I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not all that handy.
My career in construction lasted only one summer and after about two weeks I was delegated to mostly office work and material runs. I try to fix and build things around my house, but more often than not it ends up with me being frustrated and making a desperation phone call to one of my buddies for help.
So when I decided to take “my talents” to the Concord Regional Technical Center’s construction program for a little crash course in building, I had no idea if I’d be installing a window, hanging drywall or laying shingles on the model house inside the construction garage. Or maybe they’d ask me to clean the office.
But instead of having me do something that’s way above my skill set, construction instructor John Hubbard started me off like any other incoming junior to the program. I was going to build a sawhorse.
Now usually the students do all the measuring, cutting and connecting (after a bunch of safety stuff beforehand) and it can take anywhere from two class periods to a week. But since I only had about an hour and a half, he took the liberty of doing some of the prep work ahead of time – it’s almost like Hubbard knew of my limitations.
So when I arrived, the 2-by-6 for the top and the 2-by-4 legs were already cut to the right length and beveled. It’s probably better I wasn’t using the table saw. I kind of need my fingers.
Hubbard also was nice enough to give me a couple of Merrimack Valley seniors in the program, Brandon Jackson and James Downs, to help with the project, although I think it was a way for someone to keep an eye on me so I didn’t screw my thumb to a board or something extremely painful like that.
They told me where to measure, how to use the speed square for angles and which sides of the boards I needed to mark. And you all thought I wasn’t a very good listener, oh wait, that’s just my wife.
The first directive was to attach the legs to the top. Sure, I could have done this if I had a few hours, but I didn’t so my partners on Team Goodwin helped me through the steps.
I had to make sure the screws went in the right place so all the legs were the same length after being attached. This after all was supposed to be a functioning sawhorse when all was said and done.
So as I already knew (but was strongly reiterated) the measurements had to be precise. Once the marks were made for the screws in each leg, I had to countersink the legs for the screws, which means use a bit to make an indent for the screws to go in.
The top piece was held in a vice and Downs held the legs while I put in the eight, three-inch screws.
Now I had used a drill plenty of times before on small projects and to hang paintings in every room of my house, so putting the screws in was one of the few familiar pieces to this puzzle.
Once all the legs were attached, we put it on the ground to see how it looked. It didn’t wobble all that much, which meant so far, so good in my book.
For the class project, you would then add a small piece of cut and angled plywood to the interior of the legs (see picture), along with a 2-by-4 under each piece and a stabilizing bar.
Because of time constraints and my inability to stop asking questions, I only got the first piece of plywood attached before my time was up. But don’t worry, one of the students was going to finish it up for me and I’ll even be able to bring it home. They will usually sell them to recover some of the costs, but could they really feel safe selling something I made? Yeah, probably not.
And because of that I think I’ll stick to writing stories and leave the house building to the professionals.
