Before Jim got sick he was a carpenter. He could build shelves and cupboards. He could build houses. He could certainly turn his hand to most DIY projects. He had all the builder's tools he could ever need, including scary electrical saws and multiple drills, hammers. huge sets of screwdrivers, spanners, and drill bits and all sorts of things.
I can wield a hammer and a (manual) screwdriver. I can use pliers and spanners. But you could not say that I am proficient in matters DIY and I have never used anything other than a small manual saw and definitely nothing powered, apart from a whippersnipper in the garden. I can operate garden tools relatively competently but that's about it.
I decided that I really needed to learn how to use a small drill when I tried to replace the kitchen cupboard handles (a project which remains abandoned). But how? I don't have an electric drill. Jim's went to live with my brother Matthew and in any case were too big and cumbersome for me to feel confident using. I have a small box with basic tools in it and nothing else.
Then I saw an advertisement for a Handywoman's beginners' class in Collingwood. Come and learn how to make a small planter box.
So I did.
These things were all familiar to me. I can use a square and clamps, although I don't have Jim's any more. I also don't have his carpentry pencils. I do have two of his proper measuring tapes. He had several and gave me one well before he got sick. After he died I kept mine and one of his, one in the garage and one in the kitchen with my secateurs and a small garden trowel. It was easier to have them in the kitchen if I wanted to nip out into the garden. They had doubles with the rest of the garden tools in the garage. The trowel, secateurs and one measuring tape are in my "tool box". The other measuring tape lives in the kitchen drawer.
But I digress. The tools on my bench at the workshop were familiar. I was a bit more disconcerted by the arrival of a jig saw. Electrical saws are scary. But we were shown how to use them safely and how we should stand and hold them in order to avoid sawing off our fingers. I cannot say that I am now competent in the use of a jig saw and my sawn pieces of wood would not pass muster if I were an apprentice carpenter. But I did have six pieces, more or less the same size and very nearly with square edges. Nearly.
We were shown how to use the electric drill to make holes for both screws and nails. We were shown how to use the drill as a screwdriver. And then we were shown how to take all the various bits of wood and assemble them into a planter.
In the spirit of full disclosure, most of the pieces of wood had been pre-cut. We just made six of the twelve boards for the planter sides. The class was already 4 hours long. If we had had to do everything ourselves we would still have been there at midnight.
Jim would have made a much better fist of making a planter box. Mine has jagged edges and is a bit, erm - rustic. But it is square and it is level and it hasn't fallen apart. It will function as a planter box when I put together my (tiny) indoor garden in the spring. But I don't think I am ready to embark on sheds or cabinets or houses just yet. I think they would definitely blow apart in Docklands windy moods.
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Not bad for a first attempt
although it is tempting to
even up the edges a bit.
If only I had some sort of saw 😂 |
The description of the workshop invited us to discard heteronormativity and to pick up a hammer to smash the patriarchy. I don't think I am quite ready for such an ambitious insurrection - but I might now be able to use a small drill to help with my kitchen cupboard handle project
