This may turn out to be somewhat of a long-winded story.  Sorry in advance.  Some of you may remember a product offered by Woodpeckers.  It was a set of red cubby drawers, with the idea being to mount them on the unused underside of your work bench to hold small quantities of hardware.  I bought two sets of the drawers, which gave me 12 drawers.  Since I use the underside of my workbench to clamp items down to the top of the bench for planing, sanding, etc., I decided to build a small cabinet from some of the left over oak veneer plywood and solid red oak from the snack tray cabinet project I posted about back in January.  Top, bottom, back, and two sides to be made from the scrap plywood, with three horizontal dividers to which I would mount four brackets each that the cubbies would slide in and out on.  The dividers were made from 1/2" MDF.  The dividers were set into grooves in the sides and back, with rabbet joints for the cabinet itself.  And believe me, getting all that glued up at once was an exercise in a-holes and elbows.  I finally got it all together, and got ready to paint it.  I used copper colored hammered Rustoleum, just painting the outside, sides and top.  I figured the back and bottom would not be seen, so no need to paint them.  I didn't want to paint the inside, so after painstakingly masking and taping the front so as not to get any paint in there, I proceeded to paint my project.  I put three coats on and let everything set for a couple of days to make sure the paint was cured and dry.  The big reveal:  I went down into my shop and pulled off the masking, got one of the drawers to put it in one of the mounting brackets, and it wouldn't fit the bracket.  That was impossible.  It had to fit, all that was a manufactured product that I had together many times to make sure my spacing between dividers was adequate.  It was then that I realized the brackets were now on the top of the dividers instead of the bottom.  Yes, I had inadvertently placed the cabinet upside on the bench instead of right side up, and had painted the bottom instead of the top.  Hence the Idiot! tag on my post header.  This goes back to an earlier post in a different thread about experience, and yet another definition of experience:  Experience is what you get just after you really needed it.  Once I get the top painted, the real top this time, I'll post some pics.

5 hours ago, PostalTom said:

inadvertently placed the cabinet upside on the bench instead of right side up

 

I'll post some pics

 

Story of my life!   (Failures x 20) + (Finally getting it right x 1) = Success

 

My sister stenciled fleur-de-lis over antiqued pine furniture. All of them upside down. You'd be amazed how long people commented approvingly (several years) before I told her (My specialty is heraldry of the French, my study, five two-week visits to New Orleans around JazzFest)

 

Yes, pics!

7 hours ago, PostalTom said:

and yet another definition of experience:  Experience is what you get just after you really needed it. 

 

Didn't mean to laugh at you Tom... but I've also gained a bit quite a bit of experience just in the nick of too late!

Tom, I'm glad I don't make those kinds of mistakes...well, hardly ever...uh, sometimes?...Ummm, frequently?...O.K...regularly. 

1 minute ago, Gene Howe said:

Tom, I'm glad I don't make those kinds of mistakes...well, hardly ever...uh, sometimes?...Ummm, frequently?...O.K...regularly. 

 

Dementia, sniffing glue addiction or CRS???

2 minutes ago, Gunny said:

 

Dementia, sniffing glue addiction or CRS???

No dementia, yet. I've always put on skivvies backwards. There's no kick in TBII. CRS Though? DEFINITLY!! 

3 hours ago, Cal said:

Didn't mean to laugh at you Tom

Feel free to laugh.  The post, although true, was written very much tongue in cheek.

You know, it occurs to me that this is what brings us all together, both on TPW, and in our personal lives.  The ability to own our mistakes, share them, and laugh together at them.  I hope it never stops.

stare at mistake, sigh deeply, start over with more lumber......this might have happened a few times in my shop....

Mistakes! Nope, not me, never, nope, won't happen!

 

Oh, that trim around the center was part of the plans!

 

50 minutes ago, lew said:

Oh, that trim around the center was part of the plans!

 

The plans called for modular components? 

5 minutes ago, Dovetail said:

The plans called for modular components? 

I wish!

  With me if it came out right, ... It has to have been a mistake. 

Edited March 6, 20224 yr by Larry Buskirk

Well Tom, "live and learn", well live anyway.

 

If this helps in your dilemma, I've searched many venues, craftsman, products, etc. I've yet to find anything, no matter how meticulously designed or executed, that given the time and adequate resources, I couldn't masterfully screw up to the point it is unworthy of any recycling center or landfill. As Monk would say, "it's a gift and a curse." 

7 hours ago, Gunny said:

 

Dementia, sniffing glue addiction or CRS???

Any reason it couldn’t be all of the above? I don’t want to limit my options.

Bill Dance used to make sure that once every year he showed an oops out take from the show. Just to show all the beginners that YUP even he makes mistakes on a regular basis. I kinda figgered that was my position here, to be the “good” bad example.  Funny part of all that, is all the understanding we have for others mistakes seems to disappear when we make our own.  

When I make something I always leave opportunity for improvement.   Danl

BTDT!  Sure gets the juices flowing.

 

If it helps, sometimes mistakes are how brilliant solutions are found. To me your mistake reveals the need for an improved drawer cubby that can be installed right side up or upside down.

4D

It could be done.  Woodpeckers doesn't say if they manufactured this item, or if they outsourced it.  I'm envisioning a different mounting bracket that gave you the choice, along with runners on both the top and bottom of the drawers.  This is the original concept.