't making mistakes, you probably aren't making anything.
Mistakes? Never.
On-the-fly design changes? All the time.
-Steve
dlb ,
Hey , like the Llama people say " spit happens "
How can we learn if we are not allowed to make mistakes ?
It happens , wood is a very un forgiving medium when cut too short .
Unless it is of catastrophic magnitude just move on , it is only a piece of wood . Cut the largest first until you get it right , then cut the smaller out of the rest .
" how good we are is how good we fix our mistakes "
dusty
Mistakes? Sometimes I just have to shake my head and laugh at myself.
Here's one of my latest:
After squaring up two sides on each of four 12/4" leg blanks with my trusty 608, I decided to cut them to their final dimension (2-5/8") on the table saw. So I set the fence to 2-3/8" (no, that's not a typo) and pushed the first one through. Fortunately I caught the error right away. I felt like wacking myself in the forehead with that blank :-0 Some careful rasp work saved the day.
Regards,
-Chuck
Mistakes? The only way to avoid them is not to do anything!
A couple of pearls of wisdom. My grandfather used to say: only those who never go to the flower mill do not have their cloths covered by flower.
Heard repeatedly during my training in Medical School: there is no such thing as a surgeon who never makes mistakes, the very good surgeon is the one who knows how to fix them.
John Cabot
Heard repeatedly during my training in Medical School: there is no such thing as a surgeon who never makes mistakes, the very good surgeon is the one who knows how to fix them.
John,
That's pretty scarry! I like to think of you guys as being infallible :-)
I make my share of mistakes, but don't use woodfiller. If I can't turn the mistake into a design detail I remake the part/section.
Mistakes? Well, some expensive and some not so expensive. They all served as a lesson. Self-employed and working alone, it's hard to find someone to blame when things go wrong. One of my best lessons came when examining the imprint of a 16' Stanley tape in the wall after one of the more expensive mistakes. Upon realizing I had just added the cost of a new tape to the expense, I realized I needed a better way to vent. I solved the problem by writing my City Councilman's phone number on the wall by the phone. No, that phone number didn't eliminate mistakes but it sure got my long-promised new water line installed in pretty short order.
larry
The only thing I can add to this discussion that hasn't already been stated is along the same lines as your post. Someday, I'll cut a hole in the drywall in my office, and see if the computer mouse that I threw through the wall is still functional. It'll probably need new batteries...
Ah......anger mangement
Jeff
PS The repair to the hole in the drywall is invisible...
The biggest mistake I ever made was buying cheap tools which never lived up to my expectations or demands. There is that saying that a cheap tool can be the most expensive one.
Chris @ flairwoodworks
- 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
Experience is what you are left with when you have fixed a mistake properly i.e so there is no evidence of the confoculation remaining for someone else to see.....
If you can make a mistake , then fix it in such a way that the end result is better than the original plan, then that is good experience.
But if you repeat the same mistake, or make another version of the original mistake, that is Very Bad Experience. Ditto for what results from making a mistake when fixing the original mistake.
philip,
"But if you repeat the same mistake, or make another version of the original mistake, that is Very Bad Experience."
Just the other day, I was cutting a replacement shelf to length for a repair job. Went to the cabinet, took an inside measurement with the tape, added the two inches taken up by the tape case, walked over to the saw, and proceded to cut the shelf two inches TOO SHORT! The image of that number on the tape was just too firmly imprinted in my mind (??) for me to ignore. Doh! That is one mistake I wish I have only made once. Unfortunately,it has been repeated numerous times, along with holding the tape/rule to the 1" mark to get an accurate reading, and immediately forgetting to subtract the inch from the final measurement. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!! One of my friends used to have a sign in his shop, with large 1' high letters "SUBTRACT THE INCH!!"
One reason I heat with wood.
Ray
You can get rulers where the 0 point is a little ways from the end; you'd think that someone would have the bright idea of making a tape measure the same way. They'd have to color the tape bright pink or something, so that you wouldn't get it mixed up with your normal tape.
They could do the same thing with a tape marked for inside measurements--that one would be bright lime green. Come to think of it, you could combine the two:View Image
-Steve (off to do a patent search...)
steve,
Great idea! Another gadget for LV to put in the catalog. Can you make it out of rosewood and brass? And dual digital readout, will eliminate the need for two tapes. Rechargeable batteries, with flashlight, laser measuring-point indicator, detail sander, and ooh! a mini dustbuster built in to suck the dust and cobwebs outa those dark corners...
I think I should just tie a piece of string around my finger. Can use it to transfer length, and as a reminder to add those two inches ;-)
Ray
Love it Ray
Got so mad today cutting crown molding on a room that doesn't have a square corner. Cut 2 pieces to length and they came up short.
yelled at my wife and I'm on the computer tonight.
