How'd you learn your trade?

[Scott Shepherd]

Just a curiosity question to those in any sort of trade. I served my apprenticeship under a very knowledgeable guy. I guess I started there when I was 17 and worked with him until I was 21 and had my Journeysman card. I think he was about 25 or so when I started there and the guy they gave all the most precision jobs to.

He was a real bear to me. I'd ask what I thought was a simple question and I'd get belittled to death, talked down to, and generally went back to the job at hand feeling quite stupid for even asking.

I'd walk up and say something simple like "I can't get a good finish on this stainless" and he's rip into 10 things I should have done different or thought about before coming to him with such a stupid question.

Looking back on it, I think it was excellent. I didn't really mind it then, he was a decent guy, but he was just a hard person to be trained by. What it did was make me think about 5 times before I'd go to him. So any time I had the need to ask him something, it would make me stop, gather up all my data, speeds, feeds, tooling, angles, measurements, and everything else. So when he hit me with questions, I could always answer back, until we finally would hit the one I hadn't thought of, and it would solve my problem. I guess he really taught me to think on the job and not rely on others to solve all my problems.

All in all, I'm happy I was trained by him.

Anyone else got fond or not so fond memories of coming up through the ranks?

[Rick Gifford]

I look forward to hearing how others have learned. I consider myself an amateur woodworker.

I had shop class in school where I realized I enjoyed it so much.

For years I did small projects out of a 5" X 7" room in my basement.

I built a larger yet small by most standards shop out back.

Now I read and watch. Learn others techniques and pay close attention to tutorials.

I learn by trying and doing. I am thankfull for the online resources available. And this place is a treasure trove of it.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I went to U.S. Navy electronics schools from January '69-December '70. I arrived at NAS Meridian, MS. I spent 3 months helping overhaul a GCA radar used to land aircraft in bad weather. On the last day, the Chief of the Air Traffic Control Maintenance shop said "Fitz...we think you are qualified. You have the watch. 3 section duty.....24 on...48 off" The next 12 months of gaining experience were pure .....well you can imagine. It was during 'Nam and we had 3 squadrons of T-2's and A-4s. We were part of the Navy's pilot pipeline.'

Trial by fire.

Woodworking....I helped a contractor/neighbor build one home...gut and remodel another one....build a wooden playground.....TOH and NYW....

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

I learned the the Machine toolmaker trade the hard way. I stole it in microscopic bits and pieces and I ate up every bone any one would throw at me.

I learned wood working the old fashioned way. I stumbled upon every single thing all by myself. Necessity was the mother of self education.
I was earning $3.25 an hour in a production machine shop and my little family needed furniture in the worst way. So I made it.

I bought new a Sears Track sander a B&B vibrator, a B&D hand drill and a Sears Contractor saw, and some real nice guy gave me a whole set of hand planes ( yah just gave 'em to me). I was staggerblasted, no one ever gave me nuthin.

My very first project was a set of ginormous bunk beds for the girls made from construction lumber 6*6 pine post stock made up the 4 posts. 2*8s made the side and end frames and I dadoed screwed and glued in shelve supports for the mattress supports.

Next project was living room furniture. I bought maple ripped it jointed it and planed it making a butcher block set, The seat sides were 2" thick and the coffee and two end tables were 1.5" thick. The stuff was heavy. I still have the coffee table in my TV room. The rest was recycled for grand kids toys.

Next project was a 12 string guitar. Hey~!! I couldn't afford one so I made one. I modeled mine after a guy's Martin which he destroyed by falling asleep at the wheel of his jeep coming home from VA. He asked me if I could fix his guitar and I did it, while copying it.

The neck ended up being a tad hard to play cause I just didn't dare make it as slender as I should have but, I played that guitar for years and years and years. Still have it. It's been wrecked in flood and the glue was Yellow glue so repairs are not much of an option. Besides I have a custom Martin now.

[Neal Clayton]

self taught in every thing i know how to do.

went to college for accounting, hated it, so taught myself about computer networks and did that for the next 10 years.

came into some money after the computer job and no longer have to work every day anymore, and didn't have anything better to do, so i figured i'd buy an old house to work on. no experience other than woodshop in high school, so i knew how to operate the tools, that was about it.

few years later the house is still being worked on . but i went from knowing little or nothing to building windows, doors, moldings, cabinets, etc. since then.

[Paul Ryan]

I started changing oil and washing cars while in jr. high at a dealership. As I got in to my highschool years I started doing more advanced repairs on used cars for the dealership. I rebuilt a few engines, a couple of times on my own cars. I went through 5 years of college to be a social studies teacher. My last year of college I realized I didn't want to teach. I finished school and starter working full time at the same dealer, I had worked there part time through college. I asked a lot of questions and got the same answer most of the time, "go get the book out." 1 of the older guys was the biggest hole I have ever met, but by knowing I couldn't ask him made me learn to figure it out myself.

After about 5 years full time I went and worked at a realy large dealership as a service adviser. I did that for 18 months, and then went to an independent shop as a service manager. I worked there for about 2 1/2 years. Then went back to the original dealer as a full time tech again. Fixing them is so much less stressful then having to deal with customers, sales people, and owners all of the time. So I worked full time as a tech for another 8 years, until retirement from that for the time being.

