It’s happened to all of us. You are working from commercial plans or a cut list of your own devising. You follow the plans closely and make all of the cuts.
But, when you move on to the assembly process, you accidentally glue a piece in the wrong place. For me, I usually discover this accident when I get farther down the road on the assembly process and have to break the pieces apart or cut new ones. Drats!
Fortunately, most woodworkers make this mistake once, then turn to a method of carefully marking the pieces to ensure it never happens again.
This week, let us know how you keep track of the pieces in a complex project. Do you use the tried and true cabinetmaker’s triangle or something else?
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I sometimes use numbers or letters or maybe X’s and O’s and V’s and I’s (lines) and I have been known to use all of the above on a real complicated item.
Maybe the X’s ,O’s and V’s could be considered the cabnet makers triangle. (?)
At any rate, I just HATE getting the wrong piece in the wrong place, especially if I’m trying for grain match on a box or something.
Rog
Here’s some background on the Cabinetmaker’s Triangle… http://foldingrule.blogspot.com/2008/11/episode-82-cabinetmakers-triangle.html
Two points
1. Hide Glue – I have never used it but it is reversible and has a tract record over centuries.
2. No matter what I do – I could even (I don’t) us one of those labelers (you know they type where the sticky label comes out) for each piece and they still end up in the wrong place – as David Marks once put it:
Glue up dementia”
3. Maybe Marc could try hide glue. I did see Marc do a glue up in one of his projects – the tool chest – and he did it very deliberately and step wise and even used epoxy on some parts. I did that when I glued up a post box cover bank truck (Rockler or Woodcraft for the old post box cover) for my niece and nephew and it worked out the best yet.
I use a program called the Cabinet Planner. In the program you can generate Avery labels to put on each piece. It works so slick, I never find myself mixing up pieces any more. http://www.cabinetplanner.com/index.html