Working Through Mistakes
Mistakes are a natural part of woodworking—every project teaches you something new. The key isn’t avoiding mistakes altogether, but learning how to deal with them when they happen. Sometimes that means getting creative and finding a fix that still works within your design. Other times, it simply means starting that part over and doing it right.
In this project, I ran into one of those moments. I made a mistake that I didn’t want to work around because I was committed to following the original plans as closely as possible. Since sharing the problem, I’ve received some great feedback on Instagram—one suggestion in particular offered a clever solution I hadn’t even considered. I’ll be diving into that idea in a future video.
Big thanks to Waterlox for bringing out the rich color of the cherry and adding a durable, beautiful finish to the project.
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Big thanks to Bloxygen for helping keep my finishes fresh and ready to use—simple, effective, and a must-have in the shop.
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For this build, I followed the woodworking plans available on my site to create a solid cherry step stool. The plans include a printable template, and in the video, I walk you through exactly how to use it to create a precise pattern. Once your pattern is ready, cutting the step stool sides becomes much more accurate and repeatable.
From there, it’s just a matter of making a few straightforward cuts while sticking to the provided dimensions, and your project will come together smoothly.
If you’d like to see the full build process and grab the plans, click the links to check out the project video and details.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one. Jon