Since no one is perfect and neither is wood, there will most certainly be mistakes in your woodworking. But will you have to throw the whole piece away and start again, or can it be fixed? Don’t despair; most mistakes can be fixed in some way or another. Mistakes usually fall into one of two categories. The first is the tradesman’s mistakes such as not measuring something correctly or putting the right measurement in the wrong place. The lumber itself causes the second; e.g., a flaw such as a knot right where you don’t want it, or a piece of lumber tearing out or cracking.
If you’ve found a knot in your stock, you may consider leaving it there for visual appeal. In this case the knothole will need to be stabilized by filling it with glue, otherwise the brittle wood that forms the knot could fall out leaving only a hole. A thin solution of cyanoacrylate adhesive is what you need to soak into the wood fibers. Larger gaps can be filled with an epoxy colored to blend in with the wood. Or you could mix some sawdust from the wood into the epoxy before it hardens. If you want to take the knot out, you can do that and use the band saw to cut a patch of wood to fit.
If you’ve been using the router to edge light-colored wood such as maple, it often causes burn marks which are quite difficult to remove with sanding. But you can use the router again to mill it off if you set it a bit deeper - about 1/32) and go past that burned spot quickly.
Mortise and tenon joints should fit snugly to be strong, but when you are learning they are sometimes loose. It’s no good filling it up with glue/ this won’t work. What you need to do is cut pieces of wood and glue/clamp to the sides of the tenon. This way you can re-cut it for a better fit.
If you’ve cut that hinge pocket too deep there’s an easy way to fix it. Simply cut a matching piece of cardboard from a cereal packet - you may need two, depending on how much you overshot the depth, and insert it between the hinge and the wood. It will be invisible if you measure it right.
When applying a finish like stain or sealer to your work, you may find a spot that the stain cannot penetrate. It is most obvious and looks terrible, but what has caused it? Probably a smear of glue! But don’t try to sand it off; the sandpaper will get clogged with urethane. Don’t wait until it’s dry to try and fix the problem. Use a cabinet scraper to remove the glue then dab more stain over the spot.
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