If one wanted to train on a variety of tools and learn related skills for making things (carpentry etc), but solely as a "this might be useful knowledge in the zombie apocalypse" sense when not working a day job, what's the best approach? Community college? - ThreadSky

gregdoucette.bsky.social • 175 days ago

If one wanted to train on a variety of tools and learn related skills for making things (carpentry etc), but solely as a "this might be useful knowledge in the zombie apocalypse" sense when not working a day job, what's the best approach? Community college?

Comments

remgoffena.bsky.social•174 days ago

Check out classes/workshops at hardware store like Home Depot, Lowes & Ace.

d8d12.bsky.social•175 days ago

I learned some basic blacksmithing at a local Adult Education shop nearby one summer. They had a variety of classes that might prove zombie apocalypse useful.

mutinypie.bsky.social•175 days ago

It probably depends on your learning style & local options, but in my community, I’d start with the maker’s space or folk school. My nephew—a total computer person in another state—has been learning a ton of these skills lately through YouTube. I hope you find what you’re looking for and enjoy it!

luthienon.bsky.social•175 days ago

YouTube rabbit holes are the best and modern solution. Be selective about your source. A second idea is to scour public libraries for books or ask librarians there. Particularly small or rural libraries that do not weed extensively. They aren’t as helpful if they stay current.

luthienon.bsky.social•175 days ago

I am a school librarian and I inherited some amazing old books (1940s-1985 or so) on techniques etc. A few faves are Foxfire printed books and “Build It Better Yourself”. There are more modern do-it-yourself guides that will probably help, too.

trishpaton.bsky.social•175 days ago

Our city leisure programs include a variety of woodworking courses at a city art centre, so if there’s something similar?

beemangler.bsky.social•175 days ago

In my experience learning something, particularly a practical skill, because it 'might be useful' is never going to work.

Buy a couple of decent books, and set yourself the task of completing a couple of fairly simple projects. Take it steady and you will learn a huge amount very quickly. 1/2

beemangler.bsky.social•175 days ago

Also, wherever you go look at how stuff has been built and repaired. Form a 3D plan of furniture, buildings, plumbing. Think 'how did they solve that?'.

Next time you are faced with a DIY challenge you will be mentally prepared.

cyllan.bsky.social•175 days ago

Ask your local library what resources they'd recommend.

At least, that's where I would start.

gregdoucette.bsky.social•175 days ago

My grandfather is incredible with making stuff, but I never learned growing up because I got too deep into computers

Now that I'm older, the lack of knowledge annoys me

gregdoucette.bsky.social•175 days ago

I have -0- artistic talent to speak of, so I wouldn't be able to make anything *pretty*

But, like, maybe I'll redo the deck one day. Etc

azzageddi.bsky.social•175 days ago

Community College is a good place for this. A friend of mine took several courses at Austin Community College in preparation for building his own home, and he was able to do just about everything.

miladymigraine.bsky.social•175 days ago

Trade school then apprenticeship with a union

brianchampion.bsky.social•175 days ago

There are some local carpentry shops where they hold skills classes and have open shop days where you can just practice with their tools. If that’s what you had in mind, I can drop some options I’ve seen (haven’t attended, but have looked into it recently)

plepgeat.bsky.social•175 days ago

I think the community college approach is sound. My kid and I are thinking of taking a welding class together this summer.

tinyscienceofficer.bsky.social•175 days ago

Depending on where you live, some towns have adult education courses and may have classes like that. Worth a look. I've taken some and they were extremely inexpensive too.

seachelsgo.bsky.social•175 days ago

This guy in Canada taught me and my husband how to do almost every kind of house project we had on our list. He’s thorough, easy to listen to, and most importantly tells you what to rent vs buy, what to cheap out on and where to spend the extra cash to get a job done right.

https://youtu.be/hn5HnhSiuSs?si=RITHcxcWul-pItgz

seachelsgo.bsky.social•175 days ago

He’s got almost a thousand videos on nearly every project you could imagine, with quite a few shorter videos if you just need a quick refresher on a topic.

cassilda.bsky.social•175 days ago

If it's carpentry you want to learn, volunteer with Habitat for Humanity. You're doing something useful, they won't let you cut off any important parts of your anatomy or build anything that'll fall over, and you'll meet people who can point you in the right direction for learning more.

remgoffena.bsky.social•174 days ago

Oh, this is a great suggestion. I volunteered with Habit off & on during high school & college & learned so many skills that I can still call on 30+ yrs later.

