Planing a tiny little piece of wood on sandpaper….brilliant. You should do a video on cool little tricks like this. Cutting small wedges is another one I struggle with. Love your content Rob.cheers
i am retired now, but spent my life making commission furniture. as you say when you are designing and making from scratch every time, there will always be mistakes. i hate to admit, but the odd time i made something without a mistake, was a celebration day. as long as my customer could not see it i was happy.
It's a nice reminder. Even on simple projects I find myself making at least one (significant or minor) mistake every single project. But we do if for the love of the craft. Thanks Rob!
All of the mistakes can happen to anyone what is incredible the way you adapt and adjust using your skill and experience to fix it. Thank you for sharing your genius fixes. Take care.
thanks for this video, I always appreciate when top level craftsmen like yourself not only admit to making mistakes but show them so we lesser mortals can hopefully learn and improve our skills. Beautiful pieces and I especially love that standing desk.
I remember those pieces from your video library. Great pieces and a wonderful journey with each. Anyone who hasn't viewed them is really missing out. I learned a ton.
These videos are incredibly helpful, especially the concluding remarks. It's so easy to get discouraged and frustrated because my skills aren't at the level where I want them to be. Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who still owes family Christmas presents from last year, haha.
All of those pieces you made are incredible. So much craftsmanship. I can only wish l had one percent of your skills. The sense of satisfaction l get from doing something a million times more simple makes the effort worthwhile. Thanks for sharing with us Rob.
Wow...The way you found each answer for your mistakes are worth by itself...At the end you are a better woodworker than before... My father was a professional woodworker and was frustated and after find the answer was happy again...when I asked why?He said now I know two ways to do... Congratulations from Brazil
Really nice Rob. It’s important for one such as yourself to show that we’re all in this together so to speak, and we’re all fallible at times to one degree or another, and that there are solutions to fix these problems. It’s important to make mistakes, otherwise there is no learning. Thanks and carry on.
Hi Rob! Thanks for tips. Always good stuff my friend. I remember a video of yours, oh...maybe a year or so ago where you had dovetail gap repair like this. Only it was a tiny dovetail so the patch pieces were even more ridiculous than the little ones in this video. The thing that was so memorable about it was that you actually put that itty bitty piece in the shooting board and shot it with the 5-1/2! That was the most impressive bit of shooting I ever saw. Wicked skill with a 5-1/2.
This made me feel much better. I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since my classes with Rob on Grassy Brook Rd by the brook! Thanks for keeping us all humble.
Hey Rob! Don't know if it's been noticed yet, but the Mistake #9 is labeled Mitsake #9 . FYI. Keep up the great work and thanks for showing us the "warts and all." Especially helpful for this newbie woodworker...
Thank you for sharing. It is nice to see how you modified or fixed things and I can learn so much. I have people ask if they can make something in my shop. I let them know I am not a teacher and it is their project not mine and I won't do it for them, I also tell them that whatever they have ingrained in their head of what they want to know (especially with a first project) that it most likely won't be the exact same. There is always anything that could happen that will cause you to have to modify it in some way. I have had disappointed people but mostly they are ok with the changes.
I have heard my older apprentices tell the newer ones that I am the "Feature King". Part of their training is a large number of "oopsies" and "&*%%* 's", some of them intentional but most are just me being too busy running around with my hair on fire. When they are new they think I am an old dumbass, but when they are ready to break out they start to really get it. I always urge craftspeople to take on apprentices, even if you are unsure of your own skills- you WILL grow into the role. Thanks Rob- love to see your work. About to "retire" and like to watch you guys on YT and drink my coffee.
