Mastert woodworker NOT

Mark E Smith

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190
Location
Arkansas
Ok been working on this table project for awhile, the difference between normal wood worker and master wood worker is now painfully obvious ... My miter joints are terrible, (pics provided) tried using wood putty, but they just stick out and make it worst. How do I fix this, any suggestion. Thought about cutting out the corners and putting in walnut corners, but, if I couldn't do a decent miter,, how bad will that idea come out. Need help..


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You could try running a saw kerf at each miter, then inserting a shim to fill the gap.

They're not all that bad, though, so you could just put the finish on, and never mention the miters to anyone else. Only another woodworker doing a close inspection of your work will notice them, unless you blab about it.
 
There is wisdom in what Jim says. The field and border look really good.

If you don't mention it, most people would never notice.

You could build a jig to run the saw kerfs, but that seems a bit risky at this point.
 
I was thinking shim also. Use a dark wood and call it a highlight.

Being a master does not always mean everything comes out perfect. It means the worker has a little insight into how to hide or enhance mistakes.

They also learn to never tell what is wrong with a project.
 
eeh, the right finish with some "toning" in that area will cover the patch well. Becoming a master is learning how to cover your mistakes or make them look like they were on purpose. Post some after photos, will love to see what you come up with.
 
I was thinking something along the lines of putting some stringing in there of darker wood to highlight the miter, maybe along the lines that Leo was thinking. Not doing anything would also probably be acceptable, really like the veneer/border you used.
 
My vote goes with Jims idea. If you made a sled for table saw, you could run the joint through the blade in a controlled manner and get a slot to put a shim in.
You may want to think of a spline through the corner after depending on how you have secured the frame in the first place.

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Thanks, lots of good ideas, was thinking of maybe cutting a square at each corner and glue in a Dark walnut square, kinda tie-in to the border pieces. Only the squares at each corner would be rounded off, the border would still be squared off, but not the table itself, making it round at each corner rather then then sharp, if that makes any sense..lol..My plan would be to make the corners thicker then the table and rabbit each one to fit into the corners I cut off (eliminating the miters all together) bottom part of the rabbit under the top, plus give me more glue surface for such a small piece. Come to think of it I could let it raise a little on the top side as well and really highlight the corner...hhhmm have to do a few test of scapes and see how this is gonna look. I post some pic of what I eventually do, and some finished photo of the whole table when done. Maybe this is the ghost my dad (was his shop) pushing me to a better direction...never know, he always made PERFECT miter, I didn't get that gene.
 
My vote goes with Jims idea. If you made a sled for table saw, you could run the joint through the blade in a controlled manner and get a slot to put a shim in...

Tablesaw? On a top of that size, it'd be quite a balancing act. Scary, too!

I was thinking more along the lines of a hand held crosscut saw - like maybe a 14 tpi version.
 
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