okay let's face it when it comes to starting up a brand new hobby like woodworking well we all make mistakes granted some more than others but it's just a fact of life and it's a vital part of the learning process now look i've been doing this for donkeys years and i still make mistakes some major some minor on virtually every build that i do but instead of getting all cranky about it i just like to refer to them as my little bespoke design features g'day folks uncle knackers here now let's kick this video off with what i think are the top seven woodworking mistakes that beginners make and how to rectify them let's go after i uh attend to this little issue it's starting to sting a bit apart from driving a nail through your finger [Music] one of the most upsetting mistakes is missing your mark with your hammer which leaves an unsightly dent in the wood but don't worry about it as it happens to the best of us and in most cases there is an easy fix now as you can see my trusty old hammer has left some nasty dents on this block of wood now to repair that the first thing we need to do is to apply some water to these dents and that will cause the wood to swell just a bit of water over those dents there we go now just let that sit for a little bit take that nail out and then with the wet rag just place it over those dents just like that and then grab your iron your hot iron listen to that and iron those dents out and hopefully a bit of luck a little bit of success okay let's have a look oh that is fantastic i'll get a close-up now check this out folks all those dents that surrounded that nail hole have now all but disappeared how cool is that a lot of beginning woodworkers tend to gravitate toward the jigsaw for all their wood cutting requirements as i think it's perceived as a safer tool than the screaming circular saw but they're often disappointed with the end result when trying to cut a straight line as the jigsaw tends to wobble and deviate now to fix that problem try this go out and find yourself a straight edge it doesn't matter what it is just as long as it's nice and straight i'm using a stick of 42 by 19 millimeter pine and this is going to act as the fence for the base of the jigsaw to run up against now the next thing we need to do is to measure back from the inside edge of our jigsaw blade to the outside edge of the jigsaw base now we can either do that by using a combination square and just pushing that blade down until it just kisses the inside edge of that jigsaw blade lock it off and that's our measurement or you can use the old-fashioned way and just use a tape measure now that measurement there that's going to indicate how far back from our line we need to clamp down our fence now just a quick tip you may have noticed how i've extended that fence beyond the plywood by about 100 millimeters or four inches that's so we can rest the edge of our jigsaw up against it which means we can enter our cut nice and parallel to the fence [Music] now if i can just grab my straight edge and we'll do a little test now check that out that is a beautiful straight cut all righty your wobbly cut days are over speaking about mistakes how's this i was having a chat to my wife the other day and she's a bit disappointed about something i said look you just gotta learn to relax and embrace your mistakes so she turns around and gives me a hug wasn't the answer i was after a bit shocked to tell the truth now this kind of thing happens all the time when you're not paying enough attention and you accidentally drop or knock the piece of wood that you're working on off the workbench or somehow you scratch it and you finish up with a superficial or cosmetic mark that you need to fill to repair those marks and scratches we do have a couple of options with the first one being a pre-made filler that is color matched to the type of wood that you're using now i think a better and cheaper solution sheep's always good is to actually use the sawdust from the project that we're working on as that is going to be an exact match for the wood that we're using so grab yourself a piece of scrap from the project give it a really good sand and you'll finish up with a pile of sawdust just like that which we'll then mix with some wood glue to make a paste now just remember it doesn't matter if you use a filler bought from a shop or you've made your own it's still going to stand out for example the one we're making today even though we're using the sawdust from the project that we're making because we're mixing it with glue it's going to be a little darker than the wood so let's give this a test as you can see i've got a long scratch down here i've got a few little holes and a long scratch at this end which you probably can't see but anyway let's just give this a bit of a mix got some wood glue in that goes and we'll make a nice little paste so grab your paint scraper or your screwdriver whatever you got just mix that up [Music] and there we have ourselves a nice little ball of putty so just bring that across to here work that in if it's a bit proud don't worry about that because we can sand that back okay fill that crack in for that scratch just get that putty right into it and we'll leave that dry then we'll come back and sand it [Music] and here's how that repair finished up this one was the homemade filler and this one was a store-bought filler now these are both fairly major scratches and like i said before those fillers are going to stand out but this one was cheaper than that one [Music] now hands down one of the best power tools you can have in your tool arsenal as a beginner woodworker is a trim router it's small versatile and so easy to use but one of the most common problems when using one as a beginner is router burn which is where the wood gets scorched black from excessive heat being generated from the router bit itself now this is usually due to wood pitch which is a combination of glues resins and sawdust that have built up on the edge of the router bit now the black router burn can be sanded off but it can be quite painful especially if the profile is quite intricate to fix the problem the first thing we need to do if your router bit has a bearing is take that off [Music] then using a combination of soapy water along with something not too aggressive like an abrasive scrub pad or a fine wire brush give that a good ol scrub and that bit should come up clean shiny and cutting like a brand spanker without any router burn [Music] now check that out that's a beautiful finish without any router burn now just one more quick thing regarding router burn and that is if you're moving your router too slowly or any point you become stationary you will burn the wood so do yourself a favor and move at a nice steady pace and you'll be as good as gold how annoying is it when you drill through a piece of wood and you finish up with all that ugly tear out and splintering on either side of the hole it can 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