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I started building Lonnie Bird's 18th Century PA Secretary probably 5 or 6 years ago . Long story short, I lost my wife in June 2015, started building the upper case and between 3 daughters and 7 GK it kept getting pushed aside. I moved the desk section into the house about 2 1/2 years ago. About a month a go I decided to finish this project, put it the upcoming fair. (Big event) I was fortunate to located a piece of walnut 5/4 x 14' x 66' which worked perfectly for the panels on the Tombstone Doors. After working very cautiously and meticulously (Down the 1/64"). I realized after getting it to the exactly size, I discovered that I made the book case 3 1/2" to narrow. This is 3:30 Thursday afternoon, and I have to take it to the fair by 6 PM Saturday.
I have no idea how I made such a blunder, but the bottom line is that "Oh S....". Doors are to big and no time to make new ones. Plus the bookcase would look terrible on the desk.
This has to be the blunder of the year in the entire woodworking community.
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The faster we go, the behinder we get! Never fails.
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Chit happens, what else can you say???? It's been over 5 years, so there will be another fair next year. Don't beat yourself up over it; life goes on.
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I bet the two pieces are beautiful individually.
You have a year to build their new mates.
Gary
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07-18-2019, 08:05 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-18-2019, 08:10 PM by barryvabeach.)
First, sorry to hear about the passing of your wife. Two other comments. I made the secretary from the Fine Woodworking Magazine series of articles, and there are a few mistakes, I would blame it on the editors, not the author, but at certain points I made something, it didn't fit right, I triple checked all the measurements, and found there was an error. IIRC, i thought you were building one around the same time and found some of the same errors.
If you have time, can you make an extra sets of doors, they don't need to be tombstone, to fit the bookcase, then make a pair of filler pieces to make up for the bookcase being narrow. That is, if the bookcase is 60 inches, and the space on the lower part of the secretary is 63, you need to make two more sides, and a filler piece that is 1 1/2 inches, then join them on either side of the bookcase, and it should fit the space. This is a terrible photo, but it shows quarter columns that are outside the doors of the bookcase. https://www.chairish.com/product/1570334...-secretary Otherwise, just bring the lower half to the show.
Here is a better photo https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/storag...-f_238408/ you can see the quarter column is built up outside the drawers. In that case, they used a face frame to fill the opening, but you could do something similar, just going to the outer sides of the case - so you would have two vertical members on each side of the case, though only one would show.
BTW, I never actually counted, but my estimate is that there are still about 100 errors in my secretary, most people don't notice them, because the piece is so big, and i think I cut and dadoed the lower case sides on two separate pieces at the wrong spots, though the third set came out right.
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(07-18-2019, 04:21 PM)Halfathumb Wrote: I started building Lonnie Bird's 18th Century PA Secretary probably 5 or 6 years ago . Long story short, I lost my wife in June 2015, started building the upper case and between 3 daughters and 7 GK it kept getting pushed aside. I moved the desk section into the house about 2 1/2 years ago. About a month a go I decided to finish this project, put it the upcoming fair. (Big event) I was fortunate to located a piece of walnut 5/4 x 14' x 66' which worked perfectly for the panels on the Tombstone Doors. After working very cautiously and meticulously (Down the 1/64"). I realized after getting it to the exactly size, I discovered that I made the book case 3 1/2" to narrow. This is 3:30 Thursday afternoon, and I have to take it to the fair by 6 PM Saturday.
I have no idea how I made such a blunder, but the bottom line is that "Oh S....". Doors are to big and no time to make new ones. Plus the bookcase would look terrible on the desk.
This has to be the blunder of the year in the entire woodworking community. Sounds like you have half of two projects that are coming along nicely. If you start a third you got all your daughters covered
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I like Barry's quarter column idea. The first piece won't have the columns but I think the two pieces will still look like they belong together.
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(07-18-2019, 04:21 PM)Halfathumb Wrote: I started building Lonnie Bird's 18th Century PA Secretary probably 5 or 6 years ago . Long story short, I lost my wife in June 2015, started building the upper case and between 3 daughters and 7 GK it kept getting pushed aside. I moved the desk section into the house about 2 1/2 years ago. About a month a go I decided to finish this project, put it the upcoming fair. (Big event) I was fortunate to located a piece of walnut 5/4 x 14' x 66' which worked perfectly for the panels on the Tombstone Doors. After working very cautiously and meticulously (Down the 1/64"). I realized after getting it to the exactly size, I discovered that I made the book case 3 1/2" to narrow. This is 3:30 Thursday afternoon, and I have to take it to the fair by 6 PM Saturday.
I have no idea how I made such a blunder, but the bottom line is that "Oh S....". Doors are to big and no time to make new ones. Plus the bookcase would look terrible on the desk.
This has to be the blunder of the year in the entire woodworking community.
Cripes buddy it is something small in life. I have had a lot of bad things (Thank God not losing my wife and so sad at hearing of yours passing) happen. I go to sleep and wake up the next day and find LIFE is still there waiting for me to explore and enjoy.
Go and do the same.
As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification. Thank You Everyone.
It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
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Well, the doors could have been too small!
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(07-18-2019, 04:21 PM)Halfathumb Wrote: I started building Lonnie Bird's 18th Century PA Secretary probably 5 or 6 years ago . Long story short, I lost my wife in June 2015, started building the upper case and between 3 daughters and 7 GK it kept getting pushed aside. I moved the desk section into the house about 2 1/2 years ago. About a month a go I decided to finish this project, put it the upcoming fair. (Big event) I was fortunate to located a piece of walnut 5/4 x 14' x 66' which worked perfectly for the panels on the Tombstone Doors. After working very cautiously and meticulously (Down the 1/64"). I realized after getting it to the exactly size, I discovered that I made the book case 3 1/2" to narrow. This is 3:30 Thursday afternoon, and I have to take it to the fair by 6 PM Saturday.
I have no idea how I made such a blunder, but the bottom line is that "Oh S....". Doors are to big and no time to make new ones. Plus the bookcase would look terrible on the desk.
This has to be the blunder of the year in the entire woodworking community.
Thanks everyone, I've swallowed my pride and decided just to make another book case and make sure it'll hold the doors I already have. For one reason, I love the solid panels in the door. Hate to see that not used.
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