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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Perth
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    665

    Default Rookie mistakes! (Head up my butt)? ;o) i.e. Don't do as I do!

    Rather disappointed in myself, for making what I consider some pretty bloody ordinary rookie mistakes the last couple of days!

    There's an old saying "use it or lose it" and damn it's tough getting back into it after a long hiatus.

    I sold up our timber business after my business partner / dad passed in 2005 about mid way thru 2006 - so its been about 7 years since I've done much in the way of carpentry joinery cabinets etc.

    I offered to do a few cabinet jobs for the sparky who connected up my 3 phase to the new shed - as a barter / labor swap arrangement... since I'm tapped out after spending a small fortune to buy and build the shed.

    My first job is a straight forward enough Laundry cabinet!
    Went and got my 2 sheets of 16mm 2400 x 1200 hmr from Bunnings and brought it home.
    Worked out my cutting list and drew myself a diagram...
    Now comes the hard part, breaking the sheets down into manageable sizes!

    So I can't use my X31 Robland coz the long fence and clamps etc I need to attach to the sliding table are on their way to me from the UK as I type!

    I figure I'll just use saw stools, a straight edge, and the hand circular saw to break the sheets down about 5mm oversize... so i can handle them on my own once in smaller chunks. Got the young future son in law around to help me lift the full sheets and handle the pieces as I take them off with the electric makita circular saw.

    First thing - mark out a cut line allowing extra 5mm and clamp a straight edge across the sheet allowing for the set back of the guide plate to the inside edge of the blade. Then I see that my saw still has a friction disc on it from where I was building another blokes steel shed when I last used it.
    Swapped the blade over to a tungsten tipped thin kerf jobbie...

    Good to go right?

    So FSIL holds the piece to be cut off while I push the saw thru... man this is a lot harder work that I remember - just shows you how much muscle tone I've lost thinks I!

    We manage O.K. but its a cold day and I'm in a sweat by the time I have the sheets broken down enough that I can handle it from here on my own.

    Put the pieces in side the shed and the stools and saw away - and call it quits.... coz I'm pretty pooped & its late & FSIL has places to be and things to do so I let him go with many thanks for the hand.

    Next day Friday I'm off with Bob and buy a dusty and bring it home...and Sat I spend most of the day reorganizing the shed unloading the dusty - cleaning it up and so on..

    Sundays Fathers day (and I'm alone in the AM) so I go up the shed to do a little more on this laundry cabinet job.......

    Grab a piece of the melamine, throw it on the saw stools. Grab the hand saw again - do my measurements, allowing the 5 mils and saw setback... clamp the straight edge...check under the board to make sure the saw stools are clear of the cut and awaaaay I go...NOT!

    What the frick...

    Smoke, and I only cut about 10mm and it was tough as all get out - so I stop & look at the blade on the saw!.
    The fricken things on backwards! Yup - a few days ago I cut up 2 sheets with a circular saw with the blade on backwards! No wonder it was so fricken hard to push the saw & I tired so quick.

    So I put the damn thing on the right way round, and it cuts like butter! I cut up all but the last panel, (5mm oversize for the chipping) and then used the jointer to buzz them all down to the proper measurements checking diagonals for square.. And its now I realize just how much i miss my old Altendorf Panel saw with scribe saw and rulers (with big magnifiers on them) etc.

    So a days work and one stuff up discovered.

    Today - all set for a big days push on the laundry cabinet.... I cut the last remaining panel!

    Would you believe it? I checked under the board to make sure the stools were clear of the cut - but it must have moved or I bumped it...coz I cut the end off my saw stool and stopped when the blade hit the steel bolt holding the timber on to the folding saw stool!

    Damn I miss my old factory and machines - I had ways of doing things that worked 100% every time... non of this making do with half azzed ways to do stuff...and making mistakes!

    Today I also edge stripped everything using a hot air gun.... that's when I missed my edge-bander!
    2 mistakes in 2 days - that even a rookie apprentice wouldn't make!
    I am wondering if maybe my head was up my clacker or something!

