which side, again?

[brocpuffs]

Once upon a time, there was this woodworker fool who wanted to make a cabinet a bit over 4 feet high.

He liked to make things hard for himself, so he decided to use purpleheart and maple. After all, the gal its for, likes purple-

It was to have both shelves and drawers, so anyone looking at it would forever wonder if it were a shelved cabinet or a drawered bookcase.

In a further attempt to make life more difficult, the woodworker decided to make one of the higher shelves glass-enclosed, with a glass door in the front. Red glass, deep red, on three sides and clear lightly textured glass in the door.

Several thousand purpleheart splinters later, the woodworker finally got 'round to the frames for the glass.

It was decided that the width of the front and glass pieces was a bit excessive (the glass would be heck to replace if broken) so they were both divided into two horizontal panes.

After mislocating the center frame piece of the front by an inch or so, it was further decided to add a second center frame piece so there could be a small vertical pane between the two horizontal ones. You know, different color glass or something.

So it did get a tad difficult keeping track of parts for the frames. Each side has a dado for the glass and a mortise or tenon at each end, so none were interchangeable. Not one.

"OK," thinks the woodworker, "is this the left side or the right side? Or is this the left side of the left side or the right side of the left side, Or the left or right of the center part? Or the right side of the left side or the left side of the right side? Of the left side or the right side of the front or of the back or the left side or the right side?

The woodworker picked up several hundred more purpleheart splinters, and got the frames made.

While SWMBO was measuring for the glass, since the woodworker couldn't tolerate the sight of a ruler, she noticed the center frame part of the back side was also about a half inch or so off center.

hades. I don't care!

James.woodworker.I.think [e-mail]

[Mark & Juanita]

... ouch!

One thing I do with things like that, in an inconspicuous place, or a place to be sanded, on each part I will pencil or mark something like, LLS (Left lower stile), or MR (Middle rail) -- or whatever tickles your fancy and works for you. It's saved me from a number of mistakes, that is, when I actually read what I have written down.

[Bridger]

I generally start with a cad drawing. from that I generate a spreadsheet with a cut list. it has part numbers, part names, materials and dimensions. I write the part numbers on each piece as I rough cut them and transfer the number to a new surface as I work each surface.

I still get them mixed up.

Bridger

[WORSS]

Wow....I have been looking for a friend like you!

Bill

[Jswee]

Heh,heh,heh... Oh, the stories I could tell. Glad to know I'm not the only one who makes the occasional boo-boo.

Jswee

Curmudgeon in Training

[Larry C in Auburn, WA]

Show me a man who makes no mistakes and I'll show you a man that does nothing. Author unknown, but I assume someone said that.

[Mike G]

Doesn't everyone's projects go that way. I thought it was normal.

[Silvan]

Yeah, just make sure the little labels make sense to you a week or two later. (DAMHIKT.)

For walnut, I use little pieces of masking tape.

[The Davenports]

Scared the snot out of myself once when I had a project that I _DIDN'T_ have boo-boos like that. It was also the ONLY time that it ever happened in, oh let's see...2 1/2 decades of this stuff.

Mike

[John Keeney]

Right, both pieces get the same unique mark any where two or more come together, where they come together and oriented the same way. Saves my sanity. I start out with the letters of the english alphabet and progress through the greek skipping easily confused ones like "l" & "I", "M" & "W", "N" & "Z".

[Young_carpenter]

I do hope you post pictures of the project. I think it will look cool anyway. The last time I did a project I don't know how many times I routed the groove on the out side of the rail instead of the inside. I don't know how many times I measured wrong and got the stiles short. I don't know how many times I measured and measurements went wrong anyway. You get the picture. The really cool thing is that I know the mistakes but I have yet to hear "hey how come there is a groove here?" or "how come the bottom stile measures 4" width and not 3" like all the others. Heheh they think it is supposed to be that way. Welcome to the school of hardwood hard knocks ;) BTW you can use chalk for your Parts labeling it usually sands off easily.

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 02:54:39 -0500, "John Keeney" scribbled:

Hey, using Greek letters is my idea! You stole it!

Luigi Replace "nonet" with "yukonomics" for real email address

[John Keeney]

Hey, I had to do something, I was fresh out of useable letters and my poor little brain was to confused with which end I was supposed to be measuring from to make some up from scratch.