I made a cabinet way too fast; help me make it look good.

[Wade Lippman]

1) I cut my rabbets a bit too small, so I sanded the the boards; way too much. When went to assemble the cabinet, it fell apart and glue went everywhere. I cleaned it up the best I could and tried again. This time I did a little better. But, the stain looked lousy. I sanded like crazy, and re stained. Not too bad. Got every thing except a bit in the corners. I tried with a profile sander, but couldn't get enough off to help. Supposedly you you can put a tinted varnish on to hid it. Var golden oak stain and polyurethane on red oak. It is really not too bad unless some one shines a flashlight into the corners, but it bothers me. How do i go about it? My wife can't see the problem, but it bugs me.

2) Bigger problem is that the box is not square and leans a 1/2" over 30". I figure that means the corners are 89degrees rather than 90degrees. Presumably I can make the panel doors fit by making all the miter cuts at

89degrees. Will that work, at least to fit the doors properly?

I also figure I can make the mistake less noticable by putting some 1/4" felt pads under one side. That should make the the vertical lines a bit better, but hurt the horizontal lines; hopefully neither will be off by enough to matter. (As it is, my wife thinks it looks perfect. I did also until I tried it tight to the wall and saw there was a 1/2" gap at the top.)

Any advice on these (other than not being is such a hurry next time) would be appreciated.

[Dave Balderstone]

This may help...

djb

[Silvan]

I have a great book. Let me go find it...

"Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy. (Nagyszalanczy??? WTF??? I thought Wawrzycka was bad, but that one takes the cake.)

Anyway, I highly recommend it as a way to get inspiration for fixing your f-up now, and for seeing the sort of stupid things you're likely to do, and avoid them in the future.

[Mike G]

Put the cabinet in a prominent place in your shop. Somewhere where you can see it at all times, maybe trip over it once and awhile. Buy new stock and do the job over again.

[skeezics]

well now sounds like you have the perfect SHOP cabinet!! now that you"ve got the practice cabinet done all you need to do it SLOW DOWN and do the real cabinet. don"t feel poorly i have a whole shop full of PRACTICE cabinets. that way i dont have to explain about needing extra material for the shop to SWMBO. works for me!!!!!!!!!! skeez

[Dennis Slabaugh, Hobbyist Wood]

Wade, For a good book reference on problem solving you might want to take a look at a book I contributed to called " The Woodworker's Problem Solver". It was a Rodale book but now under the control of Reader's Digest Books since they bought Rodale's woodworking publishing division. Good luck on the next project.

[Sammy]

Agreed. Newbie though I am, I say don't try to fix a mistake beyond a reasonable point. Use it in the shop if you can, and make a new one the right way.

Remember the mistakes you made on that one, and try not to do it again. Keeping it in your shop will serve as a reminder ;-)

[Silvan]

That's funny. I have a bunch of Rodale "problem solver" books, but never knew they did wood stuff. I thought they were mostly a gardening publisher.

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

I never new they did gardening, I thought they published magazines about bicycling and organic living.

Barry

[Silvan]

Alllll righty then. I guess they're just another Corporation Corporation.