I’m medium-handy, medium/high-crafty, and have worked at the professional level as an instructor in a few fields, so I’ve been roped into doing low-level things like this for friends.

I’d never do it for a stranger, and will now only do it for friends if the task is extremely basic. I think the last thing I did was teach someone how to use a mitre saw and then let them watch, fetch stuff, and hold shit in place while I finished a project, and then did it again on a smaller scale so she could do a little more the second time and she’d have something to take home.

So, quite literally twice the work, each time taking longer than it would if done solo.

My high-crafty and high-handy friends feel almost the same way about teaching me stuff, I’m sure, though they’re happy to team up on shit that’s within my limits and show me how to elevate it just a touch.

A one-on-one situation would be very expensive, and rightfully so. You’d be paying that person’s base hourly rate, plus the fee for doing something frustrating.

But group classes at somewhere like the West Philly Tool Library that you can supplement with online tutorials once you get the basics down seems within reach.