The Match and a disaster

Hi all,
There are times when all goes well, but there are other times when you may just as well chuck your plums at the clock. I have just had one of those days in my workshop and I'm a little bit fed up. You may recall the oyster box I was making. I'd done the base.

And I was about to go into serious sanding mode on the lid.

I did do the sanding. Firstly, I shaped it out roughly with my belt sander before attacking it with my Dremel. This took about an hour and I then began sanding by hand. I started of with 120 grade and slowly worked my way through all the other grades to 400. By the time I'd finished it was really smooth and very tactile. The next thing to do was drill holes in the lid and the base to take the special hinges that I'd bought especially for this box.

This was the first time I'd used these hinges, but I thought I knew how they worked so I didn't pay much attention to the detail. This was a big mistake because they didn't work how I had expected them to and I'd now drilled the holes in the wrong places. Whats more, my design wouldn't allow me to put the holes in the right places even if I could work out where that might be.

The box was a disaster because the hinges did not allow the lid to sit flat on the box. Here is a picture of how it looked when I put it together. Not bad when open, even if I say so myself. I could imagine the inside covered with a nice dark blue flock.

However, when I tried to close the lid  you can see the problem.

Not a pretty sight is it. I guess it's no good crying over wasted saw dust and I have learnt a lesson. In future, I will make double sure I know how the hinges work.

The question is now, can I save the box and some of my hard work? I will show you what I've come up with in my next post.

By the way, I have another free book for download from Amazon today and tomorrow, 7th and 8th of April. It is called "The Match" and is a good read even for non anglers.

 Please grab a copy and enjoy it while you can.