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Due to an enforced change of my circumstances, I need to find a new line of employment and have been thinking of doing a basic woodwork/carpentry course at a local construction school for a week. Thing is, how much can be taught in a week, and it’s not cheap so other than gaining a bit of confidence is it likely to be an expensive error. In a past life I was an Army Mechanic and that was a 6-month course (and I still didn’t learn much then...)
For building site carpentry I should think you can learn the basics. You won't need to know how to do dovetails and pegged joints. There's undoubtedly a skill to it that'll take a while to master and you'll need to be pretty quick to make money at it which will also take time to learn. Does it give any kind of qualification?
Having taught carpentry in the past, i would say that in a week you would only scratch the surface at best. The nature of the trade means that there is lots to learn for both first and second fix work as well as getting used to meausuring, cutting and experiencing the tools required. My apprenticeship was 3 years, that was 30 years ago and I’m still learning new things even now! The best way to learn the trade is to shadow a tradesman for a while which will give you a good insight into what is involved. A week long college course I’m guessing would be wasted time and money.
In a week you will learn nothing......A week isn't even enough to learn to safely use 10% of the various tools you will need.....
A apprenticeship is 2 or 3 years plus out of hours study.....
I'd say save your money and try to find someone to tag along with. That way you'll learn what you actually need to know and may get paid to. Practice in your spare time.... It takes a long time to gain the confidence and skills to use tools properly.
If you fancy coming out to Croatia you can come and work at my firm and learn on the job.....
Making a halving and mortice and tennon joint
Making a two panel door
Scribing in the beading with quadrant and practice mitres
Making up a frame to the door and fitting the door with hinges
Cutting a lock for the door
Building a stud partition wall
Boarding the wall with plasterboard
Fitting a frame into stud wall
Hanging a door in a frame
Fixing doorstops
Fixing architrave
Scribing in skirting
Glueing timbers and fashioning an edge and a side to timber
Sharpening chisels
Developing skills in sawing, planeing, chiselling, sanding, hammering, measuring and marking out
...no qual stated, other than some internal certification for attainment probably.
Sharpening chisels
Developing skills in sawing, planeing, chiselling, sanding, hammering, measuring and marking out
That will easily take a week or 5 days, without that skill youre wasting your money and time, my apprenticeship was 4 years 5 city and guilds exams 6 certificates included certificate of craftsmanship,on the job learning and and trraining and college work as well, also every day is a learning day.
Then you have to buy your own tools, tool boxes, power tools, etc.
Best to get a shadow job on a site or with a joiner for a few weeks to see if its what you want to do and can cope, its hard work
I'm no carpenter, but there is no way they are teaching you to do all that in a week! A quick demo, maybe, but you're not going to get anything like enough hands-on to develop proficiency for such a huge range of work.
If that's a genuine offer of Stompy's you should bite his hand off.
If a week's all you can afford in either time or cash, I'd be tempted to do something a bit less involved such as plastering or bricklaying. I'm not in any way saying these are "easy" trades but you should be able to learn enough of the basics in a week to get by and after that I reckon 90% of improvement would come simply with practice and experience.
I recently renovated the North wing of Flying Ox Towers and it was the power tools/joinery side of things that was hardest to get looking right. There are a lot of things can go wrong that will leave you with a pile of either kindling or fingers. Plastering was tricky at first but after some YouTube videos and a couple of practice walls the results are arguably better than the cowboys who did our living room. I reckon I could pass for a plasterer with a week of proper tuition under my belt.
Where are you based?
I teach furniture making at a college in Leamington spa. I'd say that you might be better saving your money for some basic good quality hand tools, watching a lot of YouTube and practising.
Not to play down the course wherever it is but obviously you're only going to have a whistle stop tour of things there in a week.
We do evening classes 4 days a week which is a good way of getting into it while still working another job.
If that’s a genuine offer of Stompy’s you should bite his hand off.
Yep, genuine......I'm short of workers (the country is on it's knees, all the skilled labour has left, those that are left don't want to work) and would be happy to train someone up.
It is more machining/sawmilling based at the moment but will be more joinery focused when the new workshops get finished this year.
You can see what we do here www.facebook.com/oaktreemill
I've been a furniture maker for nearly 20 years and have also done a fair bit of commercial site work so have plenty of skills to pass on.
wow, if i was young and single, id be on the next plane!!
Me too, but I’m not... 😟
however, some of that stuff looks very interesting for my field stompy. Are you supplying direct to the U.K. or going through a distributor here?
A week will not even begin to scratch the surface of those skills. See these types of courses now and again, they always seem like a bit of a scam. Maybe look into some volunteering work where you can learn some skills for free whilst doing another paying job in the interim?
Are you supplying direct to the U.K. or going through a distributor here?
We supply direct in the UK, raw material, part or fully processed timbers and products.
Nice!
where would I find you other than on your Facebook page? I’d be interested in price lists, catalogues etc depending on how set up you are...no worries if you’re just getting going.
Sorry OP..... Didn't mean to hijack your thread....
We have a website at www.oaktree-mill.com
It has not been updated for a while but all our info is there..... Feel free to drop me an e mail or give me a call.
Cheers dude - will have a look
That syllabus sounds a lot like the 2-weekend one I did (was a present from my wife).
Was good fun and confidence-building as a DIYer, not sure I’d want to charge anyone money for my door-making or partition wall building - I can either do it well or quickly but not both.
That said, if you’ve got reasonable DIY skills then there’s probably decent money in a reliable handyman service - plenty of people are useless and happy to pay someone who’ll show up when they say they will and get basic household jobs done.
Feel free to hijack, if the result is positive then crack on!
single - yes, young - not now unfortunately...
cheers folks, you guys have confirmed my train of thought - thanks for the input.
Simon_g - the course is run by the Builder Training Centre over by Croydon and they do it over consecutive weekends, perhaps it’s what you did? The diy/handyman aspect was the angle I was approaching from...
That’s the one, knew it sounded familiar!
As I say, was fun but it’s a slightly odd mix. You take ages doing mortices and tenons for the door by hand - all good skill-building stuff I’m sure but I’d probably just do it with power tools if I needed a custom-size door now (standard size I’d just buy). Then the second weekend was all quite practical useful stuff - you do end up with a complete wall built, door installed and skirting/architrave done.
As said, won’t be letting you walk straight into a job but at least gives you some skills to be useful to a carpenter that needs an extra pair of hands!