The One Inch Mistake

So, I was in the shop most of the day Friday. I’m trying to push the Linnaea cabinets along, so I sanded all the parts to the first piece, a small credenza. I then applied the oil finish to all these pieces. I figured that I’d assemble the unit today.

Jason gave me a call to tell me the drawings I did were not accurate, and the case got made 1” too small. Oops. Crap. After several minutes of “what if we….”, he is re-making the case--the life of a prototype. It’s not so bad though, because we had already noticed a few things we needed to change.

Remember, I’m a professional. Don’t try this at home!

Now we’re in for two weeks of bumping around with the pedestal. I had thought we’d be further along. Honestly, I haven’t given Jason the help he needs to get the cases done in a timely fashion.
Creating something new isn’t just about design, prototypes, and re-makes. It’s time……lots of time. When someone asks me to do something custom, or different, they are paying a custom fee for time, not the wood. Custom is not all that different from creating new designs. You need to work all the bugs out before the first board is pulled, otherwise, it may end up 1” too small.