Early Risers.

[trisonic]

It wasn't all a bed of roses in the sixties.

My Woodwork Master, Ron Joiner (I kid you not) stifled me pretty completely by failing to understand "being Left-Handed". "Did I tell you to put it in the vise that way, trisonic?"

 

"Trying to make a Dove-Tailed Joint" - "Glass Onion" - J.W. Lennon.

 

Best, Pete.

[skipepsi]

I have to admit showing lefties to cut wood was more difficult but a good joiner can cut a straight line right or left handed.

[Tony_S]

At the school I attended we didn't do metalwork, we did Engineering Workshop Theory and Practice. This meant that useless people like myself could spend years filing bits of mild steel while the talented could do all kinds of intricate stuff. My teacher was left handed but did did all hid demonstrating of technique right handed, I had improved enough to want to take Engineering as an A level but was talked out of it,

Tony

[NGT6 1315]

Morning all.

 

We did not have anything at school which would resemble those woodwork courses you have been talking about. Most of what we did in our arts courses was limited to painting and drawing, though pottery had also been on the curriculum.

 

Feeling better this morning, even though this has been a warm night and I guess I've slept better before. Thunderstorms have been predicted for three days now, but we have yet to see even a single one!

 

Have a good one, guys and gals...

[travelintrev]

Morning all,

 

I well remember both wood and metal work at school (double period of each each week). But being another left hander just seemed to wind the teacher up. (but they were an intolerant lot back then!). But I was never as good as my Grandfather (or my Dad for that matter) who both could be described as "Master Craftsmen"

But what I did learn back then has been useful over the years.

 

Well enjoy your day, and lets hope the ladies are recovering,

 

Trev.

[Robert]

Morning all,

 

I was lucky enough to do some woodwork and metalwork at school - plus electronics. However, the electronics was an optional lesson which took place during "Wednesday Afternoon Activities". However, most of my woodworking skills (if you can call them that) came from my Father and Grandfather. My Grandfather would have made an excellent Carpenter - but did it purely for fun.

 

I am also a left hander - but that never seemed to cause me huge problems. My cousin who went through the school system four years before me was less lucky - they tried to force him to be right handed.

 

There seems to be a distinct lack of practical subjects these days. Which is probably why there is a lack of Engineers. However, I'll stop before I set myself off on a rant!

 

Have a good day everyone...

[gordon s]

Funnily enough the only thing I can recall making at school was a small tea pot stand. It was made from 2 x 1 and was just an exercise to make a cross halving joint. We only did woodwork for one year as we then moved to a new school and metalwork took over. I probably learned most from watching my Dad, but the rest was self taught. I guess you lean one way or the other when looking at Art v Engineering, which is probably why my art always looked like engineering drawings. Reasonably accurate but no soul....

 

Nothing's changed.

[DDolfelin]

Interesting memories this morning.

Our woodwork master (Mr Carpenter - I kid you not either) inhabited the shop like a member of the Inquisition.

He was among the top five in the ###### stakes, ritually smashing anything we produced into splinters.

Our school overcame any budgetry constraints by charging us for using the wood - and fining us if we made a mistake.

I remember a moment of popular heroism (followed by moments of pain) when I refused to use a spoke shave on the grounds that I wasn't going to build wagon wheels for a living.

I also remember meeting him later on the Underground and the temptation I managed to resist.

 

 

Edited to explain the censor's hatching: sad ism

Edited May 23, 2012 by DDolfelin

[NGT6 1315]

(...) which is probably why my art always looked like engineering drawings.

 

I did a lot (and I do mean a LOT) of drawing when I was a kid. Most of these drawings were, in fact, about technological subjects, with many of them representing cross-sectional views of things like ships, spacecraft and other types of vehicles, and illustrating how - based on what I had been reading about these subjects - I imagined the interior to look like. As it was, these interior layouts were highly detailed as well, and even from my current point of view, fairly accurate representations of what I knew about how a ship's bridge, for example, looked like. Other drawings were similarly detailed sketches where, for example, a Mississippi paddle steamer or a Le Mans racing car with lots of advertising on it was rendered in what did come close to photorealism.

 

Sadly, I no longer have most of these drawings - we did store them for many years, but eventually discarded most of them.

[Trevellan]

Interesting memories of learning crafts at school. I did woodwork for two years (I still use the pencil box I made all those years ago), then metalwork for the next three. We had two metalwork teachers. The guy on our first year had little patience - I think he was near the end of his career - but he did teach me how to cut threads using taps, dies and plenty of tallow. The second, younger teacher was better and could be a real laugh, although any messing about on our part brought swift retribution, and rightly so.

 

I think I learned more from my father, who was a saw doctor by trade (a term that might be lost on younger readers) and a very proficient woodworker. He not only manufactured and serviced the cutting, routing and drilling tools that woodworkers (and others) needed, but was able to use them proficently in his own right.

[NGT6 1315]

Sky is clouding up and decidedly looking like we'll be in for rain and thunder. In fact, I heard two claps of distant thunder several minutes ago. Quite balmy at 20° right now, too.

[trisonic]

My Dad was a bodger, I learnt everything I know from him.

 

Good musician and artist, though, but.

 

Dom, The lesson for you is that one cutting, sarcastic remark to a child does no good and will be remembered decades forward...

 

Best, Pete.

