friday eaves

Today was pretty flat out. We were focussing on three different types of eaves; boxed, exposed and lined on the rake. I was good to spend a bit of time on some of the types of eaves we dont get a chance to do much of at work. Rhys and myself worked mainly on the exposed eaves and we ran into a few problems. Somehow the setout was messed up a bit which put everything else out adn had to be fixed up. I think our biggest problem was it coming down to too many cooks ruining the broth

roofing

The last few days of TAFE have been really valuable in tems of what I've learnt that I can take back on site. We've been focusing on a hip roof and afew different types of eaves. I've had the time to really unerstand the theary behind it now, not just carrying out the actions

Locks, skirting and two hanging doors

This week at TAFE has been great. The tasks were ones that we don’t get a chance to try on-site, they were challenging, involved fine-mode skills and as we worked individually, we could go at our own pace.

Hanging doors was quite challenging and to do it properly involved good set out, marking out and fine hand skills. In the end, my doors ended up looking pretty shitty, this was due to a couple reasons, but probably mostly to do with a lack of concentration, coming back from lunch and going straight back into it not stopping to think where I’m at, eager to finish and not switching back into ‘fine’ mode. Also, I lack a bit of practice with the electric planer, I had a go with it when I did a days shelving but apart from that I haven’t used it much, I think all I need there is just more practice.

The skirting was another challenging task that I quite enjoyed. Again it involved fine mode skills and some precise marking out to create a perfect join. The bull nose skirting into the double bull nose architrave and the scribed but joint in the internal corner took some time to get the hang of but after a few goes they were looking not too bad. It was an interesting task that really tested the fine hand skills.

Fitting door locks was another interesting task that took me a few goes to get it right. My biggest problem here was my marking out, the hole for the handle not being correctly positioned and the latch plate being fitted out of square or not central to the edge of the door. I also had to watch my drilling, making sure to keep it square to the door.

Overall it was a really enjoyable week at TAFE. We learnt a lot of new, interesting and highly relevant things that we don’t get a chance to do at work. I’m reasonably happy with my work, I made a few mistakes but I know where I went wrong and I’m looking forward for the chance to hang a few doors again, I’ll get it spot on next time.

Hanging doors, fitting locks and skirting

In this next block of TAFE we're focusing on a bit of fixing work including hanging doors, installing locks and fitting skirting. On monday we started of by watching a few videos about how to go about hanging a door and istalling a lock. We then went out side and chose a dooor frame and measured it up to install the door jambs. After we had fittted the door jambs and they were plumb we grabbed a door and fitted it to the jambs. This was done by putting the door in its place, scribing the overlap and planing it back. We were trying to get about a 2 1/2mm clearance on either sides and the top, mine ended up pretty close on the sides but too big a gap at the top. After we had fitted the doors we marked on the hinge edge were the hinges would be, which was 200mm from the bottom (two hinge lengths) and 150mm from the top (1 1/2 hinge lengths) and one in the centre of those. we then scribed and chisseled away the waste so the hinge finished flush with the edge of the door. We then transferred the hinge placements to the door jambs by wedging the door in it's place, scribe and chisseled. The hinges were then screwed in place and the door hung.

After hanging the door our next task was fitting skirting to a template. This proved pretty tricky but rewarding when you ended up with a nice finish. I had to have a few goes at some of the cuts but in the end I feel I'd got the hang of it or at least gotten a lot better.

We then moved on to installing a lock and door handle to a bit of timber. This wasn't too difficult, it mostly involved just following the instructions on the packet. Overall it's been an enjoyable couple days at TAFE so far and I've gotten a lot out of it.