WEBVTT

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The Carpenter Show with Robin Clevitt,
powered by Festal's new innovative eighteen volt cordless

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range from drills to sores, including
dust extraction, all powered by eighteen volt

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batteries. Discover the more at festal
dot co dot UK. Welcome to The

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Carpentry Show with Festal on fixed Radio. I'm Robin Clevitt with you as always

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for the next hour. On this
week's show, I'll be troubleshooting some of

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the common and perhaps not so common
issues carpenters and joiners have when working.

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These will be technique and site based
as well as logistical and customer service based.

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So in the last sort of a
couple of weeks, I've been doing

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all kinds of stuff to finish my
big jobs because there's been all kinds of

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you know that, like when you
get to the end of a job and

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they say, oh, what about
that little drain cover that goes on there,

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and what about that little bit of
pointing that goes around there. It's

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like a hangover, isn't it,
And you kind of go, yeah,

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I'll knit back on, knit back, and all those nipping backs add up

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to time, but they're all getting
out of my hair now, which is

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nice because we've got holiday times coming
up. We're in the middle of July.

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The web is not too bad.
It's been a bit sort of frantic.

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They said that we had the hottest
June, yet July has been a

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bit sort of mediocre. And they
also said that we had the hottest day

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on record in the world, something
like about eighteen degrees And I had a

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conversation with Becky about that. She
said, well, that's not that hot.

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I said, no, it's like
every country in the world have a

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snapshot of the temperature on that day. Add all of the countries up,

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add all the temperatures up, divide
them, and that's what it gave them,

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I suppose. And I thought that
was quite interesting, really, to

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think that we're in a time where
the climate is changing so much. And

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whether or not we believe it's something
to do with the way that humans are

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treating the earth or not, because
everyone has an opinion on this is another

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thing. Anyway, Let's enjoy the
summer, Let's enjoy our time. If

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your children off school as well as
is my daughter, let's enjoy time around

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them. So try not to overdo
it like I've been trying to not overdo

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these little hangover jobs and let's enjoy
the summer. The Carpentry Show on fixed

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Radio. This is the Carpentry Show
with Festival I Robin Clevitt troubleshooting some problems

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carpenters and joiners have had. Okay, So let's take the scenario that you're

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making something. Building something could be
a bit of joinery, it could be

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a frame, you know, the
normal sort of thing we get to do

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putting something together, measuring it,
marking it, cutting it, fitting it,

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and it's going out of square,
okay, or it's getting a slight

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slope when you're trying to plane it, for example. And so two things

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there we need to think about.
So before we start assembling something, we

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just need to make sure that we've
cutled our members in the right sort of

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format. We've not measured them individually, we've cut as many things together as

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once, so when you screw that
together, it's going to be already somewhere

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near parallel in every direction. And
also, for example, check that your

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blades are square and your swords.
If you're using a circular saw or you're

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using a chop saw, it's very
easy to have the base or the fence

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slightly off, and so when you
do screw something together or nail it together,

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it's naturally going to pull in the
direction of the blade. So let's

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always make sure that those things are
in place. And talking about planing,

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for example, if you're using a
power plane, you know the golden rule

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is you have your weight on the
front as you go in and your weight

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on the back as you come out. And if you're actually planing something which

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is a little bit wayany to start
with, the chances are it's not going

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to get any better. You're just
going to replicate that wane and it's just

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going to get even more of a
slope. So I think that's where a

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little bit of sort of experience comes
in. And when I was doing my

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sort of apprenticeship, we didn't have
a power plane. We only had jack

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planes or smoothing planes. A jack
plane is generally long, and it was

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with a jack plane that we actually
did manage to flatten things out because it

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will ride over the hollows and flatten
off the lumps. And I suppose once

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you've used a jack plane, even
when you pick up a power plane,

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you kind of know when something's not
flat. So yeah, there you go.

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I mean there's sort of some of
the on planning for example. So

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let's look at another problem woodworm.
Okay, let's say a client has presented

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you with a load of oak boards
and they said, oh, this is

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this reclaimed oak and we want you
to lay it all. And it's been

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treated, they say, but it
still looks like that woodworm is live.

