Question Of The Week... ( 2018 week 7)

[ripjack13]

What was the biggest woodworking "boo boo" you made and were you able to save it? And what did you learn from it?






**Rules**
There is no minimum post requirement,
primates, woodticks and leprechauns are welcome to post an answer.
And of course the and sawbones too.

 

[Brink]

I don’t make boo boos.

But in a quest to make better firewood, I found IRW to burn very hot

 

[Mike1950]

not boo boo's they are design opportunities!!

 

[woodtickgreg]

In my old shop I was building some built in cabinets with drawers. I built the drawers out of half inch plywood and dovetailed all the drawers for strength. I cut a few of the dovetails on the wrong side and then the dado ended up being on the wrong side. So the fix was to cut a tight fitting filler strip and glue that in and re cut the dado on the correct side, grrrr. Lesson learned? I cant visualize things in my head very well, lol.

 

[steve bellinger]

Heck I've made so many over the last 40 years I can't remember

 

[rocky1]

That one is ugly... Probably trying to cut the doors on my gun cabinet I built many many moons ago. Had hand picked the lumber, 1x12 Ponderosa Pine for birdseye knots. As in the entire floor to ceiling unit, locking cabinet underneath, open shelf on top, back of the cabinet, sides, frames for glass doors, all of it loaded with birdseye knots. Cut the uprights on the middle of my doors wrong, didn't factor in overlap for the door to lock like I wanted it too. Had to dig through a bunch of lumber to find a couple of suitable pieces that were even remotely close to what I screwed up.

 

[steve bellinger]

All right to answer your question,the last time I can remember. I was cutting out a hole for a sink in a new counter top I was installing. Center of my cabnit was 541/4 from the wall. Well I ended up cutting it 451/4 to center. Solution buy new top and recut . What did I learn? Don't transpose your numbers,and don't be so over confident. O and don't get old

 

[Mike1950]

All right to answer your question,the last time I can remember. I was cutting out a hole for a sink in a new counter top I was installing. Center of my cabnit was 541/4 from the wall. Well I ended up cutting it 451/4 to center. Solution buy new top and recut . What did I learn? Don't transpose your numbers,and don't be so over confident. O and don't get old

aaaaaa, the alternatives to getting old is rather limited............. and PS- I have done that more than once....

 

[Mike1950]

Just thought of funniest mistake. We were fixing up a wreck of a lake cabin- just a shell. I was cutting a bunch of 2x4's to length and stacking them. Kathie and a couple kids were cleaning and demoing in next room a a couple were outside burning the demo material. I finished cutting turned on compressor and got nail gun. and went to start nailing studs in. But no studs- I looked at kathie and said where hell is my cut pile- she got a sheepish grin on face and looked outside at fire- and there they were going up in flames- GGGrrr -note to self and others- stay out of room i am working in........

 

[Schroedc]

Built a coffee table for the living room, forgot about wood movement, top split spectacularly. I've removed the top, saved the legs, I'll make a new top for it in the next week or two and get it fixed.

 

[rocky1]

aaaaaa, the alternatives to getting old is rather limited............. and PS- I have done that more than once....

What got old???

 

[CWS]

I started to hoard wood to late in life. I will never catch up.

 

[Brink]

Built a coffee table for the living room, forgot about wood movement, top split spectacularly. I've removed the top, saved the legs, I'll make a new top for it in the next week or two and get it fixed.

Sure, yours self destruct...

 

[Schroedc]

Sure, yours self destruct...

Poor monkey, can't even get a table to implode....

 

[woodman6415]

Trick question ... it's not the quality of boo boo but the quantity... in my 30 plus years of cabinet and counter top making they are way to numerous to count ... I have 12 storage cabinets in this shop ... all were boo boos .... I've had 3 weeks worth of finished book case fly off open trailer on higher... somebody didn't secure them well enough .... I've built cabinets so big not considering how to get them in house ... then have to remove bedroom windows to get them in bathrooms ... I learned a lot of things .... don't get discouraged.... everyone makes mistakes.. me more than most

 

[Brink]

Poor monkey, can't even get a table to implode....

It was predicted for years

 

[kweinert]

Not really woodworking in the sense we usually mean here - but when building out the bathroom in the basement I didn't pay sufficient attention to how wide they previous owners had framed the door - and I'd end up with about a 19" door. That would have to open to the outside because the built in cabinet on the inside sticks into the opening a little bit.

Our son, who has done this sort of thing before, just cut the stud out of the wall, cut the drywall back, and we'll throw in a spacer and a new stud so we can put in a real door that opens correctly.

Woodworking wise? Over the years I've made a few pieces of wood that ended up in projects differently than originally intended as a board stretcher was not in the budget.

 

[Spinartist]

Biggest woodworking Boo Boo, . That'd be the time I lost my whole thumb nail on the drill press. & I did save the thumb nail in a plastic box to show folks. It grew back like new in 5 months!

 

[woodtickgreg]

Yikes!