Thread: Carpentry and Cabinet making - differences

You rarely see a an old framer.
If they stay building they usually become fixers.

Originally Posted by echnidna

You rarely see a an old framer.
If they stay building they usually become fixers.

Well I'm 43 and I still do pretty much everything, as long as there's not very much bending, lifting, holding right arm above shoulder height, carrying or digging involved.

Mick the infirm (of mind)

Originally Posted by echnidna

You rarely see a an old framer.
If they stay building they usually become fixers.

Fixers or Fixtures??

My favorite hate when building was putting stumps in.

The roof is hard work, but now that is on we are onto the stuff you do inside, in the shade where all the best people are found. I am looking forward to doing the doors and skirting etc that goes to making the place look good. But at the speed I work I will have one door and a skirting board on while a real builder does the rest.

A friend of mine had a house built by a proffesional builder. When we checked the frame it looked like it had gone through a cyclone. Later we found out that they had downed a dozen long necks before ! they started.

The other thing which surprises me is that on some of the home renovation shows you often see people using nail guns without eye protection and none of the carpenters that I have seen recently use any eye protection either. I've used a nail gun a bit at times but I always wear goggles. I use large saws and machinery everyday and I have done so for a long time and I don't think that you can be too careful. I did an assessment at a TAFE at one time in the safe use of some wood machines and the assessor had fingers missing. When I saw his techniques I was not surprised. But then maybe old age has turned me into a old sook or maybe familiarity does breed contempt.

Chook,



Familiarity is the most dangerous thing of all, I once made the mistake of decanting spirits of salts into an open container without first putting on glasses, something I almost always did. Having handled the stuff many times before I was quite familiar with it, however this time one single stray drop from the container caused a single droplet to splash back directly into the eye, you loose vision instantly and needless to say a touch painful, its also extremely difficult driving to hospital with only one functioning eye. I was lucky I had washed out the eye straight away and after an hour of further irrigation from a nurse who had no sympathy for an idiot the damage was contained. Other than some surface scaring on the eye normal vision returned after a couple of days. Since then protection always, hearing, mask, glasses whatever is appropriate for the situation. At least these days the emphasis on safety should mean a lot less stupid accidents.

John

Protective eyewear is not generally regarded as being necessary with a nailgun.

Why do they sell safety glasses with Paslode guns then

If it uses compressed air, use eye appropriate eye protection.
one of my 19 yr old apprentices turned air hose on, the fitting came off the air hose serpented around hit the corner of his eye pressurised the eyesocket and dislodged his eyeball from it, requiring emergency surgery.
NSW workcover inspector from here recommends protective gear be worn whenever the pressure is above 1.7 bar, as do I.

On several occasions I have had little splinters of CDX eject from the edge of plywood and pelt me in the face when nailing into the piece with an 18 GA nailer. My porter cable nail guns all came with safety glasses too.

I had some 'professional' chippies at my place, and thier lack of personal safety gear, and their **** poor attitude was astonishing. They always created 5000 trip hazards by morning tea, cords allover etc etc. I insisted on an RCD on the temp. board, which was just as well as the the plumber would be dead now - he electrocuted himself on his own (crappy, frayed wiring) lamp which tripped the RCD. Still gave him a belt though.

The chippy went and bought his own RCD that day!

My father is rather old school and does not wear safety gear unless he thinks he really needs it. However he did decide that when moving into his current premises that he should install a ground fault protector. Turns out it has saved a life, my nephew fitted screws into the end of an extension lead, plugged it in, turned it on and then used a piece of metal to short out the screws. My father came out after the nephew had decided that there was something wrong with the lead and was getting another. This was from six or seven year old who had been in the workshop for years and knew what was allowed and what was not.

Accuracy and house construction are words that don't belong in the same sentence. Hands up anyone who has done renovations or tiling and found a square room.

coming from the commercial joinery side of the fence, Builders and carpenters have a lot to answer for in my books.

the company that i work for specializes in high rise appartment fitouts and no two levels are set out the same. as much as 200mm difference between one level to the next in some cases.

things are slowly getting better. i have introduced setout templates for the carpenters to set their stud framework to,

G