Thread: Not sure if I like woodworking/cabinetmaking

Yes, wait a bit longer. the knowledge you are learning now will be surprisingly helpful in the years to come if you keep working with timber. learning to work with wood is not something that comes the instant you pick up a piece of timber, same as for learning to play the piano. You have to do the hard yards to get to the good, fun stuff.

Of course, there is nothing to stop you having a go a building eg a shelf or a box outside of the course.

I guess I should know what I'm working with when I'm putting up with the wood and maybe I should just force myself to try and enjoy what it's all about?

You don't have to enjoy all of it, but the knowledge will be useful in the future. Knowing about timber and its different types and how that can affect what you make is important.

Another thing we're doing now is learning how to use hand tools.

Good.

Are these really used often in the industry?

Who cares, I love handtools. Everybody should be able to use them.

What I was attracted to doesn't come up later into the program, which is about 3 months from now.

3 months? Gawd I wish I was young again. 3 whole months! Ha! That's nothin'.

Okay I'll bite.

I went back through your previous posts. You made a decision to go from graphic design (which you didnt like) to cabinet making which you wanted to do because of the machines ( which now you dont like the course content)

Go back and read some of the responses to your previous posts. You will find answers that will indicate the response towards someone who is indecisive about a career path in woodwork.

Its my prediction that you will get somewhere between 16- 18 posts in reponse to your question which is should i give up or should i move on. Given that I am not you, do not really know your circumstances economic, intellectual or otherwise I cannot make this decision for you.You will have to way up the circumstances you are in and make a decision.Man up.

I wish you well in your decision making.

Please note that "I'll bite" is an idiom or a colloquialism for I'll answer your question

Spot on PAc-man!!

Originally Posted by Pac man

Okay I'll bite.

I went back through your previous posts. You made a decision to go from graphic design (which you didnt like) to cabinet making which you wanted to do because of the machines ( which now you dont like the course content)

Go back and read some of the responses to your previous posts. You will find answers that will indicate the response towards someone who is indecisive about a career path in woodwork.

Its my prediction that you will get somewhere between 16- 18 posts in reponse to your question which is should i give up or should i move on. Given that I am not you, do not really know your circumstances economic, intellectual or otherwise I cannot make this decision for you.You will have to way up the circumstances you are in and make a decision.Man up.

I wish you well in your decision making.

No.

Many misunderstood what I was asking in my previous threads, plus this is a different question that is more clear. I just checked my previous threads and none of them answer this problem at all.

Trades Programs in my part of the world normally have managing committees of journeymen and business owners who can say, with the virtue of hindsight, what the students need to know to stay alive in the workplace.
No instructor is going to stop and rationalize the curriculum for you.

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Trades Programs in my part of the world normally have managing committees of journeymen and business owners who can say, with the virtue of hindsight, what the students need to know to stay alive in the workplace.
No instructor is going to stop and rationalize the curriculum for you.

Exactly right. Any problems you find with wood using handtools will multiply many times once machinery comes into the equation. At least in the army you get a flak jacket.
Cheers and good luck
Jim

Most machines are just motorised hand tools, to speed up the work
Hand saw = jigsaw / fretsaw / scroll saw. all cut on the push and then return to the start.
Ciircular blades just cut out the return cycle.

Hand plane each pass removes some timber, thicknesser does the same, just uses a circular blade and so on.

Learning each hand tool teaches you what is happening to the wood and why, which then translates into the machine.

try hand planing across the grain, or the wrong way with the grain and watch what happens. You can then apply this equally to a machine.

Some hand tools can't be replaced by machines.

baby steps.

Also ask yourself what you think you like about using machines. I think the novelty will wear off very quick for you. I think for most people your skills is where you get most of the enjoyment from, machining timber is a very basic skill, anyone can learn it, and will become boring very quick if that is all you are doing.
If you think that would keep you happy, maybe driving an excavator or something is more interesting for you, in that case operating the machine is the skill.

Originally Posted by Wood101Work

No.

Many misunderstood what I was asking in my previous threads, plus this is a different question that is more clear. I just checked my previous threads and none of them answer this problem at all.

Like pacman, I'll bite as well. You need to do all the foundation studies to understand 'the machines'. Simple, bit like the Karate Kid, you can't fight until you know how to fight.

But, given your response to pacman then my advice would be to not read any of the responses from heron in. Yes, man up and listen, you need some tough love

Do you want to learn or do you know everything already...skills are learnt over many years of perseverance. The problem is the modern generation want it all now without any commitment. I think the real joy in any endeavor comes from knowing why and how to use a piece of equipment powered or not, to master something is to know something.

I only just read some of your other posts, that excavator driver idea, make sure that is for the council!
I do appreciate the research you did before starting this course!
Not sure why you decided to go ahead with it.

I’m not going to bite ....that hard... because in a very small way I can empathise a little but only just a wee drop!

My late father was a pattern maker in South Africa, when I was 13 I walked into his workshop and the head pattern maker had a sign up on the wall - it said "Perfection comes with patients".

By the sounds of it you seem like a very right brained type of individual that is your a creative, extrovert who doesn't like to be bogged down with the nitty gritty detail etc? Or your young and impatient? Just an assumption off the top of my head......

If this rings true I can understand where you are coming from in a small way because I enrolled in a course with Richard Vaughan. Everyone in the class was very detailed and came from backgrounds like draftsmen and there was an aerospace engineer there to. Richard had us do free hand 3D drawings which I struggled really badly with, plus countless hours of using the Japanese pull saws, jack planes, marking knives and hours of pairing with the chiesel. Plus sharpening using Jap waterstones......

All I wanted to do was to bloody build something......I am ashamed to say I dropped out. Mainly because I was going through a break up with my long term girlfriend and I had a lot of crap going on at work, but the point is I didn't appreciate what Richard was trying to teach me.

Fast forward two years and I kick myself for not sticking it out!!! I have self taught myself everything and my love for hand tools and using them has over taken my lust for the table saw and router table. I still mill my stock etc with the power tools but I love to make small boxes and low and behold the basics of using hand tools often come back to bite me because I didn't learn how to use them in the correct way.

So my advice is if you don't like the nitty gritty of a trade that takes years to master then this is not for you! If you are a creative type person then find something that complements your personality you will enjoy your work so much more.

I do woodwork not because it comes naturally to me but it teaches me patients and it forces me to use my other half of my brain!

Good luck

Milo

Moments like this I think of the Buddist saying...... "before enlightenment, carry water, chop wood, after enlightenment, carry water, chop wood" ........to me this means that before we get to the good stuff we have to do the hard stuff and we have to continue to do the hard stuff in order to do the good stuff.

All of us what ever we do have all learnt to walk before we run, if you don't learn how to recognize a blunt edge on a hand tool How will you know when you have a blunt edge on a power tool? If you just want to use machines find yourself a run of the mill kitchen shop and you can cut up melamine panels to your hearts content, if you want to make fine furniture learn how to sharpen your chisel......


Pete