During Covid, we had to replace our fence, and I chose to do it myself. I used 1" thick cedar, and had all the boards delivered. I had them choose the wood, knowing that I would return anything that was warped, or otherwise unusable. I received the load, and proceeded to sort it by colour and patterns. I spent a lot of time making sure everything was going to look great when laid out, board edge to board edge. With the help of my wife, and a friend, we dug the holes, and put in posts, and then started to put boards on the gate I had designed, but ran into a snag. I don't remember exactly what it was - I think it was related to a fit issue - but about 17 boards had been put up against the garage in reverse order, so they would be added to the gate in the correct order once we went back to adding those boards. I was clamping each board to the 2x4's, and pre-drilling holes in the boards, and while I can't say for sure, I'm sure my two helpers pulled those boards off the stack in the wrong order, because the pattern didn't look like it should have. Dark edges were supposed to line up with dark edges, light edges with light, etc - but it didn't pan out. Sometimes, the best laid plans .....
I don't think i've ever had a build where there wasn't a mistake that needed fixing along the way. Over the weekend I cut some mortise and tenons and hadn't cut any in quite a while and made so many mistakes I thought i'd have to put it together with epoxy instead of wood glue. By the time I was done it was wood glue and tight lines. I'm also not a mock up person - I jump right in on exotic wood and have at it. I think it's that "sink or swim" attitude that helps me so much fixing mistakes. Everyone is different though... good to see the pros have the same struggles as us mere mortals.
Greetings from the BIG SKY of Montana. I sit in a Livingroom full of stuff I FINALLY got built. The number of errors I made was many, but I learned, too.
Thnx, Rob-great honesty and fantastic thoughts on how to make the most of mistakes. I’m now inspired to be inventive and make my own new mistakes 😂 I have to ask: The intro slide for Mistake #9-was the typo a mistake or purposeful to see if we’re all paying attention? 😂😂😂
The smaller projects seem to always be the most challenging. I just built a little dovetailed box to house my new card scrappers. Sounds simple enough. Boy did I complicate the hell out of it. Total learning experience. I also feel like I did things backwards. I've only been doing this a few years and I jumped right in building furniture. In hind site I wish I'd started out building boxes and things of that nature. There's alot to learn in the "simple" stuff.
Compared to you Rob, I am like a caveman trying to work on the Hubble Telescope! But it is refreshing to see that not only does an incredible craftsman like yourself make mistakes from time to time, but has the humility to share them. I will say that every now and then, my mistakes have also turned out to be advantageous to the project-what Bob Ross would have called a "happy accident". I also take comfort in the old woodworking mantra "it's only a mistake if you can't fix it".
My guess on the different oxidization on the cherry drawers is different thickness and/or breath-ability, perhaps the air isn't circulating in the drawer like the rest of the cabinet?
Your Building new projects, I repair furniture and as old as 1870's. I have taken photos of what I'm fixing before I take it apart to make sure I put it back together like it was, cause most the time I don't get a second chance to correct it.
Krazy Glue works wonders for small parts. Be sure to line up your assembly right the first time. The stop blocks on my sharpening jig angle setter are all glued that way and not screwed or brad pinned in place. I have dropped that jig many times and nothing happens to it. I would have glued the small knobs for you jewelry cabinet in place with a drop or two of Krazy Glue. Just remember if you want to remove or reset that piece you will have to chisel it off and start fresh. I have a book around here somewhere called "Fixing Woodworking Mistakes" or somesuch that gives ~ 200 examples. If I find it I will post the ISBN. The Toledo Art Museum has a tall black walnut and glass doored chest from the mid 1500s. Years ago I talked a guard into allowing me to closely inspect it. It is FULL of screwups that you can't see 2 feet away from it. Dutchmen are everywhere, and chisel slips, too. Imagine screwing up and having to make a new board by hand with era 1500 hand tools to replace it.
I have an early 19th century false sewing table, with one real drawer with half-blind dovetail construction. The front of the drawer is southern yellow pine veneered with hand cut mahogany veneer. The builder made a mistake in dimensions, cutting the dove tails as if he assumed the pin board thickness plus veneer thickness was the full thickness of the un-veneered pin board. The tails were cut, leaving a gap at the bottom of the dovetails when the drawer was assembled. The maker shimmed each of the pins at the bottom with a piece of veneer. Whoever made the drawer did not check their work or assumptions, and did not mark the mating board using a previously prepared piece.