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Now, I suppose you can't just
go and let You could just go and

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lay it, but if you feel
really responsible and think, if I go

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and put this in, it's going
to go into the joist and it could

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be a real bad infestation. It
could go into the furniture, it could

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go into the walls. So is
there a quick fix? Is there any

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way to purge it quickly? Because
you know what it's like, you're on

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day work. It's fine, you
can go off to the supplier and buy

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some stuff, but if you're on
a price. If you said I'm going

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to fix this oak for you and
it's going to cost sex amount, you've

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either got to go back to your
client and say we need to treat this

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stuff, and you would have to
pay me daywork because I've got to stop

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what I'm doing, I can't earn
my money and get the chemical. Now,

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talking about the chemical, if you
go on to some of the big

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sort of suppliers or even Amazon,
you can find some really good stuff on

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there, but quite a lot of
them aren't that good. So make sure

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you buy something which can be brush
applied, because a lot of them have

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to be impregnated. Or make sure
the woods clean. If it's covered in

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dust, as you as soon as
you put that on, eighty percent of

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it is going to get absorbed by
the dust and fall off. So yeah,

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you can use a good quality treatment, not necessarily the ones that you

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think of. Just go for some
specialist ones and get it done. But

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make sure that client pays you for
it. And let's talk a little bit

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about frameworks stud spacing issues. Okay, so a question was how do I

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improve the stability of structures like sheds
for example? It says by being more

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accurate and what are some tricks to
calculating spaces of timbers needed? Okay,

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So first and foremost, if you're
building anything, understand the way it will

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carry. Whether it's a shed with
a shed roof, you can say,

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well that shed roofs can be fifty
kilos, and if it snows it might

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be two hundred kilos. That is
a basis there. If it's a building,

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you should have some structural calculations and
they will say that you need to

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space your studs at four hundred centers
six hundred centers or four fifty or whatever

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the case may be. And in
most cases you'll always have a sheathing on

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stud work. So if you have
OSB on the outside. For example,

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all timber frames have a nine millimeter
as standard OSB on the outside, and

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that does two things. That holds
the insulation from falling into the cavity between

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that and the brickwork or the external
finishes, and it provides rigidity, and

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then that is the far more important
thing. But it's not just the OSB

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on the outside. It's how many
nails and how far apart they are.

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Some of them are as close as
seventy five millimeters or three inches, so

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improving the stability of structures like stud
walls. It's all about the sheathing as

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well. If you had studs twelve
hundred centers and you had eighty millsheathing which

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is fixed really well on the headplates, solet plates and studs that would be

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super strong, but the load would
be decreased what you can put through it.

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But always check with a structural engineer, especially if you're responsible for building

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dormers and that sort of stuff.
Okay, coming up up some trouble shooting

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for tools, logistics and more the
Carpentry Show on fixed radio. You're listening

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to the Carpentry Show. I'm Robin
Clevitt and I'm troubleshooting some issues faced by

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carpenters and join us this hour.
So sometimes when we go to work,

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it's almost impossible to just keep bringing
your tools off the job for the weekend.

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Okay, So I have often covered
when we talk about going out and

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finding work and what's important about when
you go and find the work and logistics

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are quite important. So you look
at a job you get sent as drawing,

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but they also need to look at
where's the job? Can I part

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nearby? When I can park there? Let's say I can park outside.

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Can I securely store my tools there? So is a client living there?

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Have they got a garage or a
really secure garden building that they could all

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be locked up? So that's the
first thing. Okay, if you've got

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a client before you start work when
they're all keen to get you in.

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Say, by the way, I
will leave my tools here. Is there

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a room where I can securely leave
them? Might be a bedroom that you're

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being refurbished, or even the area
of working a kitchen, for example.

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Carpenters just load up all the kitchen
units, don't they, so you know

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you've got you open the door of
a new kitchen being fitting. It's just

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full of boxes of screws, drills, circular saws. It's great, is

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there. The clients must come over
the evenings and open up, thinking,

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oh, look, I don't like
all their tools in our new kitchen cabinets.

