Welcome to Woodworker++

This blog is intended to be a journal of my progress as a woodworker. Grab a drink, maybe some popcorn, sit back and enjoy a glimpse into my woodworking projects, both failed and successful. Why should you care what I do, or what I have to say? You shouldn't, but just maybe I can keep you from making the same mistakes that I had to learn the hard way.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Measure twice cut once FAIL

You know the saying "Measure twice cut once"? Yeah me too. Thing is, you have to make sure the reference that you're measuring from is the correct line. As you can see, when I overlay one side on the other, the 3/4" mortise for the second side is off by half the mortise. But only for the 2 side-by-side mortises. So, do I scrap the entire side or try to repair the mortises?

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2 comments:

TheWoodWhisperer said...

Bummer man. Sorry to see the mistake. I definitely recommend making your best repair. Try to clean up those edges and cut the closest matching patch you can from scrap wood. You might even use a chisel to create a very slight taper on all 4 sides of the patch (with the original patch being slightly oversized. This way you can spread glue in the mortise and lightly hammer the patch in place. The wedge action will give you a nice tight fit. The glue joint that goes with the grain won't be so bad, but the cross-grain one will be quite visible. But if the joint is nice and tight, it wont be too bad. Sand/plane it down and see what you think. If you hate it, you can always take a mulligan. And you got some really valuable repair experience to boot.

Good luck!

nathan said...

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll give it a shot.