Beginners Courses (Dublin)

Dave!

I did the Adirondack chair course with Tommy in Fethard - for that one at least he provided the wood cut to size and templates, and we focussed on a few techniques like using a spokeshave, hand plane, jigsaw for cutting the curves, and things of that nature. Thought it was a good course and decent value at €220 all in. Yes getting the chair home was a pain in the hoop – I had it dangling out my boot by a couple of bungee cords from Wexford to Dublin! – so not sure how you'd get the bench home.

Don't think I would do the bench course personally, bit pricey and not sure you'd learn loads beyond the mortice and tenon.

woodturner

What would people expect from a woodworking course? Hand tool work only or the use of machines along with hand tools. I ask as I had been thinking of teaching woodworking and woodturning.

magicbastarder

the evening course a couple of us on the boards here just finished was mainly using hand tools, learning different joints - marking out, sawing, mallet and chisel stuff; with some work with planes and a basic introduction to power tools, such as a router.

the tutor was telling us the classes used to be two hours each, but he found two and a half hours was better.

delaney001

woodturner wrote: »

What would people expect from a woodworking course? Hand tool work only or the use of machines along with hand tools. I ask as I had been thinking of teaching woodworking and woodturning.

I think it's important to know what your pitching yourself as. Are you going to be the go to Irish Paul Sellets type person, if so then handtools is what you want to be known for. And when people purchase your course they expect to spend the whole course working with hand tools and learning everything there is to know about them. I know if I did a Sellers course, I'd be failrly pissed if he said, now we'll just run these boards through the planer...
But you need experienced people to have the interest in that. If your going the more diyer route who may never have worked with timber before, I think you have to include machines or pre-machined timber. Otherwise people have no hope of completing something nice within the course time. And for a course to be successful you absolutely have to have people walking alway feeling a sense of accomplishment. They need to have finished something so they can show it off or tweet it or put it up on a shelf at home.

delaney001

woodturner wrote: »

What would people expect from a woodworking course? Hand tool work only or the use of machines along with hand tools. I ask as I had been thinking of teaching woodworking and woodturning.

I think it's important to know what your pitching yourself as. Are you going to be the go to Irish Paul Sellets type person, if so then handtools is what you want to be known for. And when people purchase your course they expect to spend the whole course working with hand tools and learning everything there is to know about them. I know if I did a Sellers course, I'd be failrly pissed if he said, now we'll just run these boards through the planer...
But you need experienced people to have the interest in that. If your going the more diyer route who may never have worked with timber before, I think you have to include machines or pre-machined timber. Otherwise people have no hope of completing something nice within the course time. And for a course to be successful you absolutely have to have people walking alway feeling a sense of accomplishment. They need to have finished something so they can show it off or tweet it or put it up on a shelf at home.

Dave!

woodturner wrote: »

What would people expect from a woodworking course? Hand tool work only or the use of machines along with hand tools. I ask as I had been thinking of teaching woodworking and woodturning.

I do feel I'm cheating a bit the more stuff the teacher prepares in advance or does on a machine. Also if I don't have access to those machines at home then it's a bit lame because I might not be able to do a similar project on my own.

It might be an idea to ask students to bring their own tools and use them where possible. I dunno if there's insurance implications or what. I even found it a bit frustrating that during classes I had these awesome sharp chisels and then when I went home I have super blunt pieces of ****e!

Another suggestion - I'm personally interested in doing some sort of apprenticeship/internship type thing but working around my real job So something like that - where a few people could come once a week (on the weekend) - might be good too, rather than doing the specific project-oriented classes that most places tend to do over a day or two. Just an idea.

caseyphl

I would be keen to learn a few hand tool techniques and get an understanding / experience on how to use tools particularly a router, Would be great to have something in North Dublin or West Dublin

magicbastarder

there's the course in hartstown which starts again in january, but the use of the router was fairly superficial; it's more about hand tools and joints.

jwwb

Also did the course in Hartstown over the last few weeks.

What I would be looking for is the option to work on a reasonably sized project.

I liked that hand tools but the attraction became less and less as I realised just how much work is involved. So happy to prepare one length using a handplane to know what it's like but after that happy to use a planer.

Also don't think I could justify spending money on multiple items of high quality joinery equipment that will never really justify the investment.

So I'm saying a mixture of handtools to start then when I decide I've done enough - automagic after that

cathyro

Hi Woodturner,

I'm doing a wood craft course at the moment. We are in our second year and we have gone through the use of all the hand tools and then moved on to using band saws, scroll saws, lathes etc. In second year obviously the design and finishing is taught to a higher standard.

Hope this helps.

Woodsy-eile

cathyro wrote: »

Hi Woodturner,

I'm doing a wood craft course at the moment. We are in our second year and we have gone through the use of all the hand tools and then moved on to using band saws, scroll saws, lathes etc. In second year obviously the design and finishing is taught to a higher standard.

Hope this helps.

What's the course your doing? Can you send on some details?

almostbroke

Hi...would anybody know where I could get someone to cut Queen Anne Legs in Dublin?