Confession is good for the soul - admit your mistakes!

[Benchwayze]

I rested a RSJ on a couple of bricks and proceeded to cut it with my 9" angle grinder. "Someone" put my steel toe caps boots exactly underneath where I was cutting, resulting in a big slice right through the front of one of them! Can't wear them now if it rains because my foot gets soggy.

Another one - stopped housings, which I don't stop so they become regular housings. Permissible if I didn't cut the notch first in the other piece!

Mark,

Sounds like you need a 'caulking' job, and a coat of bitumen! Although, I suppose you could get them welded!


John

Or buy new ones, they aren't that expensive and isn't worth the risk.

](*,)

Hud,

I think I will hang on to my day job, and give up 'humour'... :mrgreen: :wink:

Regards
John

 

[bugbear]

I bought a small, aluminium tripod head.

The tripod fitting was 1/4".

I wanted it to be 3/8", to fit a large Manfrotto tripod.

The head was solid aluminium, nice and easy to tap.

So I took it apart, picked up the relevant tap, and re-tapped, making a good, clean thread.

I then attempted to reassemble.

Oops.

I hadn't noticed that the 1/4" thread through the base piece, used to receive the tripod bolt, was ALSO used by a 1/4" threaded locking pivot that held the upper components of the head to the base.

BugBear

 

[DaveyP]

In defence.. this happened about 40 years ago and the lesson was learnt.

One of the first jobs that I was sent out to do on my own was to trim the rear door of a chemist shop by 1/2".

Soooo

Remove door, place on a saw horses and saw 1/2" off ... all ok easy peasy

Refit door, *&%$£!!! I'd taken the 1/2" off of the top.

Cunning plan, remove door, move the hinges down and refit door

*&%$£!!! the mortice latch and two deadlocks bolts didn't align with the keeps... so remove and lower all the keeps.

Phew.. all done by 6pm

Tidy up back to workshop get bo**ocked for taking so long.

Ring ring went the telephone, its the chemist shop .. the burglar alarm wont set, the rear door is causing a problem.

Back to the chemists and have a look.. I forgotten to move the mortised alarm magnet !!

Next morning I asked if I was getting any over time for fixing it ... The reply taught me some new words

In hindsight .. A 1/2" off the bottom stuck onto the top would of been better, but when panic sets in.. logic goes out of the door.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Hud,

I think I will hang on to my day job, and give up 'humour'... :mrgreen: :wink:

Regards
John

Take it I missed something. Twice in as many days, my brain must be frying (hammer)

 

[Benchwayze]

Nope...

It's just me and my strange SOH Hud!

I keep forgetting I am in civvy street now!

regards
John :wink:

 

[Lons]

Me too - list would take a whole bog roll to write on (can't afford notebooks.)

Converted a grade 2 listed stable which needed huge number of stud / plasterboard walls so bought a paslode 350. great success - 1000s nails later, holding timbers together to nail - hand in wrong place - 90mm nail embedded in little finger. I didn't cry - honest

 

[Digit]

I had a similar problem to Mark with an RSJ. I obtained a cheap one that was 4ft too long, so once in position I put up a ladder, climbed up, lit the Ozy- acetelene torch and cut the end off.
Being a smart buttocks i carefully worked out how to cut it so that it wouldn't swing towards the ladder and was chuffed when it fell exactly as i had planned.
And cut clean through both hoses as it hit the deck!

Roy.

 

[tonytopman]

Made a quick router table today.
Old kitchen cabinet door and 6 ins. of plexiglas.
Installed plexiglas with router screwed on. The idea being I would remove plexiglas and router to change bits.

Just discovered router is too big to fit through hole. Afternoon wasted. Doh!

 

[Digit]

I made one mistake that was unbelievable, by its outcome.
The wife wanted wardrobes, like they do. One free standing on the right as you pass through the bedroom door and a further set on the far wall. This set to be one either side of the bed with cupboards to the ceiling above.
I elected to make them in the workshop and move them in, first the 3 piece one then the large separate one.
I removed the skirting boards on each side of the room with the intention of continuing them around the base of the two floor standing units. This meant that the cupboad unit was the same width as the room, thus there would be no way of turning it 90 degrees after passing through the doorway.
Just to make matters even more difficult the concrete floor is dish shaped so getting to floor standing units vertical and the right width was a nightmare, made even more difficult by my decision to locate the cupbords on the floor standing units using dry biscuits in slots.
I decided that the glass window pane would have to come out to allow the cupbord to turn 90 degrees.
My son and I carried the unit into the bedroom, not only did it turn 'cos the glass was recessed 50 mil but the damn thing dropped onto the biscuits first try!
It was nice to be wrong!