Mistakes?? that's a nice thing to call them.
later
d
My grandpa said, "The mark of a good craftsman is one who can cover his own tracks." An old guy in a boat shop I worked in said, when he or another made a mistake, "Good thing the trees are still growing." George said that to me more than once. It's like riding a motorcycle: it's not if you go down, it's when. The only way you won't make a mistake in the shop is to stay out of it - stay in bed.
Gary W
gwwoodworking.com
Edited 1/3/2008 1:41 am by GaryW
I don't make mistakes, I lessen the learning curve.
Simon
From my teacher and friend, Hans Frey (a German Meister Schreiner) - "The mark of a master is not how perfectly you build something, but how good you cover the mistakes."
dlb,
i neber mak mistooks.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Mel,
I cut some really loose dovetails once on a drawer. The customer (wife) said, "What kinda dovetails are those!?"
I told her, "They're summertails! They'll close up in the summer so your drawers won't stick! In winter they'll be adjustable!"
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Bob,
Your only mistake is living in a place where it only gets up to 40 degrees in the summer. :-)
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
Mel,
That brings up another less known facet with regard to mistakes. It's all my wifes fault! Blame the mistake on someone else! Just make sure they're not around to defend themselves.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 1/3/2008 9:26 am ET by KiddervilleAcres
Now Bob, that sounds like a 'government' mentality! Shame on you!! :)
dlb
.The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
Oh my I can't resist! It's because I've been hanging around with that Mel dude!
Regards,
P.S. See how easy it is...............Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Being a do anything person and working in a school one evening, I wired electric water heaters in to the nearest power supply and checked everything before going home. Next day had a call to say they did not work. Went back that evening and checked, all working.
It took me two days to realise I had wired into the circuit supplying night store heating controlled by a time switch! Doh.
neder dooo eye!The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
I have gotten so good at covering up my table saws mistakes , Its just figured in.
pounding a thin piece of wood for compression then glueing , sticking it into the miter or dovetail will be almost invisible
Have you ever tried doing something abstract? I've been power carving abstract sculptures for years and never made a mistake. And nobody can argue!
Chris @ flairwoodworks
- 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
I know you were joking, but for what it's worth, abstract art, just like any other, is subject to the unrelenting judgments of quality. For example, you might have something good going in the midst of the creative process - and that can be ruined as you proceed. I think most folks would call this a mistake.
I've got so many mistakes in my collection I don't know where to start. So here's a small insight from a different domain altogether:
A good friend of mine is a professional bluegrass banjo player. I asked him once what he does when he makes a mistake during a performance, and he gave me the secret. He REPEATS the mistake a second time, and SMILES while doing it!
best,
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
to wonder if others of you made mistakes..
I for one never make mistakes. I only make huge blunders!
A mistake I could live with. Whenever I make a mistake I realize that I am not paying attention and leave the shop. I try better the next day and hope I can salvage something. Oh, and yes I have used wood filler, sparingly!
Oh, and yes I have used wood filler, sparingly!
I have been told that you still use the same tube of filler that you purchased 8 years ago! I think that you are going to set a record!;)The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
I have been told that you still use the same tube of filler that you purchased 8 years ago!I have several tubes that old and some older.. If it still comes out of the can or tube I figgure it is useable! :>)
Great thread. I'm getting a lot of chuckles out of the responses. My own spin on the cliche: I don't make mistakes, but periodically I have to pay tuition for learning not to do something.
I'm diggin the "if you're not making mistakes, you're not making anything". I'm keepin that one in the old brain bucket.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
My favorite is,
"Those who never made mistakes never made anything."
I don't know who said it but I walk in his shoes every now and then.
dlb
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The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
dlb,
Here is a post of a thread that I started after I made a major mistake. The post shows the mistake and the fix that I had for it.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=fw-knots&msg=7209.1&search=y
Enjoy,
Eric"When it comes time to die, make sure all you have to do is die." -Jim Elliot
Thanks for the post. I think I would have died (almost) if I made that mistake. But, if you have read this thread, you see that a good woodworker knows how to correct mistakes. By looking at your photos I would say that you have passed the 'good woodworker' stage and are headed for greater things.
Thanks,
dlb
Pv 22:29
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The undisciplined life is not worth examining.
SIR! I will have you know that you will not see mis-cuts in my shop as I store them in a Voglegang -Sentry cast iron file cabinet with a very good 6" vent system to control the humidity. Paddy.
"I rarely make mistakes and am never wrong!"
This was a comment from my first boss after I graduated and was working as a COBOL computer programmer.
He was a great guy and could say that with a straight face.
Hmmmmmmm, Mistakes,mistakes,mistakes ohhhhhh, yea-yea There not known as mistakes around here , Their known as "FREAKEN HAPPY ACCIDENTS"
Believe me we have far more than our fair share of them. Sometimes I wonder when I know I'm thinking one thing but then when I look at the project I'm working on and i've messed something up I wonder to myself,exactly what wire got crossed to cause me to make that stupid screw up.
Good Luck,
and lets hope we all can keep the happy accidents to a minimum.
Sincerely,
Jim at Clark Customs
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