Please, post your worst.

very democratic idea ,
“send me your tired ,your poor, ................. , your wretched refuse …........... ”
a nice way to include newcomers ,
and to share the real learning .
thanks for the post !

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

By all means, everything posted does not need to be perfect … just look at my stuff. The people here are encouraging and helpful. And, unless you know what you’re doing wrong, you’re only guessing at what you’re doing right.

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

...yes but there are some that have spent weeks or months on a project and post it and then complain when its bumped off of the first page by a bottle balancer that took 15 minutes to make. (I agree that all should be shared for even the simplist item can give ideas to larger ones and everyone learns or relearns)

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

But who cares if it gets bumped off the first page? Won’t it get bumped off eventually anyway? Who is to judge which projects would be worthy of posting and which would not be?

I know I generally scan pretty much every project that comes into LJ, clicking on the ones that I find interesting, whether they be large or small, masterful or error-prone. I’m not sure front page time should be devoted only to the larger, better looking projects.

Great idea Post everything and lets up see you grow in skills.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Exactly Karson.

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

great idea. pretty much everything I’ve posted here has some flaws in it. something that went wrong in it, some ugly part that is (hopefully) well hidden in there. a too big mortise, an an even cut line, a hole in the wrong place… and the list goes on and on.

as someone once said – it’s not how perfect you make your work, it’s how well you hide your errors., and I hide them well!

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Ah, but don’t we all post some of our worst? You see, taking pictures and posting them never really shows the true project. Well, maybe it does for some but I can pick out the issues with each project I’ve made but most will never see them. And with a picture on a website the issues are usually not visible. Particularly if you don’t show that 4th side of the project with the problematic part.

I’ll start with the first confession. A recent raised panel bed I made. One of the small panels, about 12”x8”, when I put it incrementally through the router table to produce the ogee face to the panel. I had to put them through about 5 times to take the ogee down to the right size. That one panel I did it once to few. So the panel looks slightly larger than it’s sister panel on the opposite side. I didn’t know till I had glued the whole thing up. I know. People might notice but probably not unless I point it out. And on lumberjocks the perspective in the photo doesn’t show it.

There you have it. Boy I feel better now getting that off my chest. Hey, maybe Jon3 has a good idea here. We need to get Martin to start a confessional forum complete with confessor/moderator so we can all feel better about our mistakes. Pardon me.. I’ve got to run out to the shop and say a bunch of Hail Mary’s. Ya, I’m Catholic.

A professional musical instrument maker once told me, “The difference between a good craftsman and a great craftsman, is the great one knows how to hide his mistakes”.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

I wish I had pictures of my early work to post. Digital cameras were a long way off at that time. To be honest, 8-track tapes were a long way off. Could have used the old Kodak or Polaroid I guess, but it never crossed my mind.
I would have never dreamed there would be a woodworking site——or even the internet. At least I did learn from all those mistakes.

-- Kent Shepherd * The goal is-----More Tools!

That’s a great idea. I know I’ve totally biffed a bunch of stuff, almost on a daily basis. Of course we only show our successes, but a pic is worth a thousand words, and showing your early stuff can really engender constructive comments and questions. There is a life-long learning curve to woodworking, which is why so many of us have gray hair. When I’m building something pretty complex, the more processes I’ve done to a certain piece, the more anxious I get about biffing the next step and having to do all of them over again on a new piece.

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails

Kent,
I was more than slightly amused to your reference to 8-Track tape recordings. I too am old enough to remember when they hit the market. Lucky for me, I wasn’t able to afford to buy one and had to wait for the first casset tapes to come out.

-- I love the smell of sawdust in the morning....

Kent and Woodrat if either of you still needs an 8-track I still have mine in the bus. Just gave all my tapes away a few months back to a collector friend. Dang, I need some Geritol!

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

we all make mistakes .
the nice thing about this site ,
is that we all get to learn how not to make the same ones .
that way we can all make new one’s .

-- david ,new mexico ,allheart

FiWoodRat & Kindlingmaker,
I actually still have my 8-track recorder, for all the good it does. Kinda hard to find blank tapes these days. I was releived someone knew what I was talking about. Anybody for a little Iron Butterfly of Steppenwolf

Jon3, I didn’t mean to hijack your thread. I guess I got caught up in a time warp.

-- Kent Shepherd * The goal is-----More Tools!

It sure is nice to know that I am not the only one with skeletons in my closet! Or for that matter in my posted profile photo. My present facial hair is pretty white!
I too have committed my fair share of project blunders but always find it challenging to then try and salvage the project. Like several of you have said, I can always see the flaws in my own work because I was the one who put them there. Many times though, they remain unobvious to other observers.
A now deceased friend once told me: A little bit of putty and a little bit of paint, Makes a carpenter what he ain’t!

-- Kelly in Canton

For a novice like me, I was in awe of LJ’s Projects postings and didn’t dare to show the basic bird houses I was trying to master. Finally, when I thought I had something barely acceptable I posted a Project and crossed my fingers. You guys are so good at what you do and it shows. I was very glad I finally made the post and kicked myself for not letting the LJ world see my try out bird houses which I gave away (actually I gave a $1 to each taker) because I received such encouraging comments from LJ’s on the post. Like Karson says, by posting your projects LJ’s can see and comment on enhancement of skills.
I would say to any “Newbie”, especially those with no experience, to post whatever you make. There are no judges or snobs on this site, but a hell of a lot of help, advice and friendship.
Thanks LJ’s*

-- Roger, Rep. of Texas

Great point on the OP jon. I do enjoy the fantastic pieces posted on LJ but I like to see posts that might make me ask myself what I might have done differently if I decide to build something similar.

Sorry I couldn’t resist the 8-Track thing. This sits in my office as an omage to days gone by. I remember cruising downtown to “Come sail away” blasting at full tilt on my old car’s 8tp. I have a box of tapes somewhere, too.

-- The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we reach it.. Michelangelo