What got you started ?

[Abel Magwitch]

I was an architectural student back in the swinging sixties, when my wife started making rag dolls and other stuff to sell. Out of the blue we suddenly got an order from "Kids in Gear" Carnaby Street, offering more money than we were used to!
Went on from there to make various wooden toys and jackinaboxes etc and the woodwork slowly took off. Quite successful, Design Centre awards and such like, exports and posh shops all over the place
All stopped dead in 1979 with the Thatcher first recession. Didn't go bust, just stopped trading.
After a lot of odd jobbing I eventually found my way on to a TOPS course in carpentry and joinery, which was basically intensive C&G syllabus full time, very traditional with all hand tool work. Tops courses were designed to get people back into work fast.
Been working at it ever since! Never had a proper job. Er mind you, never got a proper pension either!

I also got onto a TOPS course in Carpentry & Joinery. I was their first trainee, they did not know what to do with me? Nevertheless, I started off with some defining tests. I got 100% in the first three maths etc. tests and they figured I just go to the joinery and carry on. I had worked with my father from age 12, So knowing a bit as I did this course was incredibly stimulating to me, after a while, they offered me a high-ranking college place in Cambridge. At the same time, my Dad had a job for me, £400 pw on a holiday camp in Norfolk fitting the chalets with new bedroom furniture. I was greedy, 30+ years ago, that was grand money. What shall I do, embark on a powerful, college degree course? I took the money. I wish I had not been married to a slime bag as was back then because I would have gone to college. Ne'er mind eh? That was my take-off point, it eventually put me with a business and a business partner, shop fitting, for 14 years in UK and Europe. All from that Tops course ad I found......
Where was your TOPS course, if you don't mind me asking?.......

 

[Kittyhawk]

Being poor is a great driver into learning and doing stuff for yourself.
I remember an old guy when I was young and what he told me - 'if I can afford it, I'll buy it. If I can't afford it, I'll make it. If I can't make it, I'll do without.
Nowhere did 'borrowing money to get it' come into his little ditty. Tried to live by that advice ever since.

 

[Jacob]

I also got onto a TOPS course in Carpentry & Joinery. I was their first trainee, they did not know what to do with me? Nevertheless, I started off with some defining tests. I got 100% in the first three maths etc. tests and they figured I just go to the joinery and carry on. I had worked with my father from age 12, So knowing a bit as I did this course was incredibly stimulating to me, after a while, they offered me a high-ranking college place in Cambridge. At the same time, my Dad had a job for me, £400 pw on a holiday camp in Norfolk fitting the chalets with new bedroom furniture. I was greedy, 30+ years ago, that was grand money. What shall I do, embark on a powerful, college degree course? I took the money. I wish I had not been married to a slime bag as was back then because I would have gone to college. Ne'er mind eh? That was my take-off point, it eventually put me with a business and a business partner, shop fitting, for 14 years in UK and Europe. All from that Tops course ad I found......
Where was your TOPS course, if you don't mind me asking?.......

Mine was Kirkby-in-Ashfield Skill Centre. Up and running for some time I think. The course was very tightly organised, felt like an open prison (I imagine!) Continuous rolling entry which meant on or two new boys and one or two leavers every week, which was good as you were working alongside people who could be at any stage of the course. All hand tool, no machines, not even a bench grinder.
Another benefit was the other trades taught in other parts of the building, with a bit of interchange.
Over the years I've talked to other people who did TOPS courses in all sorts of subjects (all "vocational" to get you into work) and they tend to be full of praise for the system and full of stories about how to dodge the strict regime. You got a living away allowance if far enough away but quite a few found this enough to buy and run an old banger or a motorbike so you could travel from home, against the rules and with threat of imminent expulsion, but they sensibly turned a blind eye on the whole.

 

[MikeK]

@MikeK is there any way we can lock this thread to members only being able to view? I think it's great understanding the backstory of each other but I'm a little concerned we are putting personal stories into the public domain, which from a cyber security / phishing viewpoint is not super sensible.

Restricting visibility of the contents of a thread is not possible without modifying the forum software. Visibility of a forum or sub-forum can be restricted, such as the Off-Topics II forum, but not an individual thread.

If any participants of this thread are concerned, I can remove their post. If the majority of participants are concerned, I can move the thread to the Off-Topics II forum, but that will restrict participation to the thread.

 

[Spectric]

is there any way we can lock this thread to members only being able to view? I think it's great understanding the backstory of each other but I'm a little concerned we are putting personal stories into the public domain, which from a cyber security / phishing viewpoint is not super sensible.

Is this not what millions of people do everyday on social media, laying everything out right down to where there are, have been and are going plus what they are eating!

 

[Fitzroy]

Is this not what millions of people do everyday on social media, laying everything out right down to where there are, have been and are going plus what they are eating!

Yes, but on my social media it is restricted to my friends and family, and realistically for most folks we are protected by being one not very interesting person amongst hundreds of millions of other not very interesting people.

If it was easy to restrict the thread it would have been a simple step to do.

 

[thetyreman]

Being poor is a great driver into learning and doing stuff for yourself.
I remember an old guy when I was young and what he told me - 'if I can afford it, I'll buy it. If I can't afford it, I'll make it. If I can't make it, I'll do without.
Nowhere did 'borrowing money to get it' come into his little ditty. Tried to live by that advice ever since.

Necessity is the mother of invention

 

[rogxwhit]

I'm a little concerned we are putting personal stories into the public domain, which from a cyber security / phishing viewpoint is not super sensible.

We're not posting our bank details, are we?

 

[Phill05]

Yes, but on my social media it is restricted to my friends and family, and realistically for most folks we are protected by being one not very interesting person amongst hundreds of millions of other not very interesting people.

If it was easy to restrict the thread it would have been a simple step to do.

That's how scammers get your details they harvest hundreds of millions of not very interesting people just to glean out what they want.

 

[Garden Shed Projects]

I started out on another of Thatchers schemes, the YTS at £29.50 per week and after the first year became an fully indentured apprentice . Many in my family were bricklayers but I wanted to do something completely difference (?) so became a chippy instead. It served me well and I am having a good career in the industry.

I moved off the tolls 20 years or so ago and around 3 years ago got back into woodworking as a hobby. I seem to spend a lot more time making things for the workshop to allow me to build stuff than I do actually making anything else but I am enjoying it. This forum has served me well for info and general entertainment.

 

[Droogs]

If you are worried about others seeing/knowing any info about you, then don't post it - simples

 

[Sideways]

Our elderly neighbour had an ancient 20 inch planer in the stable built onto the back of his house. Flat belt, crowned pulleys, overhead shaft in the roof and a motor in the corner the size of a sack of spuds. Guards - what are those ?
As a kid playing with his grandchildren, we'd play among the piles of big wood shaving that the shop was full of. The smell of fresh cut wood stays in your head.
Dad came from a tradition of diy, make and mend metalwork, car and m'cyle maintenance, and renovated an old house over his lifetime. Amateur woodwork, but dilligent and neat.
It all rubbed off.
I'm an engineer first and foremost. If in doubt, do the maths.

 

[Fitzroy]

Our elderly neighbour had an ancient 20 inch planer in the stable built onto the back of his house. Flat belt, crowned pulleys, overhead shaft in the roof and a motor in the corner the size of a sack of spuds. Guards - what are those ?
As a kid playing with his grandchildren, we'd play among the piles of big wood shaving that the shop was full of. The smell of fresh cut wood stays in your head.
Dad came from a tradition of diy, make and mend metalwork, car and m'cyle maintenance, and renovated an old house over his lifetime. Amateur woodwork, but dilligent and neat.
It all rubbed off.
I'm an engineer first and foremost. If in doubt, do the maths.

As a fellow engineer I'm still amazed at what I can do with some maths, a few engineering estimates and some basic equations.

 

[Spectric]

and realistically for most folks we are protected by being one not very interesting person amongst hundreds of millions of other not very interesting people.

But you could well be of interest to the local criminals, they use all sorts of tactics and the number of people you hear boasting about their forthcoming holiday lets them know your house could be empty. The same for caravans & motorhomes, when they are not there often the occupants are not there either.

 

[Jacob]

The TOPS Course I went on (after a divorce curtailed my business ) - (Computer Systems Analyst) was utterly useless. After two days I realized that I already knew far more than the lecturer and was constantly correcting his incorrect information. I distinctly remember him insisting that a 9 pin Dot Matrix Printer had a bank of 9 x 9 pins !!!

There were 15 of us on the course and none would ever procure a position as an Analyst. - Though I did get a chance to learn COBOL as an extra-curricular, not that it has ever been any use!

Oh well you can't win em all! The C&G courses for the old trades had been developed from a long way back (19 Century) and perhaps it was too soon to do similar with computer science!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Necessity is the mother of invention

Desirability being the father.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

But you could well be of interest to the local criminals, they use all sorts of tactics and the number of people you hear boasting about their forthcoming holiday lets them know your house could be empty ...

Years ago here you never ever got a taxi to the station or airport if you were carrying suitcases, you got a family member or friend to take you - the taxi drivers were all either small time crooks or were in league with bigger crooks.

 

[profchris]

My way in was, unexpectedly, writing a book.

I won a research fellowship which gave me 2 years working from home, researching and writing. I realised I needed something to do while my mind was processing my reading, so I decided to build a ukulele. The result was ugly and clunky (perfect for a bar fight though) but it did make music. So I had to make a better one, and then an even better one, and ...

What I do is an odd mixture of precision (frets need to be within 0.1mm or so) and feel (is this soundboard springy enough?). If I hand the result to a decent musician and he or she can't stop playing it, I reckon that as a win.

 

[Bingy man]

I started out on another of Thatchers schemes, the YTS at £29.50 per week and after the first year became an fully indentured apprentice . Many in my family were bricklayers but I wanted to do something completely difference (?) so became a chippy instead. It served me well and I am having a good career in the industry.

I moved off the tolls 20 years or so ago and around 3 years ago got back into woodworking as a hobby. I seem to spend a lot more time making things for the workshop to allow me to build stuff than I do actually making anything else but I am enjoying it. This forum has served me well for info and general entertainment.

Wow big bucks - my first unofficial job at 15 was on a demolition site @£15 per day - proved my worth I got a rise to £25 per day -I felt rich tbh but it only lasted 9 months. 1st official job was with m/b breweries maintenance of managed pubs -yts @ £23.50 per week, 2nd yts went up to £26.50 p/week with a housing association who kept me on for 5 years but got rid of me after I did and passed a 2 year city of guilds in gas fitting and installations. But the yts got me started in big world of mainstream work.

 

[Molynoox]

Became an engineer as it was better paid than a theoretical physicist, chose chemical engineering as it was the best paid. Should have done mechanical as that is way more aligned with my love of taking stuff apart and building stuff. Started woodworking to fill my need to make physical stuff that I can put my hands on rather than designing the process and owning the fluids flowing through it.

That's interesting. I did mechanical eng at uni but never really fell into a mech eng groove. I ended up doing engineering but it was automotive. And it wasn't really engineering. Although it was called that. I spent many years working in ivory towers, on the theoretical side, pushing information around and not really engaging with the products or the customers. I knew I was doing useful work but it was very disconnected from the actual product. I had an opportunity last year to try something totally new because I was made redundant as they shut down our UK stuff (UK is too expensive). So that's what I've been working on for over a year. Plan B.

What is my point? I ask myself!

I think what I'm saying is it's funny how you can drift around in life, and think you are on the right path, but then realise you are not. Or maybe you realise you were on the right path but the grass looked greener. And you switch. And then maybe when you switch you realise the grass was actually ok on your side.

Yeah I guess I'm still figuring out what I think life is confusing isn't it.

Martin