Friday 28 October 2011

My first experiences in learning Joinery cont....

Ok so i leave the fencing company and get a new job on a building site, which is better money and better prospects. I soon settled in and got friendly with a Joiner. While i was working as a labourer i also started helping out the joiner, i started learning how to hang doors, cut architraves etc. Six months later i quit the labouring job and started working with the joiner who had set me on full time. I also started college on a day release. Had to take a pay cut tho, cant win em all.
    I started college at 21, i was the oldest in my class which seemed really weird. All the other lads were strait out of school and so very immature.
    Month by month i was getting further and further ahead of the rest of the group, until one day i actually worked up the whole first years syllabus. Id finished my NVQ1course work in record time and just needed my exams to complete which were going to be 5 months away. I still had to go every week but instead of twiddling my thumbs i was asked my my lecturer to help out with the students who were lagging behind in class. I sometimes even took the class when the lecturer had a meeting or went for a sly coffee and cigarette.
The students thought this was cool, as i injected a bit of humour into the class, which got them motivated. I was even given the nickname "Joseph the joiner" The Joseph who was with Mary in the Biblical times, crazy ha?
     Life on site wasn't always plane sailing. I remember my first day. We were on a roof erecting roof trusses, now the idea is to nail every truss on an already marked 4x1 horizontal bracing strap. In other words nail the truss on the pencilled cross. I was that nervous and quiet scared of heights too, that i nailed them anywhere but the crosses. About thirty minutes later i had nailed them all. My boss took one look and asked me what i did was right. I looked at the roof and didn't know what to say, the roof was all over the place. It actually looked like a Tornado had swept across it. I thought i was going to get the sack. My boss sent me back on the roof and made me De-nail it all, lesson learned.
    Another mistake i made was when i was drilling a hole for a door latch. It was a new ogre bit which are pretty aggressive. That combined with a power drill is even more so. The drill started nice and slow and was boring the hole out nice, so i speeded it up abit, it must have hit a knot because  it went straight through the side of the door and into the plastered wall. You can imagine how i felt as i saw the size of the hole in the new door and wall. Its laughable now thinking back.
    Even now i still make mistakes no matter how careful i may be.
   
More later Folks...
   
   

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