sonofamaker.bsky.social•175 days ago

It depends a bit on your goals. There are good classes available for specific skills like woodworking and furniture making, but I’ve never found something that’s a “how to be handy around the house” in a more general way.

sonofamaker.bsky.social•175 days ago

My best advice is to just start - pick a thing that annoys you around the house (this door sticks, this window sill is broken, this drain is slow …) and just start.

sonofamaker.bsky.social•175 days ago

And if you can, buy decent tools as you go - crappy tools make things harder and more frustrating than they need to be. Doesn’t have to be top shelf, but stay away from the super cheap stuff

sonofamaker.bsky.social•175 days ago

Find YouTube videos for that specific thing, get the tools you need for that specific thing, and dig in and do it. It will take you longer to do in the beginning, but over time you will build up skills, experience, and tools.

smpa.bsky.social•175 days ago

In my state, if you don't want to actually go into the career the best option is the stuff the area Society/Club for [Whatever] does, or classes offered by stores like Home Depot or JoAnns or whatever. The workforce centers and CCs generally require official enrollment in apprenticeship programs.

smpa.bsky.social•175 days ago

Though if you want to garden or cook, the county university extension centers are somewhat to very helpful. Some counties leave a lot of the cooking stuff to Job and Family Services (because it's targeted at food stamp users).

smpa.bsky.social•175 days ago

And hey, if you're willing to hang out with Mormons some wards do quite a lot of that stuff as activities and are *happy* to take suggestions. Randomly learned how to lay down sod that way. Protestant congregations do service projects, too, and for carpentry there's always Habitat for Humanity.

gomeral.net•175 days ago

This could be a start, depending on what you might be interested in. A lifetime ago, I got into pen turning as something to do in my garage, learned hands on at one of these classes.

gomeral.net•175 days ago

My absolute favorite were the classes I took with Roy Underhill at the Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro, but he retired and closed that in ‘23. Here I am with him and the saw grease puzzle pot I made with nothing but hand tools:

dwmiller18.bsky.social•175 days ago

Other people have posted good(better) options, but in the triangle, there are few places that are woodworking shops. There's one in Apex that I've passed by a few times, but it looks like they have classes.

theandrew13.bsky.social•175 days ago

I just kinda wing it and surprise myself when I know how to do something like cut down a tree properly without hitting the power lines or my house. I’m also fairly accident prone and have ended up in the urgent care/ER a few times for this approach, so probably don’t listen to me.

ffejrepooh.bsky.social•175 days ago

Look around locally (via facebook for instance) to see if there are any groups that get together as hobbyists. Often it's retirees who are heavily involved, and they would be happy to pass on the knowledge they have. You'd probably pay more attention to them than their own family does...

juliemfaenza.bsky.social•174 days ago

I am a giant fan of YouTube for this stuff. Solely through YouTube I learned how to operate a circular saw, repair/sand/finish a wooden countertop, build a cabinet entirely from scratch, and build a door frame to attach to a wall/partition so I could then hang a door on my own. Pics below.

juliemfaenza.bsky.social•174 days ago

Cabinet

juliemfaenza.bsky.social•174 days ago

Countertop

juliemfaenza.bsky.social•174 days ago

Door frame and door

pholleran.bsky.social•174 days ago

There are a few folk schools near me that offer this kind of instruction.

It looks like the biggest in the country is in your state: https://www.folkschool.org

alisonmalort.bsky.social•174 days ago

The first thing I thought of was “Go to Home Depot and befriend your local butch lesbian” 😂😂😂 I have coworkers who are partners, fit every lesbian stereotype, and go to Home Depot weekly. They built their own deck!

madalienist.bsky.social•174 days ago

Great suggestions in this thread. I want to add it depends a little on what you want to learn and what you know. In my early 30s in the late 90s and unskilled I used books and the old TV programs. I upgraded two homes since 1992. Painting, drywall, electrical, plumbing , and flooring. 1/3

madalienist.bsky.social•174 days ago

After 30 years I know just enough to be dangerous. I find YouTube to be fun to get ideas on new tools and techniques, less helpful on learning complex skills. Though I know enough to take some of the techniques and apply them with the newer tools. 2/3

madalienist.bsky.social•174 days ago

I wish I was 20 years younger. I’d definitely tackle a kitchen tile project, which I did in the early 00s, with the stuff we have now compared to 2001. Little QOL tools that would have made a couple of projects so much easier. Same with electrical, plumbing, and woodworking. 3/3

madalienist.bsky.social•174 days ago

Is there a Maker’s shop in your area? They often have the tools and classes.

