What's the biggest mistake you have made in your woodworking

[Keith 66]

Putting the deck on a 25ft yacht. Measured from the tip of the bow down each side equally to mark the location of the main deck beam, Checked it was square across the stretched wire centreline & all was well. Marked the beam location & notched it in. Marked the rest (about 20) from that one & fitted them too. Fitted the 1/2" ply deck all glued down with epoxy & bronze gripfast nails. At no point did i notice anything wrong as the cabin front was curved. Only when i went to fit the square forehatch did i find that the carlins it sat on were not square to the beams. With mounting horror i realised i had gotten it very wrong.
What i had done was fit the main beam with one side to the rear of the master mark & the other side to the front of it. because the boat was 9ft wide at that point it wasnt immediately apparent.
And so the square hatch was sold at a boat jumble & i made a fancy elliptical hatch with laminated mahogany rim with ash inlay. It looked stunning & many people commented favorably on it!
Boat sailed fine!

 

[user 35906]

Letting my son buy the wood for a short staircase he wanted building! I think what he bought would have been more suited for building a spiral staircase
Fitting the oak doors on our new solid wood oak kitchen, only noticed a part number stamped in the front of the door after the knob hole had been drilled and integrated fridge brackets fitted on the back

 

[Woodmatt]

When I was apprenticed I was ask to cross cut 21peices of Walnut 22" long and I cut,well you can guess the rest.
I only got half pay that week,bosses were allowed to do that sort of thing back in the day but I learnt an important lesson

 

[Jameshow]

When I was apprenticed I was ask to cross cut 21peices of Walnut 22" long and I cut,well you can guess the rest.
I only got half pay that week,bosses were allowed to do that sort of thing back in the day but I learnt an important lesson

Much like the social sec of the local running club who apparently ordered 3 turkey Christmas dinners and 27 nut roasts...

 

[RobinBHM]

When I was apprenticed I was ask to cross cut 21peices of Walnut 22" long and I cut,well you can guess the rest.
I only got half pay that week,bosses were allowed to do that sort of thing back in the day but I learnt an important lesson

It’s their fault, they should’ve asked you to cut 23no

 

[RobinBHM]

When I was apprenticed I was ask to cross cut 21peices of Walnut 22" long and I cut,well you can guess the rest.
I only got half pay that week,bosses were allowed to do that sort of thing back in the day but I learnt an important lesson

that’s like One foot in the grave.

Victor ordered a Christmas Gnome, type 263…….

 

[baldkev]

I was helping a customer out fitting a kitchen late at night. He had new tenants arriving at 10 am the following day. We had got the old units out and set up the new ones during the day, did the wall units etc, i started the worktops while he screwed hinges on doors etc.

It was about 10.30 and i had to cut the sink out. I had previously been fitting lots of sinks with tight radius corners and in haste, i had marked out the apeture, used the 32mm spade bit the do the corners and then cut through the 4 sides..... when i slotted the sink in, there were 4 crescent shaped holes in the corners!!! The sink had large radius corners
I was outside howdens at 7.30am for a new piece of worktop, i left the house at 9.45

Usually I am paranoid about screwing up and check everything. Recently I've been trying to get myself to relax so i dint end up so stressed out, so Recently I had to make a nice oak wall box to take an old vhs / dvd combined unit and sky box. On the day i did it, i managed to leave my notepad with the drawings in it at home. Normally I would drive home ( 25 minutes each way ) but this time i decided to trust myself and it would all work out fine. I was fairly sure the box was 87mm high, although it was about 4 weeks prior that i measured it. The sky box was something like 45mm high. So i made it, stained it, waterbased varnish etc. Took it to the job, fitted it only to find the old vhs dvd thing was 97mm and i had a gap of 95!

I said id go back and make it again, but the customer wasnt fussed, so instead i bought them a new sony dvd player.... and i wont be trusting myself again any time soon

 

[Peri]

I don't make mistakes.

I create learning opportunities!

We don't have problems, we have solution opportunities.


This weeks opportunity involves a rosewood and maple chessboard I'm making for a commission. I've made the board (12mm thick), making sure to carefully mark the back of all the pieces so any tear out, dents and problem surfaces are on the back, where no-one will see them when it's glued to the backer board.

Glued up the backer, put the board down, added a square of 3/4" ply on top the protect the surface and spread clamping pressure..........left overnight, removed the ply and somehow I've glued the board down cr*p side up. ^^

 

[Adam W.]

Love it!

 

[Johnwa]

It's so reassuring to see that I'm not alone in having "how the bleeding **** did that happen" mistakes, even the pro's get them. Maybe not as often as me but at least they get em. Thanks guys

 

[hlvd]

It's so reassuring to see that I'm not alone in having "how the bleeding **** did that happen" mistakes, even the pro's get them. Maybe not as often as me but at least they get em. Thanks guys

The skill is always making the mistake look like it was supposed to be there