How to recover from a bad day of wooding?

[Chems]

I've been working on my Vanity Press for the whole of this year. Its nearing completion and today has just gone so badly. Some sort of Bermuda triangle effect was taking place as I was trying to fit a shelf inbetween the two wardrobe parts, everything was square, the shelf piece, the uprights, the front to back, everything yet the shelf would only sit inbetween with an overhang on one side. Whilst trying to fix this the shelf fell from the clamps and landing right smack in the middle of the beautifully finished and lacquered desktop below. So now not only have I made to progress what so ever, the desk top will have to be taken out and redone.

I'm considering doing a Paul and putting it through the saw then setting fire to it all.

 

[wizer]

Do something else. Come back to it another day.

 

[miles_hot]

oh god - that's bad. Walk away and if necessary take the the saw out of the bandsaw!

Just remember all the effort you;ll have to re-do if you were to wreck it! A good cup of tea is the "true brit" answer - be careful not to rest the hot cup on an finished surface though

Miles

 

[Grinding One]

When all sorts of things go wrong,step back and look at it from another angle.I seem to remember someone usually gets hurt when trying to force something.Take a break from it....

 

[yetloh]

You have my deepest sympathy; I've been there too. Might be worth trying to steam out the dents with wet paper towel and a hot iron.

Jim

 

[Ironballs]

Ignore the others, that's terrible advice. Take the offending part(s), question its upbringing, punch it, throw it across the shop, kick the bench and then berate the bench for giving you a sore foot

 

[matt]

Is now the time for me to spout something philosophical about it being a challenge? Perhaps not...

 

[woodbloke]

I'm considering doing a Paul and putting it through the saw then setting fire to it all.

...'doing a Rob' rather :wink: - Rob

 

[OPJ]

Keep your chin up, James! One good thing about working with softwood - dents are generally quite easy to steam out. So, you may have to cut back some lacquer and then buy some more to re-do it all... It's the better option than to scrap it all and one-day attempt to start all over again!

These things happen - and, for some reason, it's always right when you're close to the end of a long build... :roll: I've been making a drop-leaf table at college. Two-weeks ago, having almost perfected the rule joint on the top, I managed to put a bit dent in to the shoulder (?) on the centre board!! I can't describe how I felt at that time... But, I'm hoping to repair it (splice in a new slither) as it simply isn't worth the hassle of going back two-or-three steps... Plus, we only have two more weeks of college time left! :shock:

It is best to walk away, have a cup of tea and clear your head for a bit when s**t like this happens.

 

[Chems]

Thanks for all the replies, I did infact me doing a Rob! Just got my people confused for a moment.

I did leave it there, with the clamps on the floor. I don't think the dent will steam out, its a real bad one. It will just have to be a case of when it comes apart to be delivered to its new home that piece will have to be re-made. Fortunately I should be able to align all the holes etc off the first one. What bugs me the most is I still can't solve this problem. I will photograph it tomorrow and post them here. Its real intresting, I was just about to say sod it and start to screw it together in the hope that the screws pulled it all into alignment. I still think that might work.

Just to give a better idea what I'm rambling on about, heres my WIP, not much interest of late from the forum thou, no love for the pine projects
Vanity WIP Thread

 

[mark king]

Could you use a router and make a insert feature out of this bad happening and turn it into a good thing?

I think that's the way I would be heading rather than go backwards and redo.

 

[Chems]

I guess it could, but I'm no where near good enough to be doing inlays yet.

 

[xy mosian]

Hi,

Sorry to hear of your *bad day. My worst very nearly had me throwing my plane the length of the workshop. fortunately I didn't.

I've looked at your WIP and see a good job in the making, thanks for the direction.

About your shelf. I assume that you have checked the diagonals on the shelf while checking for square. If the side with the overhang, at the front, is shy at the back by a similar amount I would guess that the whole assembly is twisted. This could be the result of a non-flat floor or perhaps the shop cat is packing one corner with off-cuts just for fun.

My most frequent error was/is reading accurate dimensions which are 5 or 10 mm out, just what happened with the Hubble space telescope mirror. If you work in mm it might just be worth checking with an imperial rule, if you can use that language, or even just checking opposite sides with a stick and a pencil.

Keep believing you are as good as you are.

xy

 

[big soft moose]

My most frequent error was/is reading accurate dimensions which are 5 or 10 mm out, just what happened with the Hubble space telescope mirror. If you work in mm it might just be worth checking with an imperial rule, if you can use that language, or even just checking opposite sides with a stick and a pencil.

Keep believing you are as good as you are.

xy

:lol: at the weekend i was making my new workbench and managed to get one cut 10cm out - all the rest were at 100.5cm and i somehow managed to mark this one up at 90.5 ](*,) and not notice till i stacked the cut components up and realised that this one was shorter than all the others.

I do believe that I'm as good as I am - problem is that in flat world i'm not very good :roll:

 

[Chems]

I did check the diagonal, it was perfect. It must be like you say the the assembly is twisted in someway. But I can't see how as the desk top fits just fine. The insides of the wardrobe are square, not 100% perfect but enough so. I'm heading out for a quick hour at 2 and will take a few pictures see if you can shine any light on it.

 

[Ironballs]

Will be interested to see the pics of the shelf to get an idea of what could be wrong. If you planed up your shelf so that it wasn't square but fitted, would it look okay?

Quick work by the way, looking good

 

[Chems]

I've been avoiding going out for a while as its had me down but I went out today ready to sort it. And I have, the problem is nothing to do with my wooding, its the floor, its so uneven that once you get up to 6ft in height which is about where I'm working those small variations in the floor really make a big difference.

First off here is the big dent caused by the mishap.


Spirt on the shelf showing the lack of level:


Overall view of the first shelf in.



And finally the offending floor.



Now I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point, what I really need is a big sheet of ply or some such to level put down and level the floor. Its a major pain as its stopped me carrying on now. I need to fit the top shelf which will then create the middle cabinet but its not fitting either. I think I'm going to have to get a bit of ply or MDF and then start making a section of flat flooring to continue working on.

Big thanks to xymosian for bringing up the floor, It never even occured to me when I was doing it the first day but it was clear once you said it that that was infact the problem!

 

[xy mosian]

Some possible solutions.

If you are confident about your marking out cutting etc. Make all the parts and assemble on site. Just what flat pack manufacturers do. If it helps use dowels in the edge of the shelf (two each end will do) to align things.

Any uneveness on the floor can be adjusted out by using wedges at appropriate corners. To check use string stretched across the front corners of the top section and adjust wedges to get rid of twist. assuming the front is supposed to be flat.

A couple of long straight temporary battens fixed ( I daren't say clamped) to the top, from the top, to form a rail front and back forcing the upper section flat faced and true.

Perhaps work on the top section only. Is the top of your workbench
large enough and flat?

Take the top section apart and use only the inner upright pieces, i.e. work on the upper centre section on its own.

All is not lost.

xy

 

[Chems]

Thanks Mosian, wedging was an option but Its to heavy to lift at all at the moment. I've just been to my local TimberCentre and bought a some pine to replace the desktop and lots of 2x4 with which I'm going to make a flat standing area. I've got some castors as well so the whole deal will be able to be rolled around. I've been wanting to have an assembly stand like this for a while so its easier to move large items so this has forced me into doing it. Going to give myself a quick hour now to get it done then carry on building.

 

[xy mosian]

It's going to have to be very stiff to avoid twising.

Perhaps some screw down legs, scaffold tower style, to adjust once in working position? Checked with string across corners for flatness.

xy