Carpentry

[Hammer 4]

Just now, Bubba 460 said:

 

 

I knew it could be done in a day... $3,500 was just robbery.

Like everything else here in so. cali everything is way over priced. I.e. diesel is now $ 4.50 per gal., and the list goes on. 

[Mobasser]

It can pay to know a retired carpenter. He may still be willing to do some side jobs, and remodeling projects. The problem a lot of folks have is time. If your working everyday, and trying to get things done after work, or on weekends only, some bigger jobs can drag on too long, simply because you can't put in the hours needed to get them done.

[Mobasser]

I'll add to this thread. I didn't see too much mention of doors here. One of the harder parts of carpentry work. When I worked as a finish carpenter in new homes, we always hung hollow pre hung doors. I never had much trouble with them.                                        Commercial office doors can be hard, because they're so heavy, and some are taller than standard doors.                                           But for me, the hardest of all were very old doors in old houses. We restored a couple of homes that were 100yrs old.  Some folks like to save the old doors, and it's a good idea if you can, because all the ones I've seen are solid, and with some work( wood filler, paint etc) can be made nice again.                                 But after so many years, the house has settled, probably more than once, and the door frames are usually way out of square and never level. I've fought with these old doors, test fitting them, then trimming them just a slight amount, to get them to swing and fit well. I've never been happy until they close easily, and latch as they should. They can be tricky.

[Mobasser]

With all the work I did over the years, residential new homes, lots of commercial work, and restoration, the old homes are my very favourite. I loved restoring an old staircase, hanging the old doors, and finishing these old homes. If you get into this work, it makes you realize just how much work went into an old house, and how much time they spent on details years ago. Lots of hand work went in, from all the trades.                                      In Kansas City, like most cities, there are many huge majestic old homes. It's kind of sad to see them become chopped up, and made into apts, or just left to decay.                                   I'll always admire them for what they are, a testament to good carpentry work, from years ago.

[Catt]

Hardest doors I ever installed was exterior doors of church. Solid core, 10' tall, with Mortise Locksets. Had to fabricate a jig to hold the doors.

 

 

[J Francho]

I'm glad you brought up doors. This is one thing I'm terrible at. I redid all the old school knobs in my old house because the  knobs were ugly brass, and I wanted some thing more plain and modern. Getting them to work just right took a lot of tuning. It's probably because no one showed me the process and I just figured it out as I went. I do know how to get a sticky knob working like butter, though. This house has the old style too, with glass knobs that I'm going to keep. A couple of the doors need adjustment. I'm hoping my FIL can help me with that. Four of the doors feature leaded stained glass, two of which are pocket doors that still work fine. I'd like to keep all of them, even the solid wood ones intact and working. There's even a swinging waiter door in the basement that house to the entry connecting the dining room to the kitchen that I'm going put back in when the baby is a little older. 

[Hammer 4]

Just to add a piece of advice if your hanging unfinished solid exterior doors. Seal the top, and bottoms and even the the mortise where the hinges mount. If you don't , bet your bottom dollar that door will warp after time.

Hanging timely 8' doors was always fun..lol 

[Catt]

@J Francho Mastering those locks is quite an achievement!

 

@Hammer 4 Great advice but today's doors come pre mortised.

[flatcreek]

Hung my share of solid slabs.Heart pine were my favorites.Scored the edges with a utility razor knife rip planed with a worm drive Skilsaw.like Hammer said, sealed them to prevent warping.i always sanded them first before sealing.

[flatcreek]

Got a contract at a High school in 1990 replacing all the classroom doors with solidcore birch slabs. That kept us busy for a while

[J Francho]

26 minutes ago, Catt said:

@J Francho Mastering those locks is quite an achievement!

Thanks! It helps I can break most any reel down to single parts with my eyes closed. The mechanicals are simple and it's amazing what a little cleaning, light oil, and "exercise" can do for them. 

[Mobasser]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

I'm glad you brought up doors. This is one thing I'm terrible at. I redid all the old school knobs in my old house because the  knobs were ugly brass, and I wanted some thing more plain and modern. Getting them to work just right took a lot of tuning. It's probably because no one showed me the process and I just figured it out as I went. I do know how to get a sticky knob working like butter, though. This house has the old style too, with glass knobs that I'm going to keep. A couple of the doors need adjustment. I'm hoping my FIL can help me with that. Four of the doors feature leaded stained glass, two of which are pocket doors that still work fine. I'd like to keep all of them, even the solid wood ones intact and working. There's even a swinging waiter door in the basement that house to the entry connecting the dining room to the kitchen that I'm going put back in when the baby is a little older. 

J Francho, I love all those design features you've mentioned. I wonder if you guys have ever seen doors with a transom window above them? They were made this way on older two story homes. Most had a coal furnace in the basement. In the winter, folks would open these windows to allow the heat to circulate between rooms, as it was rising. I worked on houses that still had an outside coal door in the basement wall, where the coal was shoveled in. I always liked the look of them, and we would always leave them if we could. Some restore crews always take them out, and drywall them over. They were a neat looking design, but had a purpose also.

[J Francho]

The side room is where they dumped the coal to the basement. Almost all the period homes feature it. The access has long been boarded up and the room is part of the house now. Mine serves as my teenage son's bedroom. 

[Mobasser]

17 hours ago, Catt said:

Hardest doors I ever installed was exterior doors of church. Solid core, 10' tall, with Mortise Locksets. Had to fabricate a jig to hold the doors.

 

 

Catt, I agree on the big commercial doors. When I was in the union in KC MO, I hung a lot of those type doors in office buildings. I don't know that I ever did 10ft tall doors, but many similiar. It wasn't bad work, and I made good wages, but the pace they required put a hurt on you at the end of the day.                                       I was a journeyman then, and when it was almost quitting time, a foreman would walk through with pen and paper, and take count of the doors that were hung.He was usually a millright, or master carpenter. If he didn't get the count he wanted, he'd start asking why., and you better have a good explanation.                          He had to report to the big man, so he was under the gun just like all of us. There was simply no room for a slowpoke, and it was very hard work.                              Following behind the door hangers, we're carpet guys, then apprentice carpenters would glue in plastic( covebase) baseboard. They learned to install that stuff so fast it would make your head spin. Everything was a race against time, to meet the deadlines.

[Mobasser]

When I left the union work, I was already getting a little banged up in my late 40s. Knees, shoulder, and a hip starting to bother me. I hired in with a general contractor, remodeling and rehab work. I enjoyed this work much more. Being a union door hanger is a tough job. When I left the union, I actually made a little less money on the new job, but money isn't always everything in this type of work. Had I stayed as a journeyman, Im sure I'd have worse physical problems now.

[OldManLure]

I have been involved in the home building industry for more than 40 years.  You don’t mention how long you have been retired, but I haven’t seen a ‘carpenter’ on any of my job sites for more than 25 years.  Plenty of framers, but not 1 carpenter.  Guys today think a framing square is used to draw a cut line, and a level is just a straight edge with a bubble.