[skipepsi]

Morning all, sunny day again but misty on the horizon. I hope everyone is feeling better for the warmer weather. When I qualified as a teacher it was called craft design and technology and was intended to up the academic status of traditional woodwork and metalwork.It did give the chance to include other materials such as plastics but in many schools such was the financial climate at the time many headteachers seized on the design aspect because paper was so much cheaper the result; casting ended then welding lathes and mills were sold off and tools cleared out.

[DonBradley]

Hi all,

What varied experiences you all had.

My school was strictly academic, the only extra-curicular activities were choir, elocution and drama. Individual singing, music and art were available for a fee and out of school hours. Cadets, including rifle range, and sport were compulsory, As I was already 'one armed' at that stage I was excused sport.

Except for two years when I had (same word as Dd) teachers, I thoroughly enjoyed school

 

Very cloudy although no rain predicted until Friday, but for us Sunny people, it's cold at 18C

[martin1]

morning,beautifull sunny morning,warm too,we did both metal and wood at school,and tech drawing too,the only subjects i was ever any good at !! i dont think they teach them now do they ?? something to do with health and saftey and too many sharp edges and tools !! a bit like not being allowed a kettle in costomer reception incase some one scalds them selfs pouring the water.......barmy...

[squeaky]

Looks like its going to be a lovely day today here in Cardiff.

 

Have a good day all. Enjoy the sunshine cause you know it won't last................

[DDolfelin]

It wasn't all bad for me, Don.

Looking back, I quite enjoyed the contest.

... and, over all, they taught me a lot, most of which I've forgotten until reminded.

Lots of comedy which (with being able to fight) was the road to popularity.

I have fond memories of a Physics master who patiently explained that most of the time we were watching the cinema screen in was blank.

My suggestion that they show the blank bits at the end created enough mirth to finish the period early.

I found the trick was to sound completely sincere while wearing a puzzled frown.

 

RMW keeps freezing again this morning.

I've changed browsers and still get the problem.

Anyone else experience this?

[DonBradley]

Funnily enough I was just thinking it wasn't as bad as it has been!

[simon hudson]

_{Back in our Colwyn Bay branch we've no sun just overcast and a bit of a fog- sea mist. colwyn Bay is as usual quiet well to be honest dead!!Still I hit the road tonight back up North so got my thermals and woolies hope I dont need them}

 

_{No probs with RM freezing but it intermittently gives me very very small print or should I go to Specsavers}

Edited May 23, 2012 by simon hudson

[DonBradley]

Simon, your post has come out in very fine print, whereas mine appears normal. Is it not a setting on your computer?

[sixoh8sixoh]

Morning all!

 

We did have CDT lessons at school, but I can't say I learned a lot in them. Most of the time we were terrified of the teacher (Fred Cook, known to pupils as Freddie Krueger), and all I remember creating in the lessons was a badly made acrylic ball-in-hole puzzle and a "multitool" designed to open cans etc, but made out of metal almost as soft as lead, and about as much use as a chocolate teapot...

 

Beautiful sunny weather in Edinburgh today. Feeling a bit better today, hope the ladies are too!

[eldavo]

Morning All, It's sunny! Survived the dentist yesterday but today I find I have a tooth that really doesn't like being touched. It was better before he put the permanent fillings in! No pork scratchings for a while then.

 

I'm another one of the generation that did both woodwork and metalwork. The skills I "learned" are not highly evident in my current creations but I do remember the cross halving joint teapot stand project. I was building a steam engine for my metalwork O level project but never did get the boiler completed. The cylinder assembly is no doubt somewhere in my boxes of bits in the garage.

 

Have a good one all. I think a session of white ball chasing may be in order.

 

Cheers

Dave

[Sidecar Racer]

Morning all ,

 

this talk of peoples various school experiences is very interesting , I suppose that in some ways

I was lucky in that back in the early 60's we got the chance to do practical things as well as the

three R's . Woodwork and metalwork were both involved from the first year right through to the fourth ,

then for GCSE's you made the chioce of one or the other ,

 

Technical drawing was another subject that I quite enjoyed , not that I can remember how to do a

three way elevation of a screw thread .

 

Subjects that we had to do but were totally lost on me were music and art , not in my wildest dreams

could I ever paint or draw something that did'nt look like a blind monkey had done it , and as for music ,

I am tone deaf and all those little symbols mean nothing to me ,

 

Right , time to go and get my new glasses and a quick trip to the closest model shop for some bits .

 

Enjoy the day .

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Hello! At last, my exams finished on Monday which means the lovely sunny weather that arrived yesterday is perfect timing (you can thank me later!). Had a day of relaxation yesterday, and since our kitchen is being completely rebuilt including the floor it is quite hard to get anything done. I'm really keen to get back to modelling again, and continue work on The Old Road. Ideally I would love to get some boards started, but I'm not sure I have the materials yet (or a definitive final plan come to that!).

 

Whilst I did both metalwork and woodwork, I was never very keen (or good) working with metal so I didn't really enjoy it. Woodwork on the other hand I much prefer! Must have stemmed from my dad's job as a carpenter. I kind of wish that more apprentices were available, and that the government weren't so keen to 'encourage' people into going to uni. I would have loved to have done an apprentice.

 

Well, I'm going to make a pot of tea before the water is turned off, and then work out what modelmaking I can do!

[NGT6 1315]

Well, another thunder cell passed by in the distance, but apart from a few minutes' worth of drizzle, no general change in local weather. That is, aside from it being even more muggy than before! Yuck...