Shed report to Committee August - September 2020
General We are now in our third month of operation after the lifting of Covid 19. Membership is still steadily increasing and as rat trap production is now easing off members are now able to concentrate on personal projects and some of the smaller community-based projects. Attendance is still steady in the mid to high 20’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Outside Community projects
Atawhai Play Centre
We recently built and delivered a mud kitchen for the Atawhai play centre and our next project for this group will be refurbishing some of their wooden toys. One of the projects involves the refurbishment of a wooden “play” car. As Wayne Logan has an interest in motor sport and Mark Philips has an interest in slot car racing this project is rapidly turning into a somewhat more ambitious project than was originally envisaged!
Rodent eradication programs
This project under the coordination of Colin Johnstone and his team has now eased off somewhat but a small number of traps are still being purchased by the general public.
Stamp collectors project
The local stamp collectors club required some aluminium display frames to be modified and more storage units made. This project is now finished and delivered. At times the project was somewhat challenging, but Colin and his team prevailed in the end. Trent Roberts, Doug Lawrence, Mark Cox, Richard Watson and Wayne logan all had a hand at different times during this this job.
Fly
Press
A member of the public brought in very old cast iron fly press in need of some TLC. With some welding, lathe work and painting from Colin Johnstone and Wayne Logan the job was completed.
Shed address: 236 Haven Road Nelson
Contacts and general enquiries: menzshed.nelson@gmail.com
Website https://www.menzshed-nelson.org.nz/
Skateboard ramp Grant Raven and Wayne Logan have drawn and priced up a skateboard ramp for Auckland point school. As soon as funding is available, we should be able to proceed with this project.
Gown hire rack
The Nelson Soroptimist group require another academic gown rack to be delivered by November. Colin and Wayne have built these in the past so it should be a straightforward project.
Display board Last year we built a display board system for the Nelson Soroptimist group to publicise the women that had died in domestic violence situations. Sadly, this year the number of deaths has increased hence the requirement for additional display space. Wayne, Mark Cox, Peter Dephoff and Trent all had a hand in producing the display stand.
Ministry of Social Development (MSD) garden project A garden development is planned for the homeless in Nelson and so Denis Moriarty and Wayne Logan met with the coordinator to see what the project would entail. Denis has drawn up a preliminary concept plan and so the next stage would be finalising the design. Funding would not be our responsibility with our role being to machine timber and possibly being involved in some on site assembly work.
Lectern Step The lectern at the Rotary club of Nelson is rather high and so Ian Carpenter built a box in order that the chairperson can now get a commanding view of the gathered members.
Inhouse projects
Grinding Machine Storage We recently purchased both drill and saw blade grinding machines. Doug has built storage boxes and Trent has completed the sign writing on them.
Trailer refurbishment
We were recently given a very good quality trailer chassis, complete with wheels, tires, axles and suspension but missing the deck, mudguards and lighting. Colin has taken on the task to complete the trailer which will then be sold off as a fund raiser.
Bird Feeders
Both Doug and Mark Cox have produced incredibly detailed bird feeders that really are “works of art” Trent completed some of the roof detail and we are looking at the possibility of producing them for sale.
Sandpit Digger
From Mark Cox’s drawings Richard has produced two prototype sandpit diggers and we are looking at the possibility of producing more as a fund raiser. We would like to acknowledge the assistance from Mason, Peter and Kevin at NMIT engineering to allow Wayne to use NMIT’s equipment to produce the stainless-steel shovels for the diggers. Richard has also been using the metal lathe to machine steel bushes for the sand pit diggers.
Builders pegs
Production has stopped on this project, but we have stocks of pegs still for sale.
Members Projects
Bar stools Mark Cox has just completed two beautiful Wooden bar stools.
Bed head New member Chris Gladstone has just completed a very artistic Japanese style wooden headboard and is lining up his next project (probably a contemporary/modern chair)
Macrocarpa Table Greg is still working on his macrocarpa flitch table project.
Boats Denis, Lloyd and Ian’s boats are still “work in progress”
Fishing boxes
New member Johnny “Porkchop” has completed a number of storage boxes for his fishing equipment.
Gearbox parts
Kevin Roughton has been using the tool-room “metal” lathe to machine components for the vehicle restoration project he is working on.
Book Shelves
Robert continues to fabricate robust book shelves using MDF, glue and screw skills and guesswork.
Membership
Chairman Philip Chapman has resigned from committee activities due to health issues and Treasurer Hal Martin has stepped in as acting chair until the AGM in October.
Sunday Opening
Sunday opening continues to attract a small number of members some of whom cannot attend during the week.
New Equipment
Skill saw and drill
driver
The new, industry standard Skill saw and battery drill/drivers that we added to our inventory made a serious positive impact on our rat trap production.
Air compressor We recently purchased a new three-cylinder industry standard air compressor which has also proved invaluable during the rat trap production.
Donations
Work bench and tools
Ian Lash donated a quantity of small tools including a work bench and vice.
Timber Denis and Hal Martin collected a trailer load of demolition timber to add to our stocks.
Timber fittings and paint
A trailer load of timber, fittings and paint was also donated by NCC from the old Mediterranean Warehouse building which has become an earthquake risk.
Kit-set Assemblers donation
“Kit set assemblers” donated several pop rivet guns as well as a range of fastenings.
Fastenings Dave McLaren (retired mechanical engineer) recently donated many nuts, bolts, washers, set screws and various other fastenings complete with a shelving system. Richard Watson has modified one of our existing units with the result being that we now have an efficient easy to access storage system for the fastenings.
Safety No issues at present but we need to continue putting new members through the BCITO based woodwork machine assessment system.
