Beginners Courses (Dublin)

Dave!

Hi guys,

I'd love to get into woodcraft/woodwork as a hobby, and something a bit different from my usual routine! I'd be completely new to this kind of thing, but eager to give it a shot.

I'm wondering is anyone aware of some classes aimed at newbies, which would provide materials and guidance to help you to build a project of some sort.

I've found one which seems quite good in Hill Picket studio in Wicklow, but it's only a 1 day thing. I'll probably do it anyway, but I wanted to check what else is out there.

Also is there such a thing as a communal/community workshop for this kind of thing? I live in an apartment block, so wouldn't have my own workbench or anything if I do end up pursuing this as a hobby.

Thanks

Dave

RobAMerc

dun laoghaire college have one - dont know when its starting again

Woodsy-eile

Quite a few schools do evening courses over. Couple of weeks but you may be out of luck until it kicks off in sept again. I did one in ringsend that was decent

magicbastarder

hartstown just emailed me with the launch of the autumn/winter prospectus; this is a monday evening course:

105 CARPENTRY - A PRACTICAL APPROACH
To provide the learner with a basic understanding of Carpentry and Joinery. Understand different timbers, create basic joints, while appreciating health and safety in relation to tools and equipment. Create a mirror/ picture frame/ miniature door and frame/ architrave.
7.00-9.30pm
10 weeks

Dave!

I really recommend this 1 day woodworking course with Chaim. Lovely day, lovely people, lovely food!

http://www.chaimfactor.com/woodworkclasses/

..Brian..

+1 nearly worth it for the included lunch on it's own! :P

Vexorg

+1 for Hill picket Studios and the lunch.

They used to do morning and afternoons for for small fee, where you could use the workshop equipment and tools to finish or make your own projects. Pity there is nowhere closer to Dublin with similar facilities.

Dave!

I've registered for this 2 Day Adirondack Chair Course in Fethard-on-Sea, might be of interest to some Cost is €200, dates 17th/18th September.

http://www.bevelwoodworkingschool.com/woodworking-courses/

Looking forward to it, bit of an unusual project!

rich.d.berry

Dave! wrote: »

Also is there such a thing as a communal/community workshop for this kind of thing? I live in an apartment block, so wouldn't have my own workbench or anything if I do end up pursuing this as a hobby.

I also live in an apartment but I have an attic, being the upstairs occupant, and I've managed to make myself a little workshop. I've had to give up on the use of power tools so as to not be a nuisance to my neighbours, but getting back to hand tools has given me a fresh enthusiasm for the hobby, especially with all the YouTube resources available such as Paul Sellers and Tom Fidgen.

Thanks for the course recommendation, I'd love to do something like this to improve my skills and give me some fresh ideas and enthusiasm.
.

istaunton

Dave! wrote: »

I've registered for this 2 Day Adirondack Chair Course in Fethard-on-Sea, might be of interest to some Cost is €200, dates 17th/18th September.

http://www.bevelwoodworkingschool.com/woodworking-courses/

Looking forward to it, bit of an unusual project!

I have actually done this course twice and also made the matching table to go with the chairs. I cant recommend it highly enough. Tommy is a great teacher and the set up is top notch also.

Dave!

Good to know, thanks!

Yelnahs

Dave! wrote: »

I really recommend this 1 day woodworking course with Chaim. Lovely day, lovely people, lovely food!

http://www.chaimfactor.com/woodworkclasses/

I second this, Chaim and Carol are lovely and the courses are excellent.

jwwb

Starting the class in Hartstown on Monday. Will see what I remember from the Inter - which will tell you how old I am.

magicbastarder

See you there!

delaney001

Dave! wrote: »

Good to know, thanks!

How did you get on?

Dave!

delaney001 wrote: »

How did you get on?

Really good! Tommy's a nice guy, good teacher. The class all moves along stage by stage together and you don't really have the opportunity to move on by yourself if you're so inclined, so maybe more experienced people might find that part frustrating.

But you get a fairly awesome chair out of it at the end! Would recommend it for sure.

Dave!

Also just found out that the Hazel House in Rathfarnham does classes Will probably do one of those at some point

http://www.thehazelhouse.ie/woodwork-classes-for-adults.html

Sean Farrell

Thats a well made adirondack Dave....nice finish. What wood did you use for the job?

magicbastarder

jwwb wrote: »

Starting the class in Hartstown on Monday. Will see what I remember from the Inter - which will tell you how old I am.

you were the chap in the blue shirt up near the front?
i'd have said hello, but 'hi, i'm magicbastarder' reduces my margin for error.

Dave!

Sean Farrell wrote: »

Thats a well made adirondack Dave....nice finish. What wood did you use for the job?

I actually can't remember, forgot to ask again...

Thanks!

jwwb

magicbastarder wrote: »

you were the chap in the blue shirt up near the front?
i'd have said hello, but 'hi, i'm magicbastarder' reduces my margin for error.

Yes that was me...

You should have swept into the room and shouted "I AM MAGICBASTARDER" and if you had a cape that would have made it much more impactful

Sparks

You say that like he's never done that before...

istaunton

Dave! wrote: »

I actually can't remember, forgot to ask again...

Thanks!

Its Scandinavian Pine. Grows a lot slower than pine here so the rings are much smaller. Basically a stronger Pine than what we can get here.

At least thats what I was told when i did the course

magicbastarder

was at the craft fair in the RDS this weekend, and talking to a chap who runs woodworking courses down in fethard on sea.
intriguingly, he runs a 'build your own workbench' course, which was intriguing as that's something i'm sorely lacking - the finished product does look very sturdy.

however, it's €390 for a two day course, which includes all materials, apart from the vice. and given that he does not assume any prior experience, you're probably not going to learn an awful lot. so it's €390, plus the cost of the vice you supply yourself - let's say that brings it up to €500, then add in the petrol/accomodation costs, and then probably having to have the thing shipped home, and i reckon you'd be as well off buying one, or going through the trial and error of maling one yourself from scratch, and learning a lot more in the process.

unless anyone here has done a course like this and has any feedback?

Sparks

Building a workbench in two days from scratch? That's got to be using machines, right?
Feeling rather slow now, looking at my own build log

magicbastarder

yes, he mentioned that he does the morticing for you using a morticing bit - and tenons too, iirc. like i said, i suspect you don't learn too much. you're probably just working off a template.

magicbastarder

it's the one listed on this page - though this does say some woodworking experience is assumed:
http://www.bevelwoodworkingschool.com/woodworking-courses/

Sparks

Forget the morticing, after you make a dog's breakfast of the first three or four, you can get through those readily enough. It's the planing and the jointing I'm thinking of. Or is he making it up from previously prepped slabs? I mean, that'd work... and I suppose if what you want is a workbench and to get on with it, that's not a horrible option, it beats the couple of grand you'd pay for some commercial benches and their delivery...

Sparks

Oh, okay, not a nicholson. Or a roubo really. That's a big beefy frame with two slabs laid across the front and back legs and a thin plank between them. I could see that being doable in a weekend allright, especially with power tools and a morticer.











bloody ugly looking thing though :P

magicbastarder

the notion of making mortices and tenons on sizable pieces of wood, without the benefit of the workbench you're actually building, does not sound like fun.

Sparks

Nope, it's a pain in the fundament allright.

Number one tool you keep wishing for when building a workbench is another workbench.

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?