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.