Shed report to Committee August - September 2021

General Covid and the asbestos discovery at the shed have slowed us down somewhat with the asbestos investigation closing the shed down from 8th July to 29th July. At this stage we are now back up and running.

Outside Community projects

Atawhai Play Centre The play car project is now complete and has been delivered. Feedback would suggest that it is a huge success and the children love it.

Rodent eradication programs Colin Johnstone and his team just keep on pushing out rat traps. This section of the shed is a major part of our operation and is the reason that we able to pay our bills and subsidise our bargain priced subscription.

Ministry of Social Development (MSD) garden project This garden development under the supervision of Denis Moriaty is now completed and has been a huge success. An opening ceremony was held, and we received excellent publicity in the local press.

Homeless Male Room Project This very worthwhile local project at the Male Room has been project managed very efficiently by Nelson Rotarian John Hambleton and apart from some minor landscaping is now complete. John has pulled the local Rotary clubs together and Rotary are putting in funding and manpower on this project. We have also been involved. Wayne Logan completed a small job on the storage shed on the premises and coordinated the purchase and assembly of some flatpack furniture. Richard Watson, Grant Pinkham and Mark Cox have also been involved building a sign/gate frame, building a computer desk and fitting bookshelves.

Shed address: 236 Haven Road Nelson

Contacts and general enquiries: menzshed.nelson@gmail.com

Website https://www.menzshed-nelson.org.nz/

Japanese garden bridge Mark Cox has completed a miniature Japanese garden bridge for a local lady.

Van Conversions This commercial project in conjunction with “