Can anyone top this act of stupidity?

[Trainee neophyte]

Can anyone top this act of stupidity?

Where do I begin? Or perhaps I should said say "Hold my pint and watch this!"

What you did was a perfectly normal day in the workshop for me. Cutting rebates on the wrong side, carefully moving the fence an exact 3.5mm, but in the wrong direction, carefully selecting the which side will be the face and then ignoring the marks...it's what I do best. I have an astonishing number of projects that become prototypes, or if really snafued "proof of concept".

A quote from Stalin: "Everybody has a right to be stupid, but some people abuse the privilege." I would be "some people" . (Actually it may be a misquote from something Trotsky said, which just sums it all up).

 

[Hornbeam]

Can you clean up the base and rebate the inside of the cleaned up base to take a ply then cut a full side thickness dark brown banding to match the other corners the and then glue to close off the rebate so it is more like a closed groove. It will be a few mm shorter but I doubt anybody would know. Once glued and cleaned up remove the top as per your original plan. Pity to throw it as it looks very nice
Ian

 

[MikeG.]

I've seen it on site where a worktop was cut 100mm too short, because someone measured the units starting at 10cm on his tape measure because of a missing or unreliable hook, and then forgot to add that back afterwards. "We've all done it" said everyone else in the room, laughing. Not yet, I thought.......

 

[Phlebas]

Of course.

I instance my dovetails carefully cut in opposite ways. All the way through to trial fitting and consideration of paring. Before I even noticed or considered it.

We have sinned against wood and woodworking, in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.

Or something like that. My religious education was sketchy at best.

 

[Jonathan S]

Beautiful box! Surely you have to finish it....

All the best woodworkers make mistakes!
It's how we overcome them that makes us better woodworkers.





Sent from my SM-J530F using Tapatalk

 

[MikeG.]

.........dovetails carefully cut in opposite ways.........

Guilty as charged. Despite a really careful marking system, I always cut an extra board or two when doing a big batch of drawers because I've done precisely what you did more than once.

 

[AndyT]

Phlebas, surely that's just one part of a box in which you can keep your woodworking L-plates when you no longer need them!

 

[HappyHacker]

I can more than match that. Cutting a mitre on a skirting board I measured the distance to the inside of the mitre and then cut that length to the outside of the mitre. No more skirting so stuck a short piece in, it was not too visible, honest. Then I went to fit the architrave on the door. Yes you guessed I did the same again cutting the two sides too short. Went to cut two more and was extra careful about measuring them, yes you guessed right again, I had cut them short again.

At least I got the mitres the right way around all times.

I gave up and went home and managed to do them right the next day. Only got a few more doors and some skirting to do once we are let out again which may be in 12 months, if the rumours are true, as I am an old f**t.

 

[Trevanion]

Phlebas, surely that's just one part of a box in which you can keep your woodworking L-plates when you no longer need them!

Truth is Andy, no one ever loses their woodworking L-plates :lol:

Made a solid ash fitted wardrobe once to fit either side of a window in a bedroom with a seat/chest under the window, the wall to the window reveal measurement on either side was different by about six inches... You can see where I'm going with this.

Completely made the thing, lovely job wire brushed ash painted over in an off-white which looked stunning, got it to site and plopped one wardrobe on the one side of the window and it took a couple of minutes to realise that it was overlapping the window by six inches... #-o

Took it back to the workshop quietly and ripped the boards off the sides of the wardrobes and put them on the opposing side and made good. You'd never know :wink:

 

[doctor Bob]

Arrh, yes mistakes, 1986 I think it was, broke my pencil lead whilst sharpening ........... none since.... honest.

 

[Phlebas]

.........dovetails carefully cut in opposite ways.........

Guilty as charged. Despite a really careful marking system, I always cut an extra board or two when doing a big batch of drawers because I've done precisely what you did more than once.

Mmm. And why some of my boxes are the thickness of the side pieces shorter than the original conception. And why I have some trapezoidal scrap wedges...

Still, I'm glad I am not alone. Thank you for that.

 

[Phlebas]

Phlebas, surely that's just one part of a box in which you can keep your woodworking L-plates when you no longer need them!

I have an imaginary vision of a box by Esher here. Or Mobius perhaps. Or a Klein bottle in wood form.

That would be some WiP.

 

[woodbloke66]

Rebate the bottom and fit a base.

Pete

Easily doable and it's a 'win' fix - Rob

 

[woodbloke66]

Of course.

I instance my dovetails carefully cut in opposite ways. All the way through to trial fitting and consideration of paring. Before I even noticed or considered it.

I've done that more than once. I now have a copious supply of coloured sticky dots from WHS so every joint is now colour coded and that sort of thing doesn't happen any more. Fortunately - Rob