Comments on: Entirely Unimportant

By: danielergomez

danielergomez — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 18:21:30 +0000

That is what I like about woodworking, looks matter. It needs to be right, but only where it needs to be right. That is where the skill of the woodwright comes into play, he or she knows what needs to be right. Very nice, thanks.

By: NormJ

NormJ — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 23:43:28 +0000

That’s the way I’ve always done wood working and I just thought I wasn’t any good

By: Sean A

Sean A — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 19:14:59 +0000

P.S. I was thinking more in terms of a PWWM article format, not a comment back here!

By: kpinvt

kpinvt — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 04:47:04 +0000

I once worked for Bombardier in Barre, VT while they were building new monorail cars for Walt Disney World. The section I worked in was responsible for hanging access panels on the outside of the cars. Our most important tools were an apron full of needlenose visegrips and a good eye. There were very precise measurements in the bluprints as to where the panels were to be mounted. We ususally ignored these instructions and hung the panels with the visegrips at points that looked good overall and then mounted them permantly.

By: Sean A

Sean A — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:36:09 +0000

I’ve heard you (and some others) say this before and I am sold on the concept. But as someone at the beginning of their woodworking arc, it is hard to know just where it matters. For example, dovetails: probably has to be ’4 square’ at each end being joined right? If I don’t square/shoot the ends, will the layout marks be thrown off slightly and mess up the fit? Or gluing two boards, they’d have to fit flush, right? But “how flush is flush”?

Any more exposition on this would be mucho appreciated.

By: renaissanceww

renaissanceww — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:49:30 +0000

Bravo! Ditto and all that

By: msiemsen

msiemsen — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:39:34 +0000

If you lay the bottom skirt out off of the case the bottom 6″ doesn’t even have to be square. On the sea chest I just built the dovetailed bottom molding needed to fit a trapezoid.

By: Bill Lattanzio

Bill Lattanzio — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:50:50 +0000

I have to tell you; I like it when my project ends up with a little ding on it, or the top overhang is larger in the front than in the back, or the finish is slightly uneven. It reminds me that I made it, and not a machine in a factory. Good article sir.

By: robert

robert — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 10:56:41 +0000

Sounds like what I heard about building wooden boats. Tolerances are what ever fits and works. -Built to the nearest boat-

By: abt

abt — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 02:11:42 +0000

Good. I thought I was just being lazy, (and cutting down time to next swig of beer) when I would simply flatten a wide board getting ready for the thickness planer instead of smoothing it too. I mean, it’s going to get smoother in the planer after all.

On those rot strips (on my other types of case projects), I’d scallop the side toward the bottom if nailed so they can be easily pried off when damaged, or use screws, so they’d be easier to remove without damaging the rest of the case. I’m probably missing something in doing that.