# rookie mistakes



## skyking (Mar 24, 2013)

This rookie made one tonight. I'm making a garbage bag holding thing for the back of the bathroom cabinet doors, my last punchlist item for the bathroom remodel.
I decided to dabble with mortise and tenon and halved joints and use no fasteners. I made a practice M&T and was reasonably happy with that.
I cut all the stock, dadoed out all the halved joints and was setting up the dado for the tenon. I get the depth all dialed in and then I remembered the fancy stop that came with the Incra miter guide. I dig that out, run the dado up a bit to calibrate it for length, and 
FORGET TO RE-SET THE DEPTH!
ZZZIng there goes about half the tenon. WHat THE!
I ponder this for a bit, and realize the back side of this through tenon is up against the cabinet door. Rather than dice up some more cherry, I dig through the bin of scrap and find the perfect little wedge pieces. No one will know, right?
That's why I posted this here, to remind me.


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## Gatordust (Jun 5, 2013)

You could make the joint with one tennon to both boards and have each joining board with mortises. Make sense? 

Steve


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## fire65 (Apr 27, 2013)

LOL, those are not rookie mistakes, we all do things like that. If you aint makin mistakes, you aint workin. I hide or rebuild as needed on projects. 
I always make at least one extra for my uh, oh boards.


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## jschaben (Apr 1, 2010)

:laughing::laughing: Be careful. If you keep figuring out fixes like that you'll soon lose your rookie status:laughing:


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## skyking (Mar 24, 2013)

My dimensions were off a bit too, regarding the standard grocery sack "ears". I had to modify it some. I'll try and find a 'facebook' angle to take a decent picture of it :smile:


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## calwilliams63 (Dec 17, 2008)

The only difference between a rookie and a pro is learning how to hide or fix your mistakes. I make them all the time. Lol!! Thanks for sharing!!!


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## Paarker (Mar 20, 2013)

It's not a mistake it's a learning process at least that's what I like to say.


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## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)

Laughing but not at you!

I once jacked up one stile of a cabinet door frame.

I was cutting a rabbet on the back side to accept a glass panel.

My set up was on the money. 

Problem was I forgot to lock down my router fence. This was after I had cut rosettes and fluted the style between them.

@#$%&*®£©^π!!!!!!!!!!!

The upside? I still have all my digits.

I hung that stile in my shop until I had developed the habit of double checking all my lock downs.

Welcome to the human race my friend!


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

calwilliams63 said:


> The only difference between a rookie and a pro is learning how to hide or fix your mistakes. I make them all the time. Lol!! Thanks for sharing!!!


One of the guys I learned a LOT from used to say, "There ain't NO screw up that I can't 'fix' "... 


I saw him 'fix' a lot of stuff over the years that he did NOT mess up in the first place... He 'fixed' em though. :yes:


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## skyking (Mar 24, 2013)

my mentor in hand tools is a retired union carpenter. He said "a finish carpenter is only in a hurry when he is either making a mistake or trying to fix one."


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## Manuka Jock (Jun 27, 2011)

design and build is the theory , build and design is the practice :shifty:


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## skyking (Mar 24, 2013)

hang a bag on it, or toss it in a bag? :icon_smile:


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

I made two funny mistakes today. I noticed that my table saw was kicking up a lot more dust than usual. I remembered to turn the DC on, so what's the problem? I forgot to connect the hose to the table. I vowed never to make that mistake again.

Ten minutes later my router table was, you guessed it, kicking up a lot more dust than usual. Yes,I forgot to connect the DC hose.

But the second one was a new mistake, because it's a different machine, right?


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## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)

Laughing!

It doesn't work if its not hooked up.

Still its probably more effective than my DC setup (the hair in my nose).


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

I always seem to have the wrong blast gate open at the wrong time. Your not the only one doing that one. 


As for cutting screw-ups, just the other day I was cutting the last of all the dovetails I had to cut....and when I went to put it together one set of pins was facing the wrong way. And to make it worse....I had no more surfaces wood ready. So back out came the planner. An hour later I had a piece with the pins facing the right way.


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## smboudreaux81 (Jun 23, 2013)

More than once I have made face frames for cabinets backwards. Both times the fit was great as long as you didn't mind the pocket holes


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## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)

That's an easy mistake to make.

Keeping workpieces oriented properly during the process has me constantly marking them "top, bottom, front, back, left, right, A, B, C...etc.

I use masking tape and a sharpie


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## rayking49 (Nov 6, 2011)

I once made a pair of mortise and tenon raised panel doors that were each an inch too wide to fit the opening. And I swore to myself I'd measured twice. So, I very carefully ripped right beside one stile, reraised that side of the panel, cut the rails to the right length, and made a loose tenon for those rails. The whole time I was drilling out the old tenons to make the new mortises, I was shaking my head. At least it was long, instead of short.


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## Steve M. (Jun 4, 2013)

Looks good to me! Nice job...


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## bladeburner (Jun 8, 2013)

Production run design enhancements, are part of the job :laughing:


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## jharris2 (Jul 9, 2012)

That's not a mistake. Its purdy (PRDE)!

I like it.


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## dt1050 (Jun 21, 2013)

was making a picture frame mainly to practice since I'm a newbie. cut about 1/4 inch out of the inside of the frame for a piece of glass to fit over the pictures. re-adjust the table saw to cut the miters, ripppp, hmm must have wiggled a bit or didn't have the saw just right joints were a little loose, ok, try again...check all the setting forgot, to tighten the piece that holds the table from raising up and down..ok, next try,....sizzzing, pieced together nicely...wow, nice miter joints, I was impressed with my self:no:...till I turned it over and seen the part for the glass was on the outside rather than the inside of the frame...:furious::furious:...my picture frame started out to hold several pictures and now can only hold 1 full size photo...lol


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## Mark G (Dec 26, 2011)

fire65 said:


> If you aint makin mistakes, you aint workin.


I tried that logic with my boss when she pointed out one of my mistakes. "Hey, back off. Can't you see I'm workin' here?"

Didn't go eve well. I guess context matters.


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