jmaamieas.bsky.social•175 days ago

Maker space or tool library where you can timeshare in their shop or borrow tools (if you're not ready to buy them). They are mostly non-profits, but you join for a fee. They usually have hands-on classes too (also for a fee).

wudang.com•175 days ago

Decide what you can do, what you want to do, and find someone who can tell you what you don't know. It's more about the decision. (smiles and grins)

johnnyoptimist.bsky.social•174 days ago

Honestly TikTok & YT shorts. I watch drywallers, carpenters, machinists, etc. & have learned so many things that only come in handy once or twice every 5-10 years, but watch so many of them that I have a good understanding of what is required to start a project, do it right, etc.

johnnyoptimist.bsky.social•174 days ago

Then use those concepts on very small things just to get a feel for it. Seeing the "guts" and the "behind the wall" is so eye-opening just due to "wait, its just plaster and paint...." "wait, that's just this small plastic piece behind that cover..." Gives man behind the curtail feels

johnnyoptimist.bsky.social•174 days ago

"learned" how to paint, how artists make different designs easier, the layering / build up of finished products, and even though it is in timelapse usually, just an appreciation that yeah, this stuff takes hours and you have to be patient.

bsarginger.bsky.social•175 days ago

You might want to find if you have a tool library in your community. They sometimes have courses on things like knife making/sharpening or woodworking.

jasonemiller.bsky.social•175 days ago

Some areas are luck enough to have a makerspace/fablab that offers memberships that allow people (members) to use their tools. The best also have short hands-on courses to teach you important techniques.

jasonemiller.bsky.social•175 days ago

Like learning any new skill (like coding), pick a project and carry it out. Build a planter box. Put up some shelves in the garage. Replace a fussy light switch. Crawl. Walk. Run.

piki.dev•174 days ago

Yes, and: find a 15-minute YouTube video or an article in Woodsmith that roughly matches each project you want to build. Follow (and adapt) a tutorial rather than pure trial-and-error.

jasonemiller.bsky.social•175 days ago

CC is a good thought, but the downside is that their learning experiences are locked into semester-long chunks of time, and course learning objectives might be tied to accreditation goals that are orthogonal to yours. But they're worth investigating. Go to your local CC and meet the teachers.

bluestockings59.bsky.social•175 days ago

Try searching under the term woodworking instead of carpentry. Carpentry on Ecosia Search brings up carpentry apprenticeships and the carpentry union locals. Woodworking brought up classes on furniture making, box making, whittling, etc.

whetzel.bsky.social•174 days ago

I've been there. Usually, books (alone) don't help much w/o hands-on exp. I would echo others to take project-based classes at a woodworking store, like Woodcraft/Rockler. IIRC, Rockler has an intro to power tools one. Then pick a small project, get tools for it, and make mistakes. Rinse, repeat.

cedarsalmon.bsky.social•175 days ago

Yes, but also go find the weird Elder folks who live in your general area and just… listen

whatsarasaid.bsky.social•175 days ago

try your local library! You may be able to borrow hand tools and often there is someone who wants you to be great at using them.

mme-defarge.bsky.social•175 days ago

Maybe look into volunteering for Habitat for Humanity or similar? You could learn skills and help at the same time?

shivax.bsky.social•175 days ago

Find the local guy who knows his shit and hire him, but that's not very easy to look up on the internet.

Also you need to ignore all the parts where he invariably disables every possible safety device and ignores all the safety procedures.

urban-achiever.bsky.social•175 days ago

You Tube. I'm not kidding. YT is one of the best pedagogical resources ever. I got started on metalworking videos many years ago and ended up turning it into a business.

jasonemiller.bsky.social•175 days ago

This is a good way to discover projects that you want to tackle, and to see skills that they require. But it doesn't replace hands-on.

urban-achiever.bsky.social•175 days ago

You definitely have to have practical experience to get good, but that's true for vo tech or community college too.

urban-achiever.bsky.social•175 days ago

It may take a bit to figure out how to sort the wheat from the chaff in your topic of interest, but once you do there's very little you can't learn from YT. Woodworking, welding, fixing a car, building a deck, learning software...whatever.

rismith.bsky.social•175 days ago

If you find a weld on Youtube that the comments don't unanimously hate, you win the internet.

cmowder.bsky.social•174 days ago

Just search “woodworking classes ”. A lot of the classes I’ve found for community college has been less hobbiest and more “getting a certification in six weeks with daily classes”… that might just be welding though.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply