Pretend you know an idiot...

... and this purely hypothetical idiot asks you for advice with the following problem:

He (hypothetically, of course) puts some pencil marks on the wrong edge of a face frame, the outside edge. He realizes his mistake and redoes the marks in the proper place, intending to sand off the ones he made in error. For the sake of argument, let's suppose he forgets to do so, partly because he thought that edge would butt up against another unit and partly due to general absent-mindedness.

Our fictional novice woodworker then proceeds to finish over the marks, only discovering that they will indeed be on an exposed side as he applying the tenth clamp to glue the face frame to the box. He does not take the whole works apart at this point.

So, were such an improbably boneheaded error to actually happen, how would you advise him to fix it? I imagine he would first think to sand it with some pretty coarse sandpaper to get through the poly and pencil, then smooth and refinish. But that sounds pretty laborious. I wonder if he could shave off the tiniest amount with a router (our hypothetical face frame is maybe 3/32" proud of the cabinet edge) and straight-edge.

Reply to
Greg Guarino
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I'd use a card scraper if I ever made a mistake like that... The poly and pencil marks would come off quickly without altering the dimensions...

Reply to
John Grossbohlin

AW come on Greg. I know you would never do that. WW

... and this purely hypothetical idiot asks you for advice with the following problem:

He (hypothetically, of course) puts some pencil marks on the wrong edge of a face frame, the outside edge. He realizes his mistake and redoes the marks in the proper place, intending to sand off the ones he made in error. For the sake of argument, let's suppose he forgets to do so, partly because he thought that edge would butt up against another unit and partly due to general absent-mindedness.

Our fictional novice woodworker then proceeds to finish over the marks, only discovering that they will indeed be on an exposed side as he applying the tenth clamp to glue the face frame to the box. He does not take the whole works apart at this point.

So, were such an improbably boneheaded error to actually happen, how would you advise him to fix it? I imagine he would first think to sand it with some pretty coarse sandpaper to get through the poly and pencil, then smooth and refinish. But that sounds pretty laborious. I wonder if he could shave off the tiniest amount with a router (our hypothetical face frame is maybe 3/32" proud of the cabinet edge) and straight-edge.

Reply to
WW

This is entirely right pondian thinking. A well-fettled smoothing plane would do the job in seconds, if you can get one in there. JG refers to a card scraper. I imagine this is what I would call a cabinet scraper. Bit of hardened steel with a burr formed along the edge(s). Great tools but (1) never to be used on softwood and (2) pita to reshape the burr unless you use them frequently. I think the use of a router would be overkill. That makes me wonder about something, but I'll put my wanderings in another post. Good luck, Nick.

Reply to
Nick

Yup... aka cabinet scraper. RE softwoods, I use them on woods like pine all the time. If well prepared they do a wonderful job on pine and fir. I often use one as an eraser as I do layouts and such as they work far better than a real eraser. I think the "conventional" wisdom is due to dull scrapers not working...

John

Reply to
John Grossbohlin

r advice with the >following problem: I'd use a card scraper if I ever made a mistake like that...

I've made that mistake, before, in a tight spot, hard to conveniently get t o. Rather than a card/cabinet scraper, I used the sharp slightly curved ed ge of my Buckknife, but any sharp slightly curved stout bladed knife will d o. I've done somewhat delicate paint scrapings with this technique and hav e scraped sprayed lacquer runs/bad drips in tight/small places, also. It's a modified card/cabinet scraping technique.... modified for small, tight p laces.

The curved edge allows for site/spot specific scraping.

Sonny

Reply to
Sonny

Pretend that the marks are an avant garde design feature. :-)

Reply to
jo4hn

I (uh, he) considered this idea but worries that his skills with a plane are still in their infancy. The edge in question is almost five feet long. I assume he would need to take down the whole length the same amount even though the pencil marks are confined to three small areas, correct?

Reply to
Greg Guarino

"John Grossbohlin" wrote in news: _MOdne_Vx7d4PODMnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

Concur. That would be my first choice as well.

Reply to
Doug Miller

Incorrect. Use a scraper.

Once through the varnish, alcohol should remove the pencir; or an eraser; or sandpaper; or even the scraper.

Reply to
dadiOH

A perfect place to sign your work?

- - - - So, were such an improbably boneheaded error to actually happen, how would you advise him to fix it? I imagine he would first think to sand it with some pretty coarse sandpaper..clip

Reply to
Joe

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