In the great tradition of Lumberjocks I am honor bound to once again confess the error of my ways. That sound you hear, no not that one, the other one, is the sound of me learning. Just like the Garden Gate I managed to mess up with the router.
It all started when I glued the inner frame without cutting the mortises on the outside rails.
While this is not optimal it is still not tragic. While I am a big fan of the Mortise Pal jig and you can see its versatility in this shot, it is still not foolproof. In this case me being the fool.
The jig rides like a saddle with one fence fixed and the other adjusts in and out to the thickness of the stock. The router has a guide bushing which rides in a plastic template which is affixed to an adjustable tray that locks in place. Sometimes it doesn’t.
It isn’t the fault of the jig. With all the mortises I was cutting it is easy for the small lever to loosen due to vibration. And it is easy to push the router bushing against the template with to much force. In any event the tray slipped and the mortise blew out the good side of the frame.
I used a straight bit and guide on the router to cut a rabbet the length of the frame (long grain) and wide enough to remove the damage. I milled up some maple from the cut off bin and beveled one edge on the joiner to get as tight a fit as possible. After a glue and a bunch of clamps I flush trimmed the patch to match the frame and used a small plane, scraper, and sander to smooth it all out. Then I recut the mortises making d—- sure to lock everything down.
And here’s the result.
-- tim hill www.newcalshop.com
11 comments so far
Woodbutchery
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82 posts in 480 days
posted 41 days ago
Good repair.
I see notink!
-- Making scrap with zen-like precision - Woodbutchery
stefang
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1647 posts in 229 days
posted 41 days ago
Great recovery. Good blog. We love to see that others also make mistakes once in a while. Not out of ill will, but because it reminds us that this is normal, and therefore so are we (more or less). Can’t wait to see the whole project finished. I know it will be nice.
-- Mike, American in Norway
Kindlingmaker
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1470 posts in 421 days
posted 41 days ago
A wonderful series, good recovery, great job!
-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings
nmkidd
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381 posts in 67 days
posted 41 days ago
Dang if I can see anything. Great fix!
-- Doug, New Mexico.......the only stupid question is one that is never asked!........don't fix it, if it ain't broke!
Rj
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559 posts in 526 days
posted 41 days ago
Ouch That had to hurt!
Even the best woodworkers makes mistakes, what makes for a great woodworker is when mistakes happen they can cover up the mistake so you can’t see it or make them look as if they were ment to be!
Great recovery!!
-- Rj's Woodworks,San Jose & Weed Ca,
a1Jim
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16776 posts in 472 days
posted 41 days ago
All said an done it came out great
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
roman
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1118 posts in 788 days
posted 41 days ago
Its not how fast you can make something, that makes you good at woodworking, rather how fast you can fix your mistakes that makes you good at woodworking
nice fix!
-- http://www.furnituremann.ca/
captkerk
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92 posts in 136 days
posted 39 days ago
I find it slightly humorous that after I read this entry and scrolled down, lo and behold! There is an ad for Mortise Pal on the bottom of the page. :)
Good job with the fix. Is that side going to face out or against the wall? I assume it will face out, otherwise it wouldn’t be as big of a deal.
ChunkyC
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277 posts in 149 days
posted 39 days ago
I think he’s hiding it under all of those clamps. LOL Did you run out of room? There’s two springers on the workbench just waiting to go!
All ribbing aside, an very nice fix indeed.
-- Chunk
newTim
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249 posts in 501 days
posted 39 days ago
Scary huh? Seems like whatever I type in to the computer these days an ad pops up about it. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m just a paying customer of the Mortise Pal. I don’t even like the name of it although I can’t think of anything better. Fact is the jig works real well and saves me a lot of time yada yada ya… You can’t have to many clamps, especially if you make a lot of mistakes.
-- tim hill www.newcalshop.com
CaptainSkully
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481 posts in 453 days
posted 39 days ago
I looked at the Mortise Pal and thought the price wasn’t very friendly. In the past, I’ve used a 23/32” bit to make my templates out of MDF. That fits the OD of my bushing perfectly, so no side slip. This allows me to use a 3/8” upcutting spiral bit for my mortises. I keep 3/8” loose tenon stock, rounded over with 3/16” bit in stock. My next jig project is to make the base with adjustable clamping fences on either side so you can center or have offsets. There are a ton of these on LJ. Love the project and blog. I really like the gate too. I’ve seen all of David’s shows, twice. I’m off to buy some more clamps…
-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails