Oh, I love my friends at work. They are really a talented bunch of folks who make my time at the office a whole bunch of fun. But, there’s this one guy. The guy who asked me to build that new shelf for his kitchen pantry. Guess what I’m doing again? Rebuilding his shelf. 
You see, when he wrote down the dimensions of his shelf, he didn’t quite get it right. He wanted the shelf to be 33 5/8″ long, which is what I dutifully cut the shelf length down to after getting it all edged. I then went on to sand and finish the piece to make it all work out. Well, it turns out that my man Shan needed a shelf 36 5/8″ long, and when he went back to his house to put the shelf in place, it of course, didn’t fit. 
So, tonight, I am getting another lesson on how to cut an edge band for a plywood shelf. This time, I will get it roughly sanded and give him the entire shelf at its current way-too-long measurement and ask him to remove one of the existing shelves from his pantry and take a direct measurement from its neighbor. After that, I can take it back and cut it to the final size before finishing it once and for all.
I guess I can’t laugh too much… if only he knew about all of the mess ups I made on my projects!
Wow, I can see 1/4 to 1/2 and inch, but THREE inches.
I hope this guy isn’t in charge of anything real important at work ! lol
(and your instruction to him of striking a line from a neighboring shelf is smart. The less measuring, the better.)
I seldom trust anyones measurements but mine and even then mistakes can be made.
Most of the time when my dementia sets in, my mistakes are more like 23″ instead of 32″ and are a lot more noticeable. 🙂 But sometimes 1/4″ and 3/4″ are not enough to notice until it is too late. 🙁
Rog
This raises an interesting question. Whose responsibility is it to make sure measurements are correct, the craftsman or the client? I think ideally the client should give us correct measurements, but for someone who is unaware of the importance of accuracy should we really depend on it from them?
I would bring an existing shelf to the shop and mark from that. No rulers for this boy. Those things are dangerous.