Really good video, lots of useful info on how to find solutions when you inevitably make a booboo, but you forgot one major and important one I don't think anyone would think of and would be very useful, heard you mention it during a live - be careful drilling holes into a piece of wood that will be veneered, as if you drill the hole to close to the top where the veneer will go, the veneer can sink and show the hole, or at least that's what I remember you telling someone.
3:50 The color difference may be caused because the endgrain is more exposed. Once in a while you onpen the drawer, might leave it open or so. Otherwise I don't know either
When we make a creative modification successfully to accommodate an error we have earned the right to call it "customization", "design feature" or "accent".
Wow, what a craftsman. Please continue to teach us on how to work around mistakes. If it can happen to Rob, for sure it has and will happen to the likes of us woodworkers. Thanks Rob, you are an inspiration.
This is THE video for new wood workers to watch. Turn the mistake to your advantage. Learn from it. Fix it in such a way that it is not noticeable. Don't advertise the mistakes you made, just roll with it.
Mistakes are an opportunity to prove to yourself how ingenious you are at getting out of jail. You can almost kid yourself that the knowledge gained is full compensation for time waisted and margins squeezed...almost but not quite. In the end, goofs are a fact of life, as the impact marks on my workshop wall will attest.
Sorry man, I don’t see any mistakes. If nobody sees them but you, it never happened. That’s the true mark of a craftsman. Not to disregard @darththechippie4439 ‘s comment. I agree with him as well.
![Kodak Black - Versatile 4 [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VcP_1Ua__vY/mqdefault.jpg)
If you liked this video check out this one where rob shows you three ways to attached a top to a table: ruclips.net/video/Nl7XTz5zKFk/видео.html
Thank you for the inspiration Rob to make mistakes and carry on!
Planing a tiny little piece of wood on sandpaper….brilliant. You should do a video on cool little tricks like this. Cutting small wedges is another one I struggle with. Love your content Rob.cheers
I used to do this till I found double stick tape. One tiny slip and the sole gets scratched up. Modern tapes are incredible.
Problem Is when you try to peel off tape from a 1/32 thick piece of wood
Thank you for sharing your mistakes! Your awesome!
Great video Rob. It was a pleasure meeting with you last week and thanks for taking the time to show us around the shop!
i am retired now, but spent my life making commission furniture. as you say when you are designing and making from scratch every time, there will always be mistakes. i hate to admit, but the odd time i made something without a mistake, was a celebration day. as long as my customer could not see it i was happy.
It's a nice reminder. Even on simple projects I find myself making at least one (significant or minor) mistake every single project. But we do if for the love of the craft. Thanks Rob!
I always make mistakes on every project
All of the mistakes can happen to anyone what is incredible the way you adapt and adjust using your skill and experience to fix it. Thank you for sharing your genius fixes. Take care.
Absolutely!
thanks for this video, I always appreciate when top level craftsmen like yourself not only admit to making mistakes but show them so we lesser mortals can hopefully learn and improve our skills. Beautiful pieces and I especially love that standing desk.
I remember those pieces from your video library. Great pieces and a wonderful journey with each.
Anyone who hasn't viewed them is really missing out. I learned a ton.
Glad you enjoyed it
These videos are incredibly helpful, especially the concluding remarks. It's so easy to get discouraged and frustrated because my skills aren't at the level where I want them to be. Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who still owes family Christmas presents from last year, haha.
Yes thats happend to memore than one Christmas
You have given me renewed hope for filling the gaps on my dovetails!!
You can do it
All of those pieces you made are incredible. So much craftsmanship. I can only wish l had one percent of your skills. The sense of satisfaction l get from doing something a million times more simple makes the effort worthwhile. Thanks for sharing with us Rob.
Wow...The way you found each answer for your mistakes are worth by itself...At the end you are a better woodworker than before...
My father was a professional woodworker and was frustated and after find the answer was happy again...when I asked why?He said now I know two ways to do...
Congratulations from Brazil
Thanks for the comment
Thank you for sharing these fortunate mistakes.
Nice 'Savior' "Easter Egg". Well impressed Rob. Will have to use it.