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But yeah, it's really important to
try and leave them there, because

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there's nothing worse is there. Get
to the end of the week on a

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Friday. Hopefully you've finished everything you
need to finish. Hopefully you've finished everything

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the client wants you to finish.
And then you've got to load that fan

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up, get home. It's Friday. You've arrangedly going to the pictures with

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the misses, and you say,
I'm running late and I've got to unload

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the van. Can you can you
help me to say? I'm getting ready,

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I'm not coming out. I've got
my makeup to do, and then

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you're now under pressure. And the
worst thing is well leaving them in the

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van, because then you won't enjoy
the pictures because you'd be worried about someone

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stealing them anyway, So that is
a big issue. Make sure your clients

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agree to let them. And if
you can't order box in the corner of

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a room, you know with the
SB stack you've got just make a box,

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screw it all up, take the
drill home in the van, put

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it under the seat so no one
steals that either. So talking to tools,

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when building a collection of tools,
let's say you've got yourself you circular

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saw, battery, drill jigs or
all the normal sorts of things for doing

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small builds or small jobs sanders for
example. As well, if you're doing

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sort of multi trades, what would
be the next best addition. So that's

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a really good question, and I
reckon if at that point you don't have

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a multi tool, that is a
really good addition. It can do so

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many things. And if you've not
gotten multi tool, you're listening to this

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thinking about it, well, you
think why would I need it? Well,

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once you've got one, it's a
tool that you get out and you

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realize, how did I do it
before? And it might be something like

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trimming some mark trade off to put
in a finished floor, so a floor

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covering. It might be a laminate
floor or a wooden floor, which is

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all the rage floating and you've got
existing linings. You can even nick underneath

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the lining halfway to slide the floors
under and it looks amazing. I think

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that was the perfect job for a
multi tool. But then it's cutting things

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like sockets out of an existing plasterboard
wall or a kitchen unit. Someone says

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they want to sock it in the
end of an island. That's another really

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good example of where you'd use that. It's much better than jigsaw, much

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much safer. So I think a
multi tool is a really condition. But

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if you're in the market of getting
a multi tool, look at the vibration

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because if you're using them a lot, I mean, the vibration that comes

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through your hand is not going to
be good for you over a long period

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of time. But some of the
market leaders are really good when it comes

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to that. Going back to Sanders, I mentioned Sanders. There sanding issues.

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Okay, so we've had some comments
about the discs tending to fly off.

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Okay, it says, is this
the quality of the disks, Is

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there a better way of securing or
is it a sander issue. That's a

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bit of a loaded and variable question
there, because I can't see which sander

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or which discs you're using. Are
you mixing brands up? Are you taking

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a disc which isn't really compatible because
most sanders have dust extraction through them,

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which means that the discs are either
mesh so they'll take all of the dust

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out. Some of the really major
brands, like the three MS, they

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take something like ninety nine percent.
Their technology allows for most of that dust

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to come out. Okay, I
know, Festival. I've got the small

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Festal sander, which is a rectangular
in shape round about eighty meal by about

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one hundred and sixty I believe it
is, and that is absolutely fantastic.

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Now, their paper has a cloth
on the back, so when you actually

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put it against the base, it's
a little bit like velcro or you know,

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this two sided material that attaches,
and that works really well because not

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only is the dust extraction pull in
all that dust through, it's also pulling

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the paper against the base. But
what we're talking about when they start flying

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off, it's the discs because you're
spinning, spinning really fast, and if

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that disc has got dust between it, or the bottom of the sand has

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been damaged in any way, and
those little hooks aren't holding on, yes,

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they're going to fly off, and
it's so annoying. It really is

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so annoying, especially if it's flown
off or you haven't realized it, and

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then you start standing with the bottom
of the sander, which is not that

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good. Okay, So another question
about table saws or other tools that keep

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blowing fuses. Now this will come
a thing of the past, but for

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me in my early life, it
happens all the time, mainly with my

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circular saw. It was a nine
inch circular saw. I still say that

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in inches, so a two hundred
and thirty millimeter circular saw, and it

