Not-so-much Fun with Angles

Did you wonder how my four-foot picture frame turned out? 

Well, not as expected... at first glance, this looks fine, right? 

 Sure, it's a little narrower than I planned - I was hoping for a 2" wide ring, but a little chipping necessitated trimming it a little narrower than I wanted. 

See, that's the thing about trying to use up scrap wood... it's SCRAP for a reason. Maybe it had a hairline crack in it, or it was the end of a board, straight from the mill, with some checking on it. Either way, these scrap pieces were trimmed off for a reason... mostly unusable. 

And as mush as I inspected them for defects, I still encountered some problems once I started cutting the ring. 

Here - the whole side of this segment blew off. 

Same here.

And then - when trimming the ring a little narrower - the Dominos revealed themselves.

 Oy vey.

 So for now, it's leaning up against the wall, until I decide if it needs to go in the dumpster.  Yes, I could probably patch it, and paint it - but it's hardly what I envisioned when I was making it. 

The good news? I have virtually no cost invested in this, and just 2-3 hours of my time, so... what would I do differently? Probably use better lumber, for one thing.  Use wider pieces, too.... which would result in a wider ring. And finally - I would place the Dominos a little more carefully, so that they wouldn't be revealed when the finally shape was cut. 

Live and learn!