Act in haste repent at your leisure

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Yup these were the words i heard all the time growing up from my Dad. Somehow, someday i might actually begin to listen. :eek::(

Yesterday i snuck out of work, given i was under the impression it was going to be the absolutely last day of the year to be able to do any shop stuff out in the garage.

I am working on the usual 3 -5 projects at a time. Dont ask i know. :rofl:

In my mind it was simple, cut this cut that then drag indoors and finish during winter. Cut this dado that and assemble indoors during winter. YEAH RIGHT>!!!

Can you believe i even put my handbrake on and took the time to be diligent and use a pencil to draw the areas that needed cutting and dadoing.

Then even did test cuts. Another amazing lesson for me.

So convinced i am all prepared I step back and give things another once over and "convince myself" everything is gonna be alright.....this time. :rofl:

Yeah for a guy that is short on a sense of humor i am trying hard to keep a lighter side to life lately its either that or get me one of those Soylent Green pills.

Then i hear a rattle at the door and think was that someone trying to get in not knowing i am here. Just to fill you in I am at this point in the garage with the door down just to keep the cold wind out. Was about 8 degrees Celsius and not bad to work in. So i go open the door and just in time i catch my mechanic friend on his way down the driveway about to leave. He was just passing by, knows i work from home so he popped in on the off chance i would be here. He wanted to show me some parts of a Chevy Hotrod he is doing up and had just been to another friend of his to sandblast bits and pieces.

Well we spend some time catching up and then i mention to him my scrap bin and tell him i have been saving this for him. They burn wood during winter and he aint fussy about what he burns. (which suprises me because he is passed the age of diy chimney man).
Anyhow after loading him up he leaves with my bin of scrap which made more space to store things for winter.

So i get back to my multi project work routine. Now i figure where i left off i was ready for cutting.

So a cutting i go. Then i figure what the heck eh, i have sorted this all out properly i will wade through the second cabinet at the same time. I had previously cut all the pieces out of flat ply in one go.

Get it all done and now i am excited to see it go together. Thats when it hits me.

I cut the rear and two sides to my "new to be" mechanical tool draws, cabinet, incorrectly. The back was to fit in between the two sides not the sides fit to the back panel. :doh::eek::(

At that stage i put the lights off and went inside to get ready to take Linda down to see the Maple Leafs loose another hockey match at the Air Canada Center playing the Predators. Lost 4 to 2. We left 7 minutes before the end the game was so bad its unbelievable that people come out in their hordes to support this team. As people say the maple leafs in Toronto are like a religion. We had been given tickets ($170 per seat) and while there i did a lookup and the arena holds 19800 people when packed and the average across the board ticket price is $124 and change. It is always packed and seats sold out even if they empty. Go figure what they gross each night its full.

But today is a new day and mother nature has given me a second chance by the looks of it. Going to be 10 degrees c here later today, so i might do a take two and try to recover my work. Will make some filler strips, these aint anything more than shop cabs, and recut properly. I had really hoped this project was going to be the one that was different. Dang i envy you guys that can do it flawlessly.

But my other motto is , " If at first you dont succeed, try and try again,.......then give up before you make a complete fool of yourself" :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Enjoy your day everyone. Winter is around that corner. :p
 
Dang i envy you guys that can do it flawlessly.
I will to when I meet them.. (while I'm familiar with Glenns work vicariously through here I've never met him :D). Seriously most things are more about knowing how to do graceful recovery than successful initial execution.

But my other motto is , " If at first you dont succeed, try and try again,.......then give up before you make a complete fool of yourself" :rofl::rofl::rofl:

I'm leaning more towards a life success mantra (to long to be a moto):
Success is
The irrational belief you can do it
The stubbornness to keep trying when you fail
The willingness to live with whatever comes out the other side.
 
I was discussing guitar solos with a friend recently, and mentioned that I'm getting better, but still hit a few wrong notes along the way. One of my bandmates call those "the jazz notes". I mentioned the jazz notes to my friend, and he said "Just play them twice in a row, and it sounds like you planned it that way."

To me, the real mark of a Journeyman is how well he handles his mistakes. This applies to woodworking, music, and probably any other creative endeavor. ;)
 
$170 per seat! If you wanted to watch the Seahawks play New Orleans the Monday after next, it would cost you $250 plus for nosebleed seats (the only ones available). At least they are winning. But I would not do it. I keep thinking of the wood or tools I could buy. I like American football, but not that much.

As for minimizing mistakes, take small bites (meaning don't try to do too much at any one time) and every time you start again the next day or are interrupted, walk through the process in your mind again, verifying all your assumptions and remeasure everything. It does not prevent all mistakes, but it sure has cut down on the number for me.
 
Going to be 10 degrees c here later today, so i might do a take two and try to recover my work. Will make some filler strips, these aint anything more than shop cabs, and recut properly.

I know I have a shop cabinet somewhere in the shop that I used a filler strip to recover from an errant dado. The lessons I learn the most painfully stick the best :eek:. The filler worked fine and I can't even remember which cabinet I used it on. Go get 'em :thumb:.
 
It's 1º, going down to -5 today. I was thinking of getting my sander out and shaping tghe irons on some of my new planes. Our American friends in the Midwest have it pretty cold today, too.

Who the hell are the predators?

I've done things like that, or cut two left sides of a project, etc. etc. It's part of life. Oh, my dad said, "If at first you don't succeed, try something else." It took me a while to figure out that to him that meant "take a different approach."
 
"Dang i envy you guys that can do it flawlessly." -Rob Keeble
Annnnnddd.... just who would you be referring to?:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Remember this motto that used to hang in a shop I worked at "we support failure, if you aren't failing you aren't trying"
Truer words!

Do you use a story pole for your projects Rob?
 
@Ed nope life ,work and family got in the way.

Rich i really like that motto.
Something i have always believed in. If one does not try and makes no mistakes then one learns nothing and conplishes zilch.

Ryan i like your saying too. Its kept me trying new things all my life. Hence Jack of many trades master of none. :)

Things always look better next day.:);)

Thanks guys for the encouragement.

Oh Rich never used a story stick. But in this case i actually made a drawing per piece. ;)

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2
 
Remember this motto that used to hang in a shop I worked at "we support failure, if you aren't failing you aren't trying"

The extension to that is "if you fail too much its cause you're not thinking"

Also reminds me of a print shop I did service for, back in the day when I was teching, that had a "Monthly Mistake" chalkboard which listed job-mistake-cost. Man that place made a lot of expensive mistakes.
 
always use a story pole Rob. Its not 100 percent infallible but you can see how everything will lay out and pull measurements off it very quickly while building. I do all my projects with a story pole and many times that is where I will find a mistake before cutting any stock.
 
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