Vent: That old guy who showed me how to read grain direction in 30 seconds

I was framing out a closet last spring for a lady up in Bellingham, and this retired carpenter walks by my truck on his morning walk. He stopped and pointed out I was ripping my studs against the grain, said it would twist on me within a year. He took my square and showed me exactly where to look on the end cut, like this little arc pattern I never noticed before. It saved me from having to re-do a whole wall, you know? Anyone else had a random stranger on the street teach them something they should have learned in trade school?

2 comments

2 Comments

rodriguez.jordan2d ago

That reminds me of an old electrician who stopped me in the parking lot of a Home Depot to warn me about using the wrong anchors in drywall. He drew a diagram on my receipt with a pen, and honestly it's stuck with me way more than any class ever did.

mark6762d ago

My buddy learned more from a random plumber in the Home Depot parking lot than he did in two years of trade school.