How common is this ?

[RJSakowski]

Anyone who says they have never mis-measured, mis-marked , or mis-cut is either lying or not been in the shop very much. Old draftsman's scales had fine graduations to the left of zero so set a major line on the scale to one mark and the fine graduations on the left to the other mark. I have one stainless steel rule that is set up with a sub zero inch like that. Separating the major scale from the fine scale makes it more difficult (but not impossible) to misread the dimension.

Other than that, remeasuring after marking a piece and prior to cutting will usually catch those errors.

 

[DavidR8]

I just found out that a beautiful stack of 13 twelve inch capacity hand screws I've been working on won't "crank". I threaded the LH and RH rods incorrectly and to fix it will have to redo half of the rods. The wooden jaws are ebonized and oiled oak that I've been hording for almost 40 years and the custom handles are a London pattern which I make for all my wooden handled tools that need new handles. The brass ferrule are made from 3/4" brass hex rod. Will have to get pictures after lunch. It was a long and nasty learning curve how to thread long rods in a hobby shop. Now, if I can remember, I can put that knowledge to good use....

Go configure.
DanK

I would love to see what you're building!

 

[woodchucker]

Couple of weeks ago I was cutting unistrut for my saw project. I hate cutting unistrut. I use it and re-use it for all kinds of projects. Take that project apart when I've had my fun with it and make something else. I'm basically a 200lb adolescent playing with erector toys. So cutting it makes me cringe because that's one less long piece I'll have for the next project. When I do cut it, I try to cut it into 2ft, 4ft, or 8ft pieces. That way the holes at least still line up. I needed two pieces 56" long and there was no way around it, I had to make cuts.

So I got an 8ft piece, couldn't find my tape measure so I used a 4ft ruler, made a mark, moved it over 8" and made another mark. Took my bandsaw and cut on the 48" line instead of the 56" line. Cussed myself, grabbed another 8ft piece and did the exact same thing again. Cussed myself and threw my marker into the abyss. Grabbed a brand new 10ft stick and made my marks with a scribe since I didn't have a marker anymore; this time I scrawled a bold "YES" and "NO" beside my lines in maniac font, grabbed my saw, made my cut, went to put the piece on, and it didn't fit. Measured it, 56" on the nose. Re-measured where it needed to go; 58" is what I needed all along, not 56". Cussed myself, realized that having now cut it 56" instead of 58", I wouldn't be able to get my two pieces out of that one 10ft stick and I'd have to cut into yet another piece. Cussed myself again, turned the lights off and walked back to the house with my tail tucked. I consoled myself with thoughts of "you're not really that stupid, you're just tired. You need to rest. You'll be smarter tomorrow."

oh man, thanks for the laugh...
I've been there before. It's funny from here, but i know it sucks from your point of view.

 

[SLK001]

Couple of weeks ago I was cutting unistrut for my saw project. I hate cutting unistrut. I use it and re-use it for all kinds of projects. Take that project apart when I've had my fun with it and make something else. I'm basically a 200lb adolescent playing with erector toys. So cutting it makes me cringe because that's one less long piece I'll have for the next project. When I do cut it, I try to cut it into 2ft, 4ft, or 8ft pieces. That way the holes at least still line up. I needed two pieces 56" long and there was no way around it, I had to make cuts.

So I got an 8ft piece, couldn't find my tape measure so I used a 4ft ruler, made a mark, moved it over 8" and made another mark. Took my bandsaw and cut on the 48" line instead of the 56" line. Cussed myself, grabbed another 8ft piece and did the exact same thing again. Cussed myself and threw my marker into the abyss. Grabbed a brand new 10ft stick and made my marks with a scribe since I didn't have a marker anymore; this time I scrawled a bold "YES" and "NO" beside my lines in maniac font, grabbed my saw, made my cut, went to put the piece on, and it didn't fit. Measured it, 56" on the nose. Re-measured where it needed to go; 58" is what I needed all along, not 56". Cussed myself, realized that having now cut it 56" instead of 58", I wouldn't be able to get my two pieces out of that one 10ft stick and I'd have to cut into yet another piece. Cussed myself again, turned the lights off and walked back to the house with my tail tucked. I consoled myself with thoughts of "you're not really that stupid, you're just tired. You need to rest. You'll be smarter tomorrow."

Here's one instance where "weld it back together, measure again and cut" might work well!

 

[macd55]

Shop I was working many years ago was threading some inconel 718 part on a Cridan threading machine but inspection didn't have a ring gage big enough so they were measuring with threads wires. Parts were sent into Boeing and rejected. The parts measured alright but nobody ever put a thread pitch gage on the thread. Yep wrong pitch.

 

[mmcmdl]

Shop I was working many years ago was threading some inconel 718 part on a Cridan threading machine but inspection didn't have a ring gage big enough so they were measuring with threads wires. Parts were sent into Boeing and rejected. The parts measured alright but nobody ever put a thread pitch gage on the thread. Yep wrong pitch.

Been there , Done that . 3 days worth of work on proximity fuses .

 

[Bi11Hudson]

It has been my process for years to [cut it too long, measure again, and cut it down to correct size]. Not that I am prone to mistakes, but I am. A good friend used to quote "Measure with a micrometer, mark it with chalk, and cut it with a axe." This from working in a steel mill, where the axe would have been. . . useless.

.

 

[MrWhoopee]

As a young apprentice I was cutting a lot of stock. I had a batch of parts to finish at 6 in., so I grabbed my Starrett scale, set the stop on the saw and cut all the material. When the job was handed to a machinist, he brought me the pieces, complaining that they were too short. Who would have guessed a Starrett combo metric/english scale is 150 mm long, not 6 in. ?

 

[Dan Krager]

Here is the pile of hand screws I screwed up. It won't be too bad to fix this because all I have to do is remake 1/2 of the threaded rods. You'll notice the hex bar from which came all the ferrules. The little bit of metal working on this project I thought might get it by on this site...

DanK

 

[paradox_pete]

The saying is, "Measure twice, cut once..."

But Dagnabit! I've cut it twice and its STILL to short!