# Help with Journey man´s piece



## Bishop78 (May 11, 2018)

Hi Guys,

i am working on my Journayman´s piece atm and i made a crucial mistake. 
First of all i am using the leigh dovetailjig and a router to cut the Dovetails. So i was at all times super carefull setting up the cuttingdepth of the routerbit. Long story short my tailpiece in Front is about 1/8 - 5/32" to long.
and therefor out of square which makes finishing really difficult and timeconsuming.


















Replacing the part is not an option due to lack of sufficient material and Time.

My Idea to remedy the Problem is to elongate the Tails by 1/8" and filling the gaps either with Veneer or a sliver of wood cut from a cut-off.
It would be my first Time trying to create an even gap on all tails. I don´t really see any other way of fixxing it.

your help and input would be greatly appreciated

Bishop


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

If I understand correctly, you need to route the tails deeper so the pin board will go deeper and be square and then trim off the tails which will protrude. That's not going to leave a huge gap, however it won't be even since it will taper down to no gap.

I'd recommend a filler of some sort. I can't say for sure which would be best without knowing how you plan to finish the piece.


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## Bishop78 (May 11, 2018)

You did understand correctly, since i have to go deeper i will also have to widen the space for the pins. doing that consistantly on all tails should result in the piece dropping an 1/8" into place, leaving me with room for easy fixing the gapes without having to size wdges for every tail and a square carcuss.

As for the finish, i am using a matt 2 component poly laquer and pastewax


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

> You did understand correctly, since i have to go deeper i will also have to widen the space for the pins. doing that consistantly on all tails should result in the piece dropping an 1/8" into place, leaving me with room for easy fixing the gapes without having to size wdges for every tail and a square carcuss.
> 
> As for the finish, i am using a matt 2 component poly laquer and pastewax
> 
> - Bishop78


Since it's not a surface that will receive much wear, you can get away with a softer fill which are easier to apply. What you'll want to do is go ahead and do your finish and then find a fill stick that matches. You can use a couple of different products (I use Mohawk, but other companies make equivalent products). One is Mohawk Fil-Stick. It's a putty that you simply rub into the spot and then scrape the excess and wipe it clean. The other is called Quick Fill. It requires some heat to soften it. Once the tip of the stick is shiny, you rub it in vigorously and then scrape the excess.

In either case, you'll need to top it off with some of your lacquer, so get down at least one coat, do the fill and then finish your topcoats.


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## Bishop78 (May 11, 2018)

Thanx for your help Rich its very much appreciated.
I decided to make a couple of testpieces. Practice runs so to speak


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

> Thanx for your help Rich its very much appreciated.
> I decided to make a couple of testpieces. Practice runs so to speak
> 
> - Bishop78


Good idea. Best of luck to you.


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## Loren (May 30, 2008)

Another option.


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## Unknowncraftsman (Jun 23, 2013)

I would leave it out of square. Any filler is going to look like you added filler. Unless you DTs are going to be covered or painted.
Sometimes mistakes like this leads to a very nice design enhancement. This is what I call a slip of the mind and it happens naturally in all things. 
Good looking piece so far.


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## JADobson (Aug 14, 2012)

> ... Any filler is going to look like you added filler. ...
> - Aj2


Could you cut off all the tails on one side of the box and re-cut them? The overall dimension would be smaller by the width of the side panel but it would look 100 times better than filler.


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## Bishop78 (May 11, 2018)

Unfortunatly not. I made plans which had to be approved. It will be graded using these plans. So if i have major deviations in size, its a problem. So there are only two choices…an 1/8" isn´t that much and could still be within the tolerance since it´s only half that on each side.

1st - I work around it and leave it as is and plane the sides down. I have go no gaps whatsoever so why ruin it?

2nd - I try to remedy the problem with wedges from the same board or filler, risking obvious visible imperfections

Honestly atm i am leaning towards leaving it as is since its really only about .2° below and above 90°
Then all i have to do is to prevent gluing the sides square to the back and try to make it even on both sides. Awesome!!!

From the frying pan into the fire, if they look closely, either way i get points deducted

It´ll still be a very nice piece once its done. I´ll post the project once i am done.


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## jacww (Aug 23, 2015)

Good luck with your project, it looks great to me.

I hope your instructors aren't Lumberjocks…

TonyC


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## diverlloyd (Apr 25, 2013)

Loren's fix is nice and pops. 
Good luck on the journeymanship


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