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Taking Stuff Apart

2K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  chili cook 
#1 ·
We spend a lot of time talking about assembly, but not a lot on fixing mistakes. After all the planning and fabrication, to realize a part is the wrong size, doesn't fit right, or just the wrong part, the agony of taking it apart. Or, it may be that you've gotten to a near final stage and realize that 5 steps back and three days later, it has to come apart. BTDT.

Two scenarios come to mind. The first one is that the glue is still wet. OK, the clamps come off in a hurry, and then there's the scramble for "take apart tools", like awls, chisels, pliers, hammer, blocks of wood, rags, water, or anything to take out fasteners (if any).

Then there's the second one, the aftershock...the pit in the stomach much later on when you know the glue and joint is stronger than the wood, but has to come apart. Hopefully and at times I've gotten fairly lucky with a good whack with a hammer and a block does the trick. But, the real PITA is when there's some severe damage, or the pieces can't be used at all.

So, do you have any horror stories?





 
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#3 ·
Working on building a hutch. Made the upper and lower face frame. Made the doors. Go to fit the doors and they are 3" too tall. Don't know how, or why, but my fault no matter what.

Since the the project is dimensionless I looked at the 4 perfect doors and then at the FF. Back and forth I did this a few time. I decided that the hutch would be a bit taller. So I tried to take the FF apart. It was put together quite a few days ago with pocket screws and glue. I was able to knock the side stiles off and the center stile and the center rails. All the joints were damaged, but the rails because it was end grain pulled the side grained wood off the adjoining pc. So I was able to save all the rails. I had to joint off 1/8" on the bottom rail because the center stile had pulled some wood out. So, the three pcs that needed to be replaced anyway were damaged and the pcs that could be reused were saved. Just had to saw off the wood that got pulled off the other pc. Remade it and the project was saved. Doors fit well now. :laughing:
 
#4 ·
We spend a lot of time talking about assembly, but not a lot on fixing mistakes. After all the planning and fabrication, to realize a part is the wrong size, doesn't fit right, or just the wrong part, the agony of taking it apart. Or, it may be that you've gotten to a near final stage and realize that 5 steps back and three days later, it has to come apart. BTDT.

Two scenarios come to mind. The first one is that the glue is still wet. OK, the clamps come off in a hurry, and then there's the scramble for "take apart tools", like awls, chisels, pliers, hammer, blocks of wood, rags, water, or anything to take out fasteners (if any).

Then there's the second one, the aftershock...the pit in the stomach much later on when you know the glue and joint is stronger than the wood, but has to come apart. Hopefully and at times I've gotten fairly lucky with a good whack with a hammer and a block does the trick. But, the real PITA is when there's some severe damage, or the pieces can't be used at all.

So, do you have any horror stories?








Too many to mention :blink: Thats why I always have a burn barrel handy To hide all my mistakes from " SHE WHO MUST BE OBEYED" :laughing::laughing::laughing:


cHILI
 
#5 ·
A good question, Cabinetman, and well-asked.

Oh, boy! Have I got some horror stories. It suffices to say that, with the names and locations changed to protect the innocent, they're probably just like everyone else's stories.

I am of the opinion that no one achieves any level of serious success in this hobby without making the mistakes you describe, making another trip to the lumber yard to replace parts, taking two-and-a-half times longer on a project for do-overs, and generally at least once or twice feeling like a plum fool for overlooking something, rushing something, forgetting to add an inch while making a hold-off measurement, etc. etc.

Overcoming these starter mistakes doesn't completely go away, either. There are days at work when those sage experienced guys like me with 20 + years on the job make what we call "rookie mistakes." And there are days in the shop when I look around to see who witnessed me do something completely and blindly stupid. My only hope is, in both cases, I'm able to cover my mistakes like a good carpenter.

By the grace of God I still have all my fingers and those days are becoming fewer and farther between. But I anticipate there'll be another one here or there. I am far from perfect.

regards,
smitty
 
#9 ·
A good question, Cabinetman, and well-asked.

Oh, boy! Have I got some horror stories. It suffices to say that, with the names and locations changed to protect the innocent, they're probably just like everyone else's stories.

I am of the opinion that no one achieves any level of serious success in this hobby without making the mistakes you describe, making another trip to the lumber yard to replace parts, taking two-and-a-half times longer on a project for do-overs, and generally at least once or twice feeling like a plum fool for overlooking something, rushing something, forgetting to add an inch while making a hold-off measurement, etc. etc.

Overcoming these starter mistakes doesn't completely go away, either. There are days at work when those sage experienced guys like me with 20 + years on the job make what we call "rookie mistakes." And there are days in the shop when I look around to see who witnessed me do something completely and blindly stupid. My only hope is, in both cases, I'm able to cover my mistakes like a good carpenter.

By the grace of God I still have all my fingers and those days are becoming fewer and farther between. But I anticipate there'll be another one here or there. I am far from perfect.

regards,
smitty

Geeeezzzzzzzz I feel so much better after reading this post -------- I thought it was just me


Chili
 
#7 ·
I don't trust my computer for the door list:blink:




















Maybe I better:laughing:



I found the error. All my calcs are right. But for some reason I wrote 23 instead of 20 and just followed through. Idiot.:boat:
 
#8 ·
Recently I couldn't get back to a job where we had wrapped some steel columns with applied panels. The homeowner called and said the electrician needed to open up my panels to pull some wire for sconces and that he wasn't sure how to take my work apart cleanly to do so..I was happy to tell him that because I expected they would be doing that, I had used a few trim head screws that were left exposed so that they could easily take my boxes off. Unfortunately I didn't help myself by gluing everything together...:furious:

I told them to just break it apart as cleanly as possible. Well, most things glued well do not break clean and when I returned a few days later I was left with what looked like a chain saw massacre had occured.

My fault, so I ate some hours and had to rebuild.
 
#10 ·
Ahh, yes. It has long been my opinion that what separates the amateur from the professional is the ability to hide, repair, or otherwise camouflage mistakes. Us pros have had more opportunity to practice at it.
Okay, I'll tell just one. When I first started as a business, I was asked to build a large bookcase. My shop was in our basement. I did the classic. I couldn't get it up the stairs and out the door. Now, I had measured that stairway at least 4 times to be sure that I would be able to. Should have had a few inches to spare. But when the contractor came to pick it up, no go. What happened was that the doorway didn't line up straight with the stairway, so it required the bookcase to go up the steps, then pivot at a little bit of an angle to clear the door jamb. THAT'S where I got screwed.
Well, the steps were old 2" x 6"s, so I just pulled them off, cut a 16" deep x 14" wide notch in the landing, centered with the doorway. Up and out she went. Talk about embarrassing. But repairing the landing was easier than cutting apart/reassembling the cabinet would have been.
That's all I'll tell, though there are, of course, others.:yes:
 
#11 ·
I built a small breakfast table a couple of years ago. After glueing up the top I leaned it against a wall and left it overnight to cure. When I looked at it the next day it had at least 1/2 inch of warp across the 3 foot width. I centered the middle glue joint on the table saw and pushed it through. After jointing the edges I reglued and this time no warping. What surprised me was I lost less than 3/16 inch of wood in the process.
 
#12 ·
This is a very appropriate topic for me right now. I'm in the process of making 3 end tables for my wife. I had all the pieces cut and decided to finish one first to take a little of the heat off (I'm a slow builder...too many hobbies). Anyway, got the first table all put together and was ready to attach the top when I discovered I had put on one of the legs with the wrong orientation. The legs have a slight taper on 2 sides and I obviously totally ignored the marks I had made to ensure I wouldn't put them on wrong....and of course they are screwed and glued. I was really proud of this table because, for a change, my joinery was spot on and assembly went quickly. I was so mad at myself that I haven't touched it for over a week (if I did it would have been firewood). I guess I'll see if it can be saved this week some time, wish me luck!
 
#13 ·
Take your time to do the fix. I would suggest that when you have more than one of something to make, to use the same fabrication, assembly, finishing on all the pieces. It may take longer to do all the pieces, but you are less likely to have one look slightly different than another.

This holds true for finishing. Doing all the pieces at the same time will give more uniformity. So don't be too anxious to see what just one will look like.






 
#14 ·
Too many mistakes to count. On my butcher block table I made rabbets to put some panels in the legs, just to give a little rigidity and "close" the legs in, but I ended up putting the rabbets on the wrong side of the legs. I just made a second rabbet in those two legs and didn't worry about it as I had already planned to rebuild it. It's still that way four years later but my wife says that's my next project. She thinks it's too wobbly (the panels got destroyed during a move and I didn't bother replacing them) so it will be a good excuse to do it right this time.

So many others... I usually use my mistakes as an opportunity to make design "enhancements" so I don't really remember most of them.
 
#15 ·
I'll just list my most recent, forget all the rest. Just built 150' peg&post fence out front out of split redwood. Eighty pieces hand made. After all done and showing it off the wife asks if I lined it up with anything, such as the road, property line or house. " Er, no, just eyeballed it." You all know the punch line to this one. 2 1/2 ft off. Caused an awful fight cuz I ain't moving it.
 
#16 · (Edited)
OK this isn't as good as some here And I wasn't even gonna post this But what the :censored:!! I was commissioned to make 6 plain ole' stright forward poster picture frames for my son 3 smaller ones, and 3 each 24x36 frames . All goes well until ( you guessed it ) the last one. I milled all of the stock from re-claimed pine which was about 5 steps OK all the pieces are cut and milled so on the last piece I cut a 45 degree flipped it around, cut the other in the same direction --------- Well crap !!!!!!! Sooooooooo repeated all the above steps again --------------well that wasn't good enough, OH KNOW ! I had to make the SAME mistake again :furious:. Anyway the THIRD time was the charm Do you have any idea how many times I called myself a :censored::censored::censored: Moron ?? Thank god for the burn barrel.


Chili
 
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