Breadboard rescue - bead or fill?

[DrDarren]

So, first breadboard (maple capping American cherry) is not a flush fit. Thought the drawbores would sort it but no.
should I try and make a bead or fill and if the latter with what. I thought maybe contrasting hard wax (konig cherry?)
Any thoughts appreciated. Should mention I’m handtools user. No power except drill and sanders.

 

[RichardG]

I would fill with a contrasting resin or milliput black although you may need to widen the groove to make it look like a feature rather than filling a crack…

 

[Jacob]

Start again but work out why it went wrong.
First glance says draw bored the wrong way - have you pushed them apart instead of drawing them together?

 

[harryc]

Start again.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

As a regular maker of awful mortices, I certainly know how you are feeling. Is the tenon too long for the mortice? No amount of bashing will get it snug if that is the case, I have discovered. Or are the shoulders of your tenon not equal - does the other side look the same, in other words. The real question is whether they will come apart again without catastrophe.

I'm thinking it has a certain rustic charm, and you could claim it is an heirloom. You could also claim it is to allow for movement of the wood and is a design feature. Either way it is going to fill up with bits of detritus, so probably shouldn't be there. You seem to have lots of room to cut the ends off and have another go to make a slightly shorter second attempt, so that would be my recommendation.

 

[thetyreman]

I would leave it as is, learn from it, it's not the end of the world, next time do it better and work out how to prevent it, you're better off cutting more joints that are not right than 10 perfect ones, it still functions and that's what matters.

 

[DrDarren]

Thank you all for considered replies.

 

[Stevekane]

I had to join several bits of natural edge timber at odd angles to make up a counter top, I only have a home made sawbench (an upside down circlar saw in an old workmate frame) so the cuts alone were not really good enough for jointing, but we have what we have so it was glued with biscuits and then I ran the router along the joint and tapped in a thin contrasting infill which was also cut on the saw fractionally oversized and sanded to give it a start, and it looked really good. I know you said you dont have powertools but dont you have one of those old stanley router planes contraptions,(!!!) the tricky bit would be the edges but I would give it a go. The worst thing that could happen is you have to borrow a skillsaw and chop off the ends and redo them,,and all you would have lost in material would be the saw cuts.
Steve.