    Managed to get the cabinet together without further mishap - on my own and using all the makeshift methods. I'm not fast but i get there in the end.

    I am wondering now, if I should quit while I'm ahead - coz in a past life I wouldn't have put up with those sorts of rookie mistakes (from myself or anyone else).

    I am looking forward to my package from the UK hopefully this week so i can use my saw bench as it was designed to be used.... but after all the buzzing boards down on the jointer to get a chip free edge (and seeing the mess it makes of otherwise sharp planer knives when the melamine runs)... I'm seriously thinking about selling the X 31 and buying a newer Robland pro with scribe saw and half panel sliding table etc.

    My Zen journey back into timber work, has started off with a couple flat tyres and I've stuffed the wheel alignment somewhat - but at this stage I'm still on the road at least!

    Tomorrow's another story tho, no telling what mistakes tomorrow will bring!

    If I wasn't so fat I'd kick my own butt for being so stupid, but if I lift one leg off the ground for any length of time I'm likely to fall over and be stranded like a turtle on its back!.

    Don't repeat my mistakes please guys...
    Why'd I make such rookie mistakes?
    Easy coz I'm under the pump to get this thing done and installed tomorrow.
    It's what I hated about commercial cabinet making - working to other peoples time tables, and rushing...that's when mistakes happen.
    Slow and steady wins the prize.
    For me personally timber work is only "fun", when I can do it at my own pace for enjoyment... doing it to make a quid has knobs on it.

    I've had the Robland maybe 3 weeks or so, and I have "jobs" coming out of the damn wood work... can I make someone a dining table, can I make someone an access ramp to their house, can I make the sparky a full kitchen renovation, can I make an old mate some tea room benches etc for his staff at his supermarket (and can I fit it all in under the stairs.... where there's not even standing room)?.

    I'm almost ready to retire again!

    Maybe my return to wood work requires another shift of address and change of name by deed poll so family and friends can't find me!

    So how was your day?

    Cheers

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Towradgi
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    4,835

    Default

    Cheer up, you are human
    Pat
    Work is a necessary evil to be avoided. Mark Twain

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 1999
    Location
    Westleigh, Sydney
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    77
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    Default

    We all know from experience that you don't have to be a rookie to make rookie mistakes.
    Visit my website
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  5. #4
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    North of the coathanger, Sydney
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    68
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    Default

    The saw blade in backtofront is a good one

    I bought a new drill once wondered why it was struggling, ah reverse
    regards
    Nick
    veni, vidi,
    tornavi
    Without wood it's just ...

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Gladstone, QLD
    Age
    71
    Posts
    478

    Default

    I must admit I done the "Drill in Reverse" as well and only recently.

    I haven't done the saw blade on backwards yet but I bet it's coming.

    Yep I suppose we are only human and when we are under the pump mistakes will happen.

    Cheers
    Woody1

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    Brisbane (Chermside)
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    Default

    Thank you Timeless Timber.

    The remainder of us don't feel so bad about our own bonehead mistakes when we know we're in such good company. So far I have executed the drill in reverse manoeuvre a couple of times (haven't we all?), cut a corner off my workbench, cut a groove in the plastic handle of my table saw fence, put another groove in the ally frame of the sliding table on the saw, spilled stain/lacquer over quite a few horizontal surfaces ... it goes on, per tedium ad nauseam ad infinitum.

    One lesson I learned a while ago is that our woodworking is supposed to be fun. To that end I refuse to allow any deadlines in my shop, unless they are self imposed, and even then only in rare circumstances. It will get done when it gets done, and if that is not good enough, please take the job elsewhere.

    Some family members thought I was kidding at first ... they now know better. My lovely niece asked me for a cabinet recently, and enquired about how long it might take ...

    "The end of the queue is adjacent to the Redcliffe jetty".

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Oberon, NSW
    Age
    63
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    13,354

    Default

    Hehe. Nice to know I'm not the only one!

    Still... those particular mistakes didn't prevent the job from being done, even though they have huge potential embarrassment factor.

