A client told me my miters were off by 1/16th and I was about to argue until I checked

I was trimming out a kitchen remodel in Portland last month and this guy pulled out his own digital caliper to measure my joints. Turns out my saw was set to 45.2 degrees instead of a true 45, and the 1/16th gap was from the blade drifting ever so slightly on the cut, not from my marking. Has anyone else had a client call them out on something tiny that actually made them a better carpenter?

2 comments

2 Comments

eric_price19d ago

Man that's brutal but honestly respect to the client for having the tools and the guts to actually check it. I've always figured that kind of stuff is invisible to everyone but the person doing the work, but maybe I need to start double checking my saw setup more often.

max80819d ago

That part about "invisible to everyone but the person doing the work" really got me thinking, @eric_price. But the angle I don't see anyone talking about is how this kind of checking might actually hurt the relationship with the client. Once they see you aren't catching stuff, they might start watching everything you do, and that makes the whole job slower and more stressful for both sides. I wonder if having the client double check you is worth the hit to trust, even if it catches a mistake now and then.