My wife wanted a small table made and as usual she wanted it mad of beautiful unusual wood. I had the plans in my head and some quarter inch Zebra wood, plus three quarter inch Walnut to work with. A bonus was that when I planed the Walnut, it turned out to be curly in places I could use. I worked for a couple of days cutting, gluing and assembling pieces. I turned the ends of the legs into dowels for assembly without any hardware showing. Then I drilled holes for the dowels. The bottom shelf had holes all the way through. I set the drill press to drill only part way through the top. I place a piece of stock under the lower shelf and drilled the holes. Then I forgot to remove the piece of stock and placed the top on top of the same piece, which resulted in my drilling all the way through the top.

It is loosely assembled to show you the screw up. When I saw my mistake, my heart sunk. I didn't have enough to make a new top, but my wife said that she wanted a smaller top anyway. NOW I have just enough for a new top.........IF I don't screw it up again!! 

 

Ron, I would keep it the way it is and plug the top with a contrasting wood. If you need some Ebony for plugs I can shoot you some, or just tell me the diameter of the holes and I plug cut the ebony for ya. Or even the Walnut you have on hand would make a nice contrast.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Or you could do some nice butterfly inlays over each hole, that would really jazz it up and give you some hands on with inlay.

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

Or, better then round plugs would be square plugs,

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John Morris
The Patriot Woodworker
Proud Supporter of Wounded Warrior Project and Homes For Our Troops

I'm with John.  A dark plug would actually put a beautiful contrast on the table.

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Ron Dudelston
Site Administrator

Above and Beyond WoodWorks

I'd jump on John's offer of the ebony plugs. You have enough figure in the top that butterflies might just be too much. JMO.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

Thanks for the suggestions, but my wife helped me solve the problem. I showed her the table and she didn't notice the holes as much as the size.  She said the top is too large for where she wants to use it and could I make it about a inch smaller. Guess how large those holes are? Half inch. I  cut the holes out and shortened the length the same amount and I had some left over Walnut to redo the edges with. It look really good now and she is happier with the size. I'll post a picture after assembly and finish is applied

IF I DON'T DRILL THE HOLES ALL THE WAY THROUGH AGAIN!

You know how it goes, "If she is happy, all is well"

Joe Lyddon said:

You could use a Plug cutter and use pieces of Zebra wood... matching the grains as much as possible...

Chances are, the holes will be filled and be hardly noticeable...

That's what I would try FIRST before going to a contrasting wood...  

Good luck...  I think you can fix it very nicely...  Don't give up on it...  you can do it!

Boy, do you have that right. It couldn't have come out more perfect. She is happy with the size and I am very happy with the results. I don't like to work at a project for hours and then mess it up or leave it where I know I could have done better. It is in glue up now and is working out fine, you can't tell where I altered it because of the lines in the Zebra wood.

By the way, I did drill the holes to the proper depth this time

Sounds like a perfect solution.

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Gene
'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton