Becoming a Carpenter

>>1042656
Look on Craigslist for general labor construction jobs. When the boss sees that your a worker and smart to boot, he'll give you more challenging things to do. After a couple years of experience switch to a better paying company, or go it alone.


I work in construction, I don't really like truss day, but I hate laying tile or block.
Framing and sheathing are my favorite part. It goes relatively quickly and at the end of the day it looks like a lot of work done.

Learn spanish.

Labour under a carpenter and work from their, take an apprenticeship and do diy projects on the side

>>1042656
Same life story for me, look at furniture making to its what I do now, depends on the area you're in and the market but it's solid money if there's demand and you get to have a bit more creative input.

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>>1042656

Wants to become a carpenter, posts a pic of some one doing framing. Lol wut>?

>>1042818
don't carpenters do that kind of job?
what is a carpenter to you?

i'm not from usa

>>1042819
Not him but its more furniture

>>1042823
yea in general, carpenter is closer to woodworker
than a framer, but both work with wood, though carpenters, also usually do wooden features, not furniture per se, more like wooden stairs/paneling and other assorted wooden features

at least usually, i knew a carpenter, he still hasn't finished his house, their houses are always in a constant state of getting worked on, it's really funny, but the detail work was awesome, he had some beaded paneling along one wall from the entry, and as an accent in the kitchen with an opening showing that wall, the pattern lined up as close to perfect as i could tell, but he went full sperg mode when it came to furniture, that he only makes for himself and family, not to sell, the inlay work was crazy awesome

Framing or on the job trim is only worth doing in heavily union areas. St. Louis is a big one I know. Expect to start out at about $14.50/hr + $3.70 benefits and move up to $29-$37 (residential vs commercial jobs) an hour + $15.75 benefits.

I'm not sure about the handcrafted furniture side of things.

>>1042818

Framing is a subset of general carpentry. Are you retarded?

A carpenter today to me works with woods to build anything

Along with painting, staining and generally adding bits from all other trades if need be

>>1042656
It's hard work. I'm trying to get out (in USA, so some won't apply.)
Own insurance
1099 employment
Usually need to know basic Spanish.
Sunburnt all summer
Five layers all winter
Thousands in tools (I probably have 3k in tools)
Seasonal work, sometimes. Feast or famine.
Employers are almost always ass holes.

The good
Physically strong, get paid to work out
Sleep like a baby
I enjoy building
I can't stand the general public, so construction is awesome
Learning a trade is a skill you can always fall back on

Almost no union work is available in my area, so wages are unstable + lots of illegals will under bid every job, because they don't pay taxes/insurance. I loved it, but I'm getting too old to keep watching my wage decrease due to illegals.

>>1043516
Move to a city where the union has the market cornered. No illegals, full insurance, pension, nice wages, etc.

I make the start out pay listed here >>1042861 + no benefits. 2.5-3 years framing. I was beginning to think I could finish my math degree before I was ever going to cut a rafter. I had to change crews, but now I'm stick framing, making stringers, and doing various trim work unsupervised.

You're not going to make decent money until you can run your own crew and even then the chance of them being idiots is high. On top of that, bidding for work favors the customers. Obviously union is the way to go otherwise. I could be in a good position right now had I started and stayed on a union position or had I just apprenticed electrician instead. As it is, I'm making my employer a lot of money honing my skills.

>>1044629
Union it is then. My brother is an electrician's apprentice, and the jobsite he works on has both union and non union workers. The union workers had to do school for a year but make a lot more money starting out. They also apparently had a worse reputation on the site.

>>1043720
There's tons of illegals in the Carpenters Union here in California. It drives me fucking insane. How the fuck can these traitorous unions let all these spicks in? Not only that, they basically cater to the Mexicans. Californians have to be the biggest backstabbers in all of America.

>>1045398
That's why we need President Trump's Wall.

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Since there seems to be some carpenters hanging around here, want to ask a quick question that doesn't deserve a thread of its own.

My dad is building a deck in our backyard, I'm sure everyone is thrilled to where this is going.
Anyways, both of our professions revolve around metalworking, not wood-working. We've got a large beam supporting a thin roof, but the beam has some sag in it and I can't figure out a good way to get rid of it, and if I can't figure out something quick he's probably going to try different things until it gets worse.

The setup is pretty much exactly what's in the pic, but there are shorter boards on each side for a raised roof that also pull the main supports back level. It cut some of the sag out, but it's still noticeable

>~232" span, has what I'd guess to be ~1.5" of sag in the middle
>Both supports are straight as a rail now
>Main board is made of 2x6's that were cut up and joined together with screws/glue and a backing in between
>He really doesn't want to add a center support, I'm sure it will only get worse from this point
>Roof is just slats running perpendicular with some tin metal later, so weight is minimal
>I can make pretty much any kind of bracket/bullshit needed out of steel, but I also don't know what's needed
Feel free to point and laugh at our inexperience, at least we're better at carpentry than concrete laying

>>1045844

Your beam is vastly undersized for a 20' span.

>>1045852
Not surprised, what would be a good ballpark for a proper beam?

>>1045854

At least 4-2x12 using fir. Maybe 3, but fir would be the cheapest option.

>>1045859
Sadly I doubt we could work that in, as the 6" tall beam is already as tall as we can feasibly make it without eliminating slope for water drainage, and he doesn't want it any lower because I (And possibly my brothers) will have to duck down to not run into it.
Any way to unfuck it with bracing? Either on the edges or along the length or something?

>>1042656
>>Parents teachers etc. always pushed me away from the trades and towards education

This is why the trades are hurting for good workers and why mexicans are getting all the work.

If ur near a major city contact the carpenter union district council and inquire about an apprenticeship. Once ur accepted and go thru a 13 week course they will help place you with a large contractor

>>1042826
Carpenters do woodworking, framing, concrete, drywall, plaster, doors, flooring

If ur good in a particular area of work a contractor will put you on a different crew. We have guys that are the fastest framers in the world and sling 40sheets of drywall a day but cant do trim work (trim, paneling, cabinetry). And we have guys who can trim a whole house out in 2 days but dont know fuck about cutting roof beams or laying out.

>>1045398
Are you sure they arent green cards or just americans from socal?

>>1045844
a couple LVL 2x8s aren't going to break the bank.

>>1045398
It has to be a union dominated area where a major project would never even consider an open shop contractor. Otherwise the union can't compete on price and ends up either useless or having no work. For carpentry, the only places like that I know are St. Louis and swaths of Illinois.

>>1043516
>>>1042656 (OP)
>It's hard work. I'm trying to get out (in USA, so some won't apply.)
>Own insurance
>1099 employment
>Usually need to know basic Spanish.
>Sunburnt all summer
>Five layers all winter
>Thousands in tools (I probably have 3k in tools)
>Seasonal work, sometimes. Feast or famine.
>Employers are almost always ass holes.
>The good
>Physically strong, get paid to work out
>Sleep like a baby
>I enjoy building
>I can't stand the general public, so construction is awesome
>Learning a trade is a skill you can always fall back on
>Almost no union work is available in my area, so wages are unstable + lots of illegals will under bid every job, because they don't pay taxes/insurance. I loved it, but I'm getting too old to keep watching my wage decrease due to illegals.
This- I will also add that make sure you find a good employer that will take care of you otherwise they're going to work the shit out of you and throw you to the curb get on to the next guy

Do you like beaners?

>>1046111
op didn't ask about a drywall job

>>1046098
>>1042861


Well shit, I'm a carpenter in St. Louis working non-union with an associates degree from a well known local technical college and graduated with honors (like that matters). I always heard that the union was great up until you hit journeyman and then they fucked you over on hours and work in favor of the guys with 20+ years on the job since you make too much money with only 4-5 years experience.

I'm not unhappy with my current company, its small and does very high end jobs, but I can honestly say I'm probably the second or third best carpenter in the company with 3 years field experience plus two years of schooling along with many construction related classes taken in high school.

I guess I'm just retarded, never knew STL was that big with the carpenters union, always hear shit back and forth over union vs. non union about which is better and this was the first job offer I took out of school and stuck with it.

>>1046219
Just gotta find a good contractor. A lot of siding guys pull that shit, but there's good ones too. Framers are extremely desperate for good people around here. The calls I get as an estimator are practically begging us to man their jobs.

>>1042656
if you're capable of physics level math you should probably be doing something a bit more stimulating than carpentry. go do air conditioning and refrigeration. way more interesting and requires a brain

>>1045864
Go engineered for the whole span. Where I live, NE, the city actually forces you to use a s solid beam. it would probably sit taller than 6" maybe you could get a 6 x 6 engineered. It would just be one long ass solid piece. May need a couple mattresses to install it.

>>1046307
And some insanely good money - good company mixed with side work - go commercial.

>>1046307
That's such a bullshit attitude. Just because you are smart doesn't mean a simple job will be unfulfilling.

I could happily do a university level degree and fucking crush it easily given some of the retards that pass, but you know what?

I don't want to, I enjoy doing a simple job that i can walk away from at the end of the day with a smile knowing I have made something well. Especially since this kind of job I can load up an audiobook to chill out to and learn or be entertained all day.

I love not having an office hag breathing down my neck.

>>1042656
I worked carpentry for 2 years im 20 years old. It really hard physical work and its not nearly as fun when youre smarter than your co workers plus u get worn down faster than u think

>>1046832
Have you been an apprentice?