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Proportions 

Proportions, and the importance of how it pertains to woodworking.

If you're like the rest of us, early on in your wood working experience, you've had the dubious honor of putting all your efforts into a special piece of work. You did everything right. All the joints fit perfectly. The corners were dead on square. Even the finish was spectacular. You could just hear the comments from your spouse or friends. "This guy's a natural". "He's a genius". "I can't believe he built that himself".

Then comes that special day, when you unveil your masterpiece! Except, where's the oohs and aahs? You just get silence. Where's all the glory? What's the matter with these people? Have they no taste? Maybe they're just blown away. Yeah that's it, they're speechless!

Then little by little your spectators drift away. Quietly, drift away. You just can't believe it. They must be jealous of your talent! Suddenly,  little Johnny, from next door, shows up, and gives it a look. Unfortunately he's honest, he doesn't know any better. "What's that", he says about your work of art. In the middle of explaining your creation, he blurts out something like, "it looks like a coffin".

Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, if you were trying  to build a coffin. Well, now you have to take a good look at your creation, and you begin to get a sick feeling in your stomach. They're right. It does look like a coffin, and not a very comfortable one at that. Now what do you do? All that time. All that wood. (wood doesn't grow on trees you know). As the truth sinks in, you begin to wonder a couple of things.

One, can this "coffin" be turned into a tool chest, if you screw handles on the ends? And two, what happened?

The answer is very simple. The proportions were all wrong. (And yes it'll make a great tool chest).

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Written by: Lee A. Jesberger  © 2006

Inventor of Ezee-Feed systems  ®