Your Achilles Heel

[Ruffnek]

I saw this on another forum and thought I would pose the question here.

What woodworking task is your personal nemesis?

For me it's glue-ups, especially large or complex ones. No matter how prepared I think I am...glue ready, clamps laid out, a dry fit done and joinery confirmed...something always seems to go wrong and I end up racing against the open-time clock to get it done before the glue sets up.

It's stressful and I really dread doing it.

So what's yours?

[dburkhart]

putting a finish on.I need a class on when sanding is good enough.I can allways see a mistake i have made.

[boodrow]

Cody I agree with u on the glue up , it never seems to fit the way it did on a dry run.
Next would be turning the bottom of bowls , I forever turn um too thin. Next bowl I do will have a 1" bottom.
3rd would be drilling pen blanks , sometimes the drill strait other times they are one sided on the bottom. My arse just cringes when I pick the blank up off the drill press and look at the bottom hole. I generally say %**&^*&*&(&(
Boodrow

[sachbvn]

Hard to pick just one nemesis!

I'm still learning lots so..... can't really say for sure.


Zac

[TDHofstetter]

Anything heavy overhead. Period.

I think back to times during glueup when I've had a series of dowels inserted in glue-filled holes and got the matching set of holes glue-filled and I'm wrestling with the carcase, and I can see the glue starting to skin over a little... and ONE DOWEL refuses to seat fully in its hole. That hole is a blind hole in the side of a carcase, where if I beat on something I'll drive it right through the other side into the open air.

I beat on it. It broke through. I fixed it. Nobody but me knows about it, or ever will... but it still crunches in my guts like a gravel-filled crop. Talk about spraying sweat...!

[art3427]

2 words ----compound miters

art

[admin]

Surface Finish, hands down.

[gomer]

Sharpening tools and being bothered when I'm in my thinking chair. We all got one of these, right? I've been through three of them. Seems I do more thinking than actual cutting. I can't find a stool w/ a back that will last more than a couple years. I sit down way too hard, I guess. Almost went through the garage window last time.

[dcarter636]

Film finishing gives me bad dreams, with glue up as a close second.

Too often there seems to be a need to apply a few more clamps than are available, and three hands are needed to properly set them.

[sdb777]

Turning Black Palm.......





Scott (I win!) B

[elizabeth]

MATH!!!!!

[Stretch]

Mine I think is the elusive "off the gun" satin finish. I can pull it off, but it's way more trouble than it's supposed to be. ;D

[rrich]

Finishing the finish. The stain or oil isn't a big problem but the final film is!

[lexrex]

My nemesis still lies in a good design. I am learning and looking at all I can but it is still a challenge and I end up redesigning as I go which can cause a lot of problems.

[rrich]

May 20, 2010 20:18:15 GMT -6 lexrex said:

My nemesis still lies in a good design. I am learning and looking at all I can but it is still a challenge and I end up redesigning as I go which can cause a lot of problems.

It is difficult to resist, isn't it?

[Doug B]

I cannot seem to make pieces exactly the same that should be interchangeable. I tried hard on the Grandson's bed, but the 2 platform pieces came out just enough different that one only fits in one place and the other has to fit in the other spot. So, I have to label one as "headboard" so that whoever puts it together will know which way to put it together.

I hate having to say..."this piece has to go here and that one has to go there because they are not interchangeable".

And I tried really hard to make it work, but that just does not happen for me.

[deepsplinter]

Mine would definitely be sanding/staining.

I really don't mind sanding...I try to go overboard. I don't mean going to higher grits, but sanding more than enough with the final grit.

But I hate staining....maybe it's because I find sanding/swirl marks that I couldn't see 'til I got some pigment in 'em.

[brburns]

I'm also going to have to go with sanding. I have discovered that using oil to darken rather than stain, really helps to hide some sanding problems. I just hate sanding.

On glue ups, I always feel rushed, but it seems to work out. However it never fails that as soon as I start a glueup the wife comes out and wants to talk, or wants me to do something....

[Leo Voisine]

Getting joints to fit together nicely. Box joints, Miters, Dovetails, Mortise and Tenon, rabits, dados.

I can get them to work - but none are ever even close to perfect.

[sawduster]

May 20, 2010 23:23:35 GMT -6 Doug B said:

I cannot seem to make pieces exactly the same that should be interchangeable. I tried hard on the Grandson's bed, but the 2 platform pieces came out just enough different that one only fits in one place and the other has to fit in the other spot. So, I have to label one as "headboard" so that whoever puts it together will know which way to put it together.

I hate having to say..."this piece has to go here and that one has to go there because they are not interchangeable".

And I tried really hard to make it work, but that just does not happen for me.

I've given up on trying to make matching pieces fit-em-all, so I guess that is my Achilles's Heal as well. I just finally said, this is wood, it moves, and under the best of conditions fitting perfection is illusive, each tenon needs to be fitted by rasp/file/hand plane etc, to fit a particular mortise and be marked as such.