Really nice Rob. It’s important for one such as yourself to show that we’re all in this together so to speak, and we’re all fallible at times to one degree or another, and that there are solutions to fix these problems. It’s important to make mistakes, otherwise there is no learning. Thanks and carry on.
This is so encouraging- when the master tells you mistakes will happen it gives me renewed hope with my efforts - thanks Rob!
You can do it
Hi Rob! Thanks for tips. Always good stuff my friend. I remember a video of yours, oh...maybe a year or so ago where you had dovetail gap repair like this. Only it was a tiny dovetail so the patch pieces were even more ridiculous than the little ones in this video. The thing that was so memorable about it was that you actually put that itty bitty piece in the shooting board and shot it with the 5-1/2!
That was the most impressive bit of shooting I ever saw. Wicked skill with a 5-1/2.
You have to love the 5-1/2
This made me feel much better. I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since my classes with Rob on Grassy Brook Rd by the brook! Thanks for keeping us all humble.
Great video, I really enjoyed it! Thanks Rob and Team 👏👏
Thnaks for watching
Great video. I always learn alot from you.
Brilliant. I only wish my mistakes were so minor. Love the trick for recovering dovetail gaps. I just know that's one I'm going to use!
Hey Rob! Don't know if it's been noticed yet, but the Mistake #9 is labeled Mitsake #9 . FYI. Keep up the great work and thanks for showing us the "warts and all." Especially helpful for this newbie woodworker...
Thank you for sharing. It is nice to see how you modified or fixed things and I can learn so much. I have people ask if they can make something in my shop. I let them know I am not a teacher and it is their project not mine and I won't do it for them, I also tell them that whatever they have ingrained in their head of what they want to know (especially with a first project) that it most likely won't be the exact same. There is always anything that could happen that will cause you to have to modify it in some way. I have had disappointed people but mostly they are ok with the changes.
Beautifully mitigated mistakes! If only RUclips were as forgiving as woodworking that "Mitsake #9" title screen could be fixed, too 😆
You stole my thunder! Lol
Fantastic fun, Rob. And - no surprise - all elegant solutions, and I learned a thing or two. Thanks!
Thanks for watching
There's always something, isn't it?
Thanks for the video, Rob.
I have heard my older apprentices tell the newer ones that I am the "Feature King". Part of their training is a large number of "oopsies" and "&*%%* 's", some of them intentional but most are just me being too busy running around with my hair on fire. When they are new they think I am an old dumbass, but when they are ready to break out they start to really get it.
I always urge craftspeople to take on apprentices, even if you are unsure of your own skills- you WILL grow into the role. Thanks Rob- love to see your work. About to "retire" and like to watch you guys on YT and drink my coffee.
You never cease to amaze me. Cheers.
Well I hopwd the video helped
How humble is this guy, Dude your mistakes are minuscule compared to most people. Love this Guy
Great stuff, sir.
That was the best intro line on a RUclips woodworking video this year. True!
Wow, thanks!
Very helpful to share your mistakes and solutions! Thank you.
Glad you liked it
Rob, you make awesome mistakes. I don't call them mistakes anymore. They are creative changes to the original plan.
Thanks for sharing, brother!
I like that!
During Covid, we had to replace our fence, and I chose to do it myself. I used 1" thick cedar, and had all the boards delivered. I had them choose the wood, knowing that I would return anything that was warped, or otherwise unusable. I received the load, and proceeded to sort it by colour and patterns. I spent a lot of time making sure everything was going to look great when laid out, board edge to board edge. With the help of my wife, and a friend, we dug the holes, and put in posts, and then started to put boards on the gate I had designed, but ran into a snag. I don't remember exactly what it was - I think it was related to a fit issue - but about 17 boards had been put up against the garage in reverse order, so they would be added to the gate in the correct order once we went back to adding those boards. I was clamping each board to the 2x4's, and pre-drilling holes in the boards, and while I can't say for sure, I'm sure my two helpers pulled those boards off the stack in the wrong order, because the pattern didn't look like it should have. Dark edges were supposed to line up with dark edges, light edges with light, etc - but it didn't pan out. Sometimes, the best laid plans .....
