OK so term started a while ago – but my broadband has only just started working. So this is a quick catch up on progress so far.
I was told that the course was ‘hands on’ and fair enough by 2pm on the first day we were wet grinding and sharpening plane and chisel blades before starting work.
The course is run on the basis of one lecture a day (at 08:30) followed by 7 hours of practical work. The first six weeks or so are loosely terms ‘Joinery’ but this is not really the sort of work that most joiners would recognise as such. When I overheard John (mentor and coach) mention to a co-student that two pieces of wood were mis-aligned by perhaps a quarter of a milimetre I quickly realised that my flat joiners pencil, useful for DIY, belonged in the bin. The standard to which we are encouraged (and expected to work) if more like cabinet making. If you can see the glue seam then you need to improve.
The first week of joinery focussed on typical boatbuilder joints – the scarf. After tool sharpening and planing to size on Monday, Tuesday was a feather scarf, Wedenesday was a single lipped scarf, Thursday was a double lipped scarf and Friday was a hooked scarf. Some of us, who were trying to get this last joint just right, had to run-over to Monday to get this one finished.
I finished the first week physically and mentally exhausted.
Week 2, for some reason, skipped straight on to the construction of a dovetail drawer with through and lapped dovetails and a drawer carcase grooved for a 4mm plywood base (photos WILL follow once I work out how to upload them). This was hard, very hard, and we struggled most of the week. Oh – and we had some lectures on health and safety (one or two of these arrive every week), tools, part of the boat, timber types, adhesives….
Week 3 (went back) to the much easier water stop dovetail and a composite ‘wood widening’ joint exercise (dubbed the cheese board) including a stopped mitre, tongue and groove, separate groove and dowel joints.
Week 4 was a spay headed door (the top slants) with mortise and tennon joints, internal grooves and a bevelled panel.
Week 5 is a free form week – to allow a bit of catch up – allow people to develop skills in the direction that they want and for the foolhardy a chance to plough on and build a carpenters toolbox. Most carpenters in the UK would have (traditionally) make one of these towards the end of an apprenticeship. They often served as the carpenter’s CV. A prospective employer would look at a candidate’s toolbox to help judge if they were employable. Trying to make one of these on week five of a ‘Joinery’ course is perhaps a bit rash but I am havinga go anyway. I spent Monday on design, Tuesday struggling with boards (and more design), Wednesday (today) making hardboard patterns for the dovetails (six tails at each corner and eight tails for the door rails) and trying to get the timber true. I’m using 12mm mahogany for the carcase and am having to get used to cutting lapped dovetails that only taper by 1mm!
Photos will follow once I work out how to link them efficiently….