    My own 'rooky' mistakes tend to be a tad more costly; like purchasing a (badly split) 4" thick blackwood slab and marking it out for bowl & goblet blanks with minimum wastage... then realising, half-way through all the cuts, that for some strange reason I ignored grain direction. Which is the primary difference between a bowl and a goblet blank.

    So I ended up with a few bowl blanks and hundreds of "pen blanks."

    Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed...
    I may be weird, but I'm saving up to become eccentric.

    - Andy Mc

  9. #8
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    North of the coathanger, Sydney
    Age
    68
    Posts
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by John Samuel View Post
    ...

    "The end of the queue is adjacent to the Redcliffe jetty".
    I like that might use it ...
    The end of the queue is adjacent to the Manly Wharf!

    hmm that's only 13km

    The end of the queue is adjacent to the Barrenjoey Lighthouse!
    that's better
    regards
    Nick
    veni, vidi,
    tornavi
    Without wood it's just ...

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    475

    Default

    I feel better now. One of my many stupid mistakes includes lining up and cutting matching dadoes across two panels only to find that I forgot I had temporarily moved one. Of course when I put it back in place I flipped it and didn't bother checking..... it was about 10mm out and I wasted so much time trying to make it work I should have just made a new panel! On the positive, at least I have a story to tell! Unfortunately one of many!

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Victoria
    Posts
    3,191

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Sawdust Maker View Post
    The saw blade in backtofront is a good one I bought a new drill once wondered why it was struggling, ah reverse
    Thanks, that made me feel better.
    Cheers,
    Jim

  12. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    moonbi nsw Aus
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    Default

    Yeh OK I'll put my hand up too. I didn't realise it was an epidemic! I think I have done every one of those "mistakes" at one time or another. Some times I have even repeated it straight after I have just made it.
    Harking back to Mr Timeless, When I have cupboards to make I but lengths of HMR white shelving in widths that are about what I need. They are edged down one side and can be bought in 295,445,550 and 600mm. Without a sliding table they can be rough cut and tidied up. As far as the widths go I used to put the chipped side to the outside (if it wasn't exposed) leaving a crisp line at the back when you open the door. I now have a SCM with scriber which makes things easy.

    As for deadlines....with my depression one other complaint is a panic feeling as the time slides away getting closer to the deadline. Then the brain starts the "What ifs" what is I have measured wrong, what if they are not happy with the job, what if.... By the time I have installed what I have created all I want to do is escape.

    I have a woman up the road who gets me to jobs for her from time to time. My family reckon I should say NO when she rings up......but the cash is handy to fund the sheds appetite. It also gets me off my derriere and gets me thinking of something else.

    Over 18 months ago I decided to rearrange the layout in the shed and it meant moving the wood lathe. I had made it to be freestanding but with the move to a new position, and looking for a project to divert my thinking around Christmas, I decided to make a bench with drawers under the lathe. (Chritmas for some reason brings on a real deep depression for me, can never figure out why) Well the bench got made, but not completed even now, but it was only about 3 months ago that I got the lathe operational again. One thing though, I have had a renewed interest in it which has been great.

    I have quite a lot of irons in the fire but only tinker with them instead of getting them done and out of the way. And yes it gets frustrating. The job of making the banjos for the TS&TR was in the pipeline for at least 3 years but now they are done YIPPEE
    Just do it!

    Kind regards Rod

  13. #12
    Join Date
    Jun 1999
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    How did that happen?
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  14. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Dundowran Beach
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    76
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    19,922

    Thumbs up

    Coulda been worse TT.

    Had a craft lecturer at Teachers' College who was demonstrating how NOT to
    use a table saw. Sliced a finger off!!

  15. #14
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    Nov 2011
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    Sutherland Shire, Sydney
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    Default

    I've found that putting a chainsaw blade on backwards has a strange effect.
    The cutting efficiency is about the same, whether the motor is going or not.

    Alan...

  16. #15
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Conder, ACT
    Age
    77
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    6,051

    Default

    Bandsaw blade don't work in reverse.

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