Minor woodworking surgery - or a "dutchwoman" repair

About a week ago, I received a hilarious comment about my last chair post. Someone wrote and asked if I would post a better picture of the chair I'm building, since the last one looked like someone had tossed their cookies under it. 

When I looked back at the photo, I agree. But I swear, that stain on the concrete below the chair isn't vomitus. 

I will post a picture of the two chairs shortly, as soon as I apply a few more coats of oil to them. Meanwhile, I had to perform minor woodworking surgery to the second chair. 

There was a gap on the back of the chair - I evidently cut my seat notch a hair too big. 

But the true sign of being a competent woodworker is knowing how to correct your fuck-ups, and trust me, there are bound to be a few here and there. 

The best way to fix this is to add - as my buddy John E says - a dutchman. Errr...in my case, a dutchwoman. This is the area what needs one. 

I was in "the zone," an area in which I rarely land on the first attempt. But this shim was cut perfectly the first time. Must be the planets in the right place. 

Clamping it into place was tricky, 

since the chair leg was an odd shape.

So I made a custom clamp pad. 

 I just traced the profile on the block, and sliced it on the bandsaw. 

 Whenever I glue something tricky, I'm reminded of my friend, Dave. Dave was a pretty calm guy, but would totally freak whenever he had to glue something together  I'm not sure why – it just gave him a lot of stress to glue things. My feeling is this – get everything you need right in front of you, so you don't have to be running around to find clamp or a glue block. Being prepared makes it go smoothly.

In this case, I really wanted good pressure all along that little Dutchman, so I added a small block under my clamp to even out the pressure.

After the glue dried, you could barely see the repair.

Doesn't this look a hell of a lot better?

And finally – the second chair is assembled and drying.