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pulled a lot of power and it
was fine when it was plugged into directly

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into a socket. But how often
do you ever get to do that with

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a saw with a lead no more
than three meters long. So you have

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to have a cord and you plug
the cord in, so you're working outside

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someone's house. They've opened the garage. You've plugged into a socket which is

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a spur from the kitchen, so
it's not it's a radio, which means

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it's just a cable coming from the
ring. Then you plug in your power

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lead wheel it down the drive another
fifteen meters. Then you plug in that

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saw, which is pulling two thousand
watts, and it's the startup. It's

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that initial boom you know it was. It's from nothing to go just like

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that, and that's going to pop
fuses and that used to be so so

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frustrating. Table sorts is a classic
example there. Also, if the blade

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starts getting a bit dull, you
know, you're pushing that timber through there

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that you're using literally twice as much
power to just get that cut, and

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that is going to hit a thermal
overload and that's going to pop the fuse

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or it's going to thermally cut out
the socket if you have an unreeled the

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lead. There's so many things to
worry about, but look at the new

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technology. Let's look at the positive
side. Look at the Festal tiny weeny

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table. It's like it's like a
sustainer table saw. If you've not seen

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this, you've got to have a
look at it and that it's got so

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much power you can do all kinds
of stuff with it, and it's the

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size of a sustainer. So on
one side we do have these issues with

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power and core tools, but going
forward in the future where it's all going

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to be a thing in the past, because we're going to be just charging

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batteries, turning up in the middle
of a field and making whatever we like.

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The Carpentry Show with Robin Clevert powered
by Bosh Professional FIKS Radio. I'm

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Robin Clevitt on The Carpentry Show,
and on today's show, I'm troubleshooting some

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issues faced by carpenters when working so
as a subcontractor. Okay, there's another

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big issue as a subcontractor. Is
it an issue that I charge one price

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for my services and the building firm
I'm working for is marking up my services

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to the customer. Okay, So
this is the scenario. Let's say you're

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a chippy and a building firm's got
you in and you've agreed at day rate

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of two hundred quid. Okay,
so say two hundred pound a day,

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and you don't know what the builders
charging you out at and he's falling out

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with the customer. The customer comes
round and quite friendly, quite polite,

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makes you a cup of coffee and
says, oh, you know, you

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enjoy your work. And before you
know it, they're asking you and how

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much how much do you charge day? And you, without thinking, you

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think it's hardly so you don't know
what the builder is charging. You say,

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oh, it's two hundred pounds a
day, and she says, how

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much he's charging me three hundred pounds
a day for you? And all of

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a sudden you're in dodgy ground because
the builders never said to you. By

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the way, you don't talk to
my client about how much I pay you

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or how much I charge them.
That's between me and them. If they

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come and speak to you, then
you know, you say sorry, I

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don't talk about that. You need
to speak to him. And I think

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that this is a big issue.
And it's happened all the way through my

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life. You know, I've been
doing a big price job and someone somewhere

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has said, oh, he's making
a fortune, you know, and they

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have no idea how much work has
gone into getting the work, getting the

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client, looking after the client.
My knowledge. They're paying me for my

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knowledge, the fact that I can
actually do it, regardless of how much

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I might earn an hour to do
that work. So you'll probably be listening

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to the radio thinking, yeah,
I've been there, I've done that.

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The guy was working for was charging
double and everyone was thinking it was me.

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It was charging that much money,
and they hated me, and when

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they found out I was only half
they liked me again. And I mean,

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it is a really awkward situation.
So if you're the builder, make

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sure you say to your subcontractors it's
confidential what our arrangement is, so you

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do not speak to my client about
it because and equally you say to your

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clients, you know, please don't
ask my subcontractors how much they charge me,

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because it's a it's a very loaded
kind of question that I don't think

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that should be asked by either party. So took the customers when customers ask

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you questions about the entire build.
So as you're a subcontractor and they come

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to you say well, do you
think this should be like that or do

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you think you know, they come
and start troubleshooting their problems with you because

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you're they're doing the build the builders
off. He's going organizing five other jobs,

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and you know, they they start
seeing you as the person who's responsible

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for the job. I mean,
how much should you get involved with that?