I don't think i've ever had a build where there wasn't a mistake that needed fixing along the way. Over the weekend I cut some mortise and tenons and hadn't cut any in quite a while and made so many mistakes I thought i'd have to put it together with epoxy instead of wood glue. By the time I was done it was wood glue and tight lines. I'm also not a mock up person - I jump right in on exotic wood and have at it. I think it's that "sink or swim" attitude that helps me so much fixing mistakes. Everyone is different though... good to see the pros have the same struggles as us mere mortals.
Greetings from the BIG SKY of Montana. I sit in a Livingroom full of stuff I FINALLY got built. The number of errors I made was many, but I learned, too.
as a young woodoworker, this video is very encouraging as I often make silly mistakes.
I do to!
Mistakes what heck are those??? We NEVER make mistakes Rob, Jake & Luther!!!!😂
Ammed..CQ CQ CQ
Rob, on the piece with the hidden drawers, what saw did you use for the drawers? There is almost no gap at all. Amazing.
Thnx, Rob-great honesty and fantastic thoughts on how to make the most of mistakes. I’m now inspired to be inventive and make my own new mistakes 😂 I have to ask: The intro slide for Mistake #9-was the typo a mistake or purposeful to see if we’re all paying attention? 😂😂😂
Some really good saves there!
Saved by the bell!!!!!
The smaller projects seem to always be the most challenging. I just built a little dovetailed box to house my new card scrappers. Sounds simple enough. Boy did I complicate the hell out of it. Total learning experience. I also feel like I did things backwards. I've only been doing this a few years and I jumped right in building furniture. In hind site I wish I'd started out building boxes and things of that nature. There's alot to learn in the "simple" stuff.
I agree with you. Good advise others should follow
Thank YOU!
Compared to you Rob, I am like a caveman trying to work on the Hubble Telescope! But it is refreshing to see that not only does an incredible craftsman like yourself make mistakes from time to time, but has the humility to share them. I will say that every now and then, my mistakes have also turned out to be advantageous to the project-what Bob Ross would have called a "happy accident". I also take comfort in the old woodworking mantra "it's only a mistake if you can't fix it".
My guess on the different oxidization on the cherry drawers is different thickness and/or breath-ability, perhaps the air isn't circulating in the drawer like the rest of the cabinet?
Only 9 mistakes. Rookie, I’ve got a whole lot more than that. lol. I enjoy the creative ways folks solve problems. Thanks for sharing.
I have a lot more too, but these werereadily avalible to film
Your Building new projects, I repair furniture and as old as 1870's. I have taken photos of what I'm fixing before I take it apart to make sure I put it back together like it was, cause most the time I don't get a second chance to correct it.
Krazy Glue works wonders for small parts. Be sure to line up your assembly right the first time. The stop blocks on my sharpening jig angle setter are all glued that way and not screwed or brad pinned in place. I have dropped that jig many times and nothing happens to it.
I would have glued the small knobs for you jewelry cabinet in place with a drop or two of Krazy Glue. Just remember if you want to remove or reset that piece you will have to chisel it off and start fresh.
I have a book around here somewhere called "Fixing Woodworking Mistakes" or somesuch that gives ~ 200 examples. If I find it I will post the ISBN.
The Toledo Art Museum has a tall black walnut and glass doored chest from the mid 1500s. Years ago I talked a guard into allowing me to closely inspect it. It is FULL of screwups that you can't see 2 feet away from it. Dutchmen are everywhere, and chisel slips, too. Imagine screwing up and having to make a new board by hand with era 1500 hand tools to replace it.
Question! How often do you have another person giving you ideas during/after you finish the mockup?
Love the jewelry box for your wife. Do you have a video from when you made it?
It is one of the many projects in our online workshop.
The mark of a true craftsman is someone who makes mistakes and is not embarrassed to show the world. Its not the mistake, its how you fix it
Well said
The craftsman that never made a mistake, never made anything
That is also the difference between a professional musician and a amateur musician, the professional is better at covering up the mistakes.