I learned from a lot of time in the industry, asking alot of questions, and just figuring it out by myself. I did not have any vo-tech training, but I went through hundreds of hours of maufacturer training. Taking cars apart and putting them back together has always come easy. Diagnosing complex electrical problems and driveability concerns took years to learn. Even though I am retired from auto mechanics, I am still ASE master certified, and master certified with 2 manufacturers.

Woodworking like auto mechaincs will always be a learning experience. I learn something new everyday. It is kind of something to be pround of when you teach yourself something, by trial and error.

[David G Baker]

Scott,
I worked for FMC in a shop in Sacramento called Vitafreeze that made ice cream machines. I was a polisher and grinder of stainless steel. I had to grind the pipe fittings that were welded to the tanks so they were smooth and had no places for milk to get into and cause bacteria. My teacher was a deaf person that could not articulate so he had to show me how to do everything. He was the best teacher I have ever had. I lasted there for about 6 months prior to hiring on at the Southern Pacific RR General shops in Sacramento where I would spend around 6 weeks with each mechanic until I learned their job then move on to another area. There were some great teachers there too. They helped make me a jack of all trades. My career ended up in the TV news business as a manager of the motion picture news film processor department. I was self taught but I had quite a bit of still film processing experience in the Army. When film went out and was replaced by video tape I became a broadcast engineer and learned on the job.

[Eric Larsen]

I have two trades (I won't count woodworking as a trade yet, because I still fight with my projects more than not. When I have my moment of zen and quit fighting with wood, I'll add woodworking to this list.)

Trade #1 -- News writing. Learned it at a university. As I just mentioned to Mike Henderson, it's about as useful as buggy-whip manufacturing these days.

Trade #2 - Brewing. I self-taught at a brewery (got the job through sheer luck) and became very good at it. Brewing is something one can learn by reading. I've found woodworking is not easily learned through books and magazines.

You know what -- I'll make a standing offer. If you're a really good woodworker and don't mind coming to Las Vegas, I'll teach you how to make better beer than you can buy in a store if you'll teach me how to work wood with the clarity and purpose of a Shaolin priest.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I
You know what -- I'll make a standing offer. If you're a really good woodworker and don't mind coming to Las Vegas, I'll teach you how to make better beer than you can buy in a store if you'll teach me how to work wood with the clarity and purpose of a Shaolin priest.

Your beer is safe from me Eric!

[Kyle Kraft]

High school machine shop and auto shop. Served 2 apprenticeships for my day job, Machine Builder and Machine Repair. Most of the Journeymen that took me in were wise and helpful. The biggest turnoff for them was to tell an apprentice the way to do a job and then have the trainee do it his own way anyway. My philosophy was to take the advice of a friend who was an electrician who said, "When you are an apprentice, do exactly as the journeyman instructs you to do...when you are a journeyman, do as you want to do and chances are, you will do it right."

I used advice from a wise professor, James Ropes who said that technicians must be able to read and do. No wood shop training in high school. Like Cliff stated, I needed furniture and was not going to pay the going rate for junk, so I bought a Sears RAS at a YMCA camp garage sale for $20. I went through the machine (the machine repair guy in me) and brought it back to specs, tuned it up, etc. and made a lot of furniture with it.

I bought a textbook called Modern Cabinetmaking for $2 in the bookstore bargain bin and applied my machinist work methods.

[Jim Finn]

I was tought the construction sheetmetal trade by my dad who learned it from his dad. Wood working I learned at an adult education class given at a local HS in Calif. Photo of my Grandfather taken in the early 1900's. Called "tinners" back then.

[Chris Damm]

I served a 10,000 hour apprenticeship for patternmaking. I finished in just over 4 years because we were busy. A guy I worked with did it in 3.5. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody today though. We had 13 union shops in town then and are down to one. I'm sure glad I'm retired!

[Gene Howe]

The university taught me the mechanics of speech and language therapy. How to do business within the myriad of laws and regulations, I learned on my own.
Working with severely handicapped kids taught me more than I ever imagined possible. Empathy, understanding, compassion and, respect for life and humanity among the biggest.
How that all relates to woodworking (no formal training), I have no idea. I love tools and I just really enjoy making stuff.

[Jim Kountz]

I went to work for my Fathers contracting company right out of high school. Worked with him as long as either of us could stand, about 10 years before starting my own general contracting business.
I started doing cabinetmaking and woodworking of various kinds when I was about 16. Learned everything I could from books, videos others. Through the years Ive built about every kind of building that could be built. Homes, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, malls etc. These days Im residential only and do some furniture and custom cabinets once in a while. If I had it all to do again I would avoid the construction business like the plague. After 25 years I really hate it but its all I know.

[Paul Ryan]

If I had it all to do again I would avoid the construction business like the plague. After 25 years I really hate it but its all I know.

I think that goes with most of us when it comes to our trades. If my son ever tells me he wants to get into the car business, I think I will send him off to military school, or have him committed!