Roy.

 

[bobscarle]

Far Far too many to list.

Painful ones like not paying enough attention when removing a waste piece from a table saw. That resulted in blood on the saw bench and three stitches in my thumb.

Dovetails too tight causing the front of a large blanket chest to crack. Router bits set to the wrong depth because now I have taken it off the jig I don't need to add on the 6mm for the MDF base.

Far too many occasions when my measuring skill have been found wanting. Squaring up the back edge and two sides of a cabinet top then laying out sliding dovetails from the front. Why I didn't square that up at the same time I will never know.

So, Does this mean my soul is now clear? Can I return to the workshop knowing that all previous mistakes are now wiped from the slate and I am clear to make a load of new ones?

Bob

 

[studders]

So, Does this mean my soul is now clear? Can I return to the workshop knowing that all previous mistakes are now wiped from the slate and I am clear to make a load of new ones?

Bob

Say three 'Hail the rounded bevel' and go in peace.

 

[woodbloke]

I don't make mistakes :-" ...I adopt the old RR adage in that my woodwork 'fails to proceed.' Quite frequently as it happens - Rob

 

[RogerS]

Made a casement window for a client - in oak - and mixed up height and width. It was almost square but not quite...800mm x 900mm

What is even more embarrassing was the 'little man' inside me, who generally tells me I'm making a cock-up, was telling me just that as I started to prep the stock. I ignored him....

because....I looked at the photograph I'd taken and convinced myself that the reason it looked wrong was that the shape was 'foreshortened' by the camera lens

 

[brianhabby]

Well at least I now know it's not just me

It's infuriating when these things happen and they seem to be happening more lately. I think the more careful I am the more mistakes I make

I recently had to modify a door that was too small by planting some wood on either side to make it fit. Carefully measured the old door about three times to make sure I had the measurements right but it was still an inch too small so had to go and do it all again grrrrrrrrrrrr.

regards

Brian

PS. One that still makes me smile is this one.

 

[jbb1003]

Far Far too many to list.

Haven't cut enough wood to mess up properly yet, I just mess up in a minor way on everything...

Painful ones like not paying enough attention when removing a waste piece from a table saw.

Except this. The other day I was cutting a few pieces of wood all to the same length, set up the next one for the cut and then my hand slipped and my thumb hit the front of the blade. Only it didn't, because the guard stopped it. Seems like I should write it down here to remind myself I was a (lucky) silly person who ought to be minus a thumb.

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Well today.

1, forgot to add the blade kerf to a measurement which resulting in 2 spaces being cut wrong and me not noticing until there was some some stretcher left over when the last picket went on. (glued them on aswell).

2, forgot my TS blade was at 5deg when I ran a piece of white wood off to compensate for the spader issue.

3, Forgot again (hammer) that the TS blade was set at 5deg when ripping some oak to size. 50x75 piece of stock 1.2m in length usable for that project now.

 

[alan2001]

So, in the spirit of sharing and learning and perhaps slightly taking the mickey, how about posting up some examples of those really *daft* mistakes you've made?

All excellent stuff, even though I barely understand half of it.

We could maybe open this up to describing other people's mistakes too? :?:

 

[Benchwayze]

Last year I made a garden table and benches in Western Red Cedar for a friend. I used 4 x 2 for the diagonal-cross legs. After a year or so of use, he came to me asking if I could 'beef-up' legs to 4 x 4.

It's a pig of a job, as I had to start all over again in effect. Plus repairing the top which has split. Just as I said it would, unless I made a lath top (which even then might split) . He insisted on a full top of course! :roll:

Moral: The customer is always right, but when you know they are wrong, don't take on the job.

John 8)

 

[Lons]

I'm in the middle of laying 80 M2 of laminate flooring at home - 4 full days so far and only 2/3rds through (and I'm REALLY motivated ) The usual removal of cooker, dishwasher, dryer, washing machine etc. all now re fitted.

Enter wifie who puts in a wash and later pronounces that the machine is on the blink as the damn thing hasn't drained. That means possible removal for maybe a kinked hose - not a happy chappie to say the least and then I remember :roll: I'd only blocked the pipe to stop leakage and not taken the bung back out #-o

Gonna have to live with that for a while as I've shot my perfectionist personna. It got a few laughs last night when out for dinner with family and friends.

Bob