It will not look like that at all. Somewhere along the way, probably at the very beginning, I cut all my strips of oak, walnut and cherry 1/16 of an inch too wide and didn't sand them down to the proper width.
Now 1/16th of an inch doesn't sound like much until you realize the compounding of that error by gluing four strips side by side and then cutting them on a 45 degree angle. When these angled strips are the 7/8ths of an inch they are supposed to be but the original strips from which they were constructed were 15/16ths wide...Well let us sat that it puts everything out of whack with no easy way of recouping.
If you look carefully at the picture above, you'll see that the finished piece has a large central, eight-pointed star. Each of those points is composed of a large diamond made up of the glued strips I spoke about. The measuring error, compounded far more than the interest in a simple savings account at the local bank, resulted in the diamonds not being...well, diamond shape. Oh, they may look like they are diamond shaped but they are not symmetrical. I can start putting the diamonds together and it doesn't look bad until I get to numbers 7 and 8. In fact, Number 8 will not fit into the slot left for it.
So... It looks like I'll have four square coasters (the corner designs) and eight ALMOST-diamond shaped wall hangings for now. I will be ordering more wood (it's too small to call "lumber") and will be trying my best to not screw up the next time.
6 comments:
heh, and that's why I stick to bird feeders and pole barns..and even a 40' pole barn will be whopperjawed if the first rafter is just 1/16" off square
Yeah, but in a 40' pole barn you can "cheat" a little down the line and bring it back. In a 17 inch square with a hundred pieces there's little finagle room.
That has got to be frustrating as all get out!
JDP
It is. But all I can do is kick myself in the rear for not making sure the width of the initial strips was exactly 7/8" instead of 15/16ths. Being off by that 1/16 as you put four strips into each of the diamonds and then eight of the diamonds together....well, lets just say a 1/16th here and a 1/16th there and pretty soon you're talking real error.
WOW! I've seen experienced quilters have similar issues when piecing a quilt together. Your job is harder, though.
The wife brought up quilting today when I was moaning about my problem. I reminded her that most quilters have some extra fabric tucked in behind the good side and if need me they can rip out stitches and resew. Can't do that with wood too easily when it's already cut and/or glued up.
Oh, well. Live and learn. I just ordered more wood and will make a second attempt. Meanwhile, I've got four nice coasters and eight (almost) diamond shaped pieces that can be used as ... well, something.
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