A couple things I learned in the last week - anyone else ever do this?

[smorris]

I'm in the midst of building a mobile base for my planer and sanding machines. I had a lot of room for drawers so I decided this was the time to learn to use my HF dovetailing jig and how to put drawer slides in properly. Managed to get the dovetail jig all dialed in and was rather pleased at that.

1st mistake - I was so pleased with how the dovetails came out and how nice it all fit that I glued the drawer up and went off for a bit to do some other stuff. Came back and picked up the drawer to mount it only to discover I had forgotten to slide the bottom into the grooves. D'OH. Lesson, don't get ahead of yourself.

2nd mistake - I forgot to account for the fact that the dovetails were half blind and the drawer is about a 1/2" too long for the carcase. Lesson, do the math before you start and don't forget to think carefully about how things will go together.

Live and learn, that drawer will end up somewhere I can see it on the wall for a while to remind me about paying attention to details. At least the rest of them came out OK after I realized what I had done.

[LCHIEN]

the thing to learn is that woodworking is not very tolerant of oversights and haste.

You have to plan, take your time and think things through. Good practice for life.

[chopnhack]

Well said Loring. I suspect smorris has gotten bored with his bathroom vent project and has stolen some needed shop time when wife wasn't looking
Just kidding, all things in moderation including work.

[Crash2510]

I always make mistakes when I get in a hurry don't use things going well as a reason to get lax on your measuring system etc

on a lighter note congrats on figuring out the hf dovetail jig

[Uncle Cracker]

I thought I had made a mistake once, but apparently I was in error...

[mpc]

Sounds like you just made a display case to hang on the wall... like a deep picture frame.
Or a wall mounted dedicated storage cabinet for some special tool - whatever happens to fit it best!

mpc

[charliex]

I agree with mpc. You did not make any mistakes; you only built a (insert name here) a project that you were planning to do in the near future anyway. Worst case it was a practice drawer to test the HF dovetail jig or as us real woodworkers call it "a prototype". We use these to test that all our plans & dimensions are correct. I think that means that we get to make a mistake before we make a mistake on the real project, which means that it's not a real mistake .
Chas

[lrogers]

Yeah, prototype, that's the ticket! Actually, if you got the Harbor Freight dove tail jig dialed in using the instructions that came with it, you get a gold star regardless of the other difficulties.

[mater]

Guess I am not the only one to have to redo a drawer last week. I measured one 2 times and still cut it wrong.

[smorris]

Well said Loring. I suspect smorris has gotten bored with his bathroom vent project and has stolen some needed shop time when wife wasn't looking
Just kidding, all things in moderation including work.

Actually that is almost complete. All the ducting is in place and the fan for the kids bathroom is installed. Still have to install the master bath fan but that gets to wait until I return from Europe in a couple weeks.

Prototype, yea I like that.

Per instructions here, I tossed the HF jig instructions and worked from the PC ones and some good documentation provided on this site.