Some one said that half the art of being a master is being able to cover or fix your mistakes. I think I have made most of these....
I have an early 19th century false sewing table, with one real drawer with half-blind dovetail construction. The front of the drawer is southern yellow pine veneered with hand cut mahogany veneer. The builder made a mistake in dimensions, cutting the dove tails as if he assumed the pin board thickness plus veneer thickness was the full thickness of the un-veneered pin board. The tails were cut, leaving a gap at the bottom of the dovetails when the drawer was assembled. The maker shimmed each of the pins at the bottom with a piece of veneer. Whoever made the drawer did not check their work or assumptions, and did not mark the mating board using a previously prepared piece.
that's the prettiest piece of poplar furniture I've seen
I think it was Bob Ross that said "there are no mistakes in craftsmanship...only happy accidents"
It's not a mistake, it's a feature...
Quoting Ron Swanson:
"It's too perfect, looks machine made"
Really good video, lots of useful info on how to find solutions when you inevitably make a booboo, but you forgot one major and important one I don't think anyone would think of and would be very useful, heard you mention it during a live - be careful drilling holes into a piece of wood that will be veneered, as if you drill the hole to close to the top where the veneer will go, the veneer can sink and show the hole, or at least that's what I remember you telling someone.
I've heard someone say something like:
"The key to success is not to learn to do everything right, but to learn how to cover up your mistakes." :)
Ah, Rob. I wish I were as good as you are to make any of the mistakes you pointed out. Mr .001
It pleases me to see you come back from an error. I did, too.
3:50 The color difference may be caused because the endgrain is more exposed. Once in a while you onpen the drawer, might leave it open or so. Otherwise I don't know either
When we make a creative modification successfully to accommodate an error we have earned the right to call it "customization", "design feature" or "accent".
I loved the "Mistake #9" - was that intended?
Defeated by spell checker - "Mitsake #9"
Wow, what a craftsman. Please continue to teach us on how to work around mistakes. If it can happen to Rob, for sure it has and will happen to the likes of us woodworkers. Thanks Rob, you are an inspiration.
My dad always called mistakes “unanticipated design enhancements”.
Rob, it’s not a mistake if you can fix it. It’s then a modification !!!!😉
I refer to my screwups as "design evolution". Most of my projects end up evolving at least a little bit.
This is THE video for new wood workers to watch. Turn the mistake to your advantage. Learn from it. Fix it in such a way that it is not noticeable. Don't advertise the mistakes you made, just roll with it.
My favorite way of fixing is to make the mistake a feature and claim it as a stroke of design genius
I am new to woodworking, so will someone tell me what fine furniture is? Is it the design, the materials, the craftsmanship? Something else?
When are your planes hitting the market?
Soon is the best I can do for now!
Hi guys, how's baby moss doing these days?
If you look for the imperfections you won't see the beauty
Every big job starts off as a small one.
Your bench says "In Memory of..." but I could not see who.....
Bob Lipic, Fellow Craftsman.
Mistakes are an opportunity to prove to yourself how ingenious you are at getting out of jail. You can almost kid yourself that the knowledge gained is full compensation for time waisted and margins squeezed...almost but not quite. In the end, goofs are a fact of life, as the impact marks on my workshop wall will attest.
Hey just build furniture , not need to be FINE . 😂🤣😂👍👍👍👍
Why not ?
Depends on your perspective I guess
Mistake #10 - labeling your #9 as a Mi*ts*ake (at 19:54 ) ;)
Re Mistake #3: I *totally* saw that mistake immediately- NOT.
Mess up, fix it, and then brag about it!
Sounds good to me
Rob's techniques are top notch, but his designs are pretty lame. Too flat. Too bland. Too boring.
I love you too!
Sorry man, I don’t see any mistakes. If nobody sees them but you, it never happened. That’s the true mark of a craftsman. Not to disregard @darththechippie4439 ‘s comment. I agree with him as well.
Nevertell anyone they will never know