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How? You know? I always
say to my lads, if the

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client comes and ask you, by
the way, can you do this?

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You say, it shouldn't be a
problem. Just have a chat with Robin

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or give Robin an email. In
fact, all of my lads know any

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questions that come from the client,
they always say, just give Robin an

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email, send Robin an email and
he'll deal with it. But you turn

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up and the boys say, we've
moved that wall. What do you mean

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you've moved the wall? Well,
the client came up and said, we

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wanted to hold on a minute.
I've paid you to put the wall.

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They're only paying me once to do
it. Now they're telling you to move

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it. Do they realize that's going
to cost him any money? I don't

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know. So, yeah, you've
got to be so careful, haven't you,

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because that can really really really make
your day go bad when those sorts

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of things happen. And as a
subby, what if the client student says

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can you come and do some work? For us at the weekend, or

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hire you privately for other work in
the future. Now, in all other

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sectors, in all professional sectors,
let's say you're an accountant and you're working

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for a big firm, you will
be on some sort of contract that says

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if you leave us, you cannot
go and work for anyone for a period

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of eighteen months. A list of
competitors, and what a lot of building

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firms should do with this. Sobby
should say, by the way, you

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can't work for our client privately or
in the future. They're our client,

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And I think that that doesn't happen
because it's just like, you know,

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we're kind of a trusting environment in
the building trade, and we you know,

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we dwan the pub and we see
seed a bricky hello, mate,

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any chance to come in jumping on
the job, And they come to jump

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on the job and the client loves
them. Before you know it, they're

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doing a garden wall for the client
and you're thinking the client would have come

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to me for that garden wall.
And then there's this issue about oh,

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awkward you fall out if your mate
because you said, well, hold on

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a minute, they said, no, we asked me to come at the

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weekend. I said no, no, but it's my job, it's my

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client. I've fought for that client. I was struggling to get work and

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I found that client and now you've
nicked it from me. So that's really,

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really, really tough too. And
let's touch on diet. Okay,

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how do you eat healthily when you're
at work? So let's take all these

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scenarios just trying to get through the
work. Do you take a pack lunch?

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I think that is probably the most
sensible way if you can meet yourself.

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This is me, this is what
I do in the winter. I

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do fresh to We have a microwave
on site, and I generally buy them

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on the way to work. So
I go to Waitrose or something like that

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where they sell fresh soups, you
know, petrol station, and I buy

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chicken soup and I generally just take
that and it's it's got everything I need

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in it for a day. Okay, it's all my calories I need,

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it's all the protein I need.
And i'd a bottle of red milk as

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well, knock that back if there's
no tea and coffee making facilities. So

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that's all I do. But that's
that's what I do in the winter,

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and they're really good for me because
of a cholesterol issue. When you get

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old, you have to find out
about this stuff. And also I do

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salads in the summer, but to
go without have a can of tuna,

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whap the top off tuna the salad
or cooked chicken as well, and I

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just sort of stick to those two
things. Also, once a week I

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love to go to the calf as
well. I love to go to have

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a proper fry up. I think
I think it's eighty twenty rule, isn't

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00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:49.960
it. I said eighty percent good, twenty percent do what you like.

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Okay, that comes down to having
a drink at the weekend as well.

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No, not eighty percent drink and
twenty percent food. You should have a

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bit of both. Big Radio the
Builders stationed. So that's it for today's

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00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:07.960
Carpentry Show, where I've offered some
advice on a range of issues carpenters and

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00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:11.960
joiners have come up against. You
can download this show as a podcast,

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00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:17.279
make sure you subscribe and leave a
review. Sometimes we put exclusive content in

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00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:21.079
the podcast too, okay, so
it's worth a download even if you've listen

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00:20:21.119 --> 00:20:23.960
to the show. So we're building
a community of carpenters and we want you

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00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:26.960
to be a part of it.
How do you get involved? Sign up

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to the Carpentry Show newsletter. You'll
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335
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say on a range of topics