Apothecary chest - part five

I have had plenty of practice ...

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

... screwing up, believe me! I cannot recall a project that did not contain at least one. Part of my amateur status. I wonder how often pros make similar errors?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Comment: Do you find it odd.....

Gary Smyth

that an error of 1mm is glaring to the practiced eye? I've seen metal work out by a bit more than that much and pass inspection -- and don't even think about one color printing where the alignment and kerning are wrong.

Unless by your own maker standards, discovery always seems to be a battle --even if the error is right there in front of the maker. Congratulations on your decision to the correction and doing it so it is not noticed in the finished piece.

Goodonya!

The Real Test

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

of a Craftsman [person ] is not whether mistakes are made, we all make them. Rather, it is how well we hide them.

Re: You are a better man than me.

Barry Irby

Do I understand? You filled in the rabbets and then re cut them in some cases a mm or two away from their original location? Weren't some of them correctly located the first time? And were the inserts cross grain? Will the slivers that got left behind be stable enough? Perhaps the filler strips could have been long strips of short grain wood as well? Maybe you should chop the slivers into short pieces to avoid cross grain issues?

OTOH, I admire the fact that you put on your big boy britches and fixed it. I might have thrown the whole thing away and started over, in about five years.

Thanks Alan 

Re: Comment: Do you find it odd.....

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Gary, that 1mm adds up. It becomes 2mm at some stage. This shows. I am glad I took the time to do it over. It is now dead-on.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thanks Mark 

Re: You are a better man than me.

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Weren't some of them correctly located the first time? And were the inserts cross grain? Will the slivers that got left behind be stable enough? Perhaps the filler strips could have been long strips of short grain wood as well?

Barry, some of the dados were fine. But working around them was asking for mistakes. I decided that it was safer to start from scratch.

The only dados that were filled were in the side panels. The old dados are almost invisible - no one would go looking inside the cabinet anyway. But if they did, they would see - at most - a thin 1mm sliver on a few dados. Long grain is easer to use - less likely to crumble.

Thanks for the kind words.

Regards from Perth

Derek

JK disagreed

Ellis Walentine

I remember James Krenov likening hiding mistakes to a cat covering up his business in the litter box. Still, in the real world, fixing things can be a useful expedient, preferable to starting over. I think we all have to draw the line as to what is acceptable and what isn't.

Ellis

Attitude *LINK*

Mark Hennebury

There are many different personalities and philosophies involved in woodworking like everything else.

Some people are okay with mistakes, and are of the mindset that we are all human and prone to mistakes, which may be true. but to accept this makes it a self fulfilling prophecy. You will tend towards taking shortcuts, lack discipline, you will expect and accept the inevitability of mistakes and be confident in your ability to cover them....And you will make mistakes.

If you refuse to accept that mistakes are inevitable, you will develop process and procedures to avoid mistakes you will discipline yourself to follow procedure, you will check and verify before every step of the way. You may still make a mistake, but when you do, it will be because you lacked the discipline to follow procedure, it will be your own fault and you will trash the part and start again.

Alex is fully committed.


Alex

Re: Attitude *LINK*

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Alex is fully committed.

Is he ever!

Mark, thanks for that video link. I have been following the blog of Eric Horst (link below). This is an area of special interest for me. Perhaps you are familiar with his writings?

With regard to your comments about the expectation or not of mistakes, my attitude is not that I expect one, but when one occurs it is just something to deal with. Not the end of the world. Do it again, but better.

In the current example, I dropped the ball. Not doubt about it. I did not follow the appropriate "process and procedures", as you termed it. A lesson learned - there is no alternative to working from a reference point. There will be another lesson to learn in the future, I do not doubt.

Regards from Perth

Derek


Self-Discipline & Commitment: The Great Equalizers

Re: Attitude

Mark Hennebury

Hi Derek,

I was not familiar with Eric Horst, but i just read the page that you linked to and the sentiment is the same.

I was self taught, so i made many mistakes, from lack of knowledge and lack of discipline. I did sloppy joints, and bad designs, that cupped and twisted and split, i persevered, driven to do better, I studied, analyzed and developed process and procedure and discipline. Other than a slip or some unforeseen occurrence I now have no excuse to make a mistake, I now know how to plan, manage and execute a job without error, so if i make an error it will be because of a lack of discipline, It will be 100% on me. It will be because of a moment of weakness. And it will make me furious.

I have a lot of respect for you and your work, and your courage to show when you make a mistake. And it is this reason that we are discussing these critical aspects of woodworking. After gaining knowledge and experience, attitude and discipline are what define how you operate and what you will achieve. You have to believe that you can achieve perfection to pursue it.

Alex is the poster child; Cool, calm, calculated, disciplined and focused. Poetry in motion. Alex gets no do-over, one mistake and hes dead. Motivation to all of us .

Re: Attitude

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Being in the zone ... certainly needed when climbing, as young Alex displays.

Of course, when I am so at home working in my shop, I end up in hot water with my wife for missing dinner

Thanks for the kind words.

Regards from Perth

Derek