Appreciation post: The simple glue-up that took a full weekend

I was putting together a small oak side table, just a basic frame with a shelf. I figured the glue-up would take an hour, maybe two. I spent three hours just getting the clamps set right so the joints were square and the shelf sat flush, and that was before the glue even dried. The whole thing, from mixing the hide glue to cleaning up the squeeze-out, ate up my entire Saturday and most of Sunday morning. It's funny how the simple steps you breeze past in your head are the ones that actually take the time. Anyone else have a 'quick' project that turned into a much longer hands-on session than you planned?

2 comments

2 Comments

sarah_patel2512h ago

You're so right about the simple steps taking the time. I tried to replace a single drawer slide last week, and what should have been a 20 minute job turned into a whole evening of sanding and shimming just to get it to close right. It's like the project knows when you're feeling confident.

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lee_reed7h ago

Oh it totally knows! I once tried to just "quickly" fix a wobbly table and ended up taking the whole thing apart by accident. My confidence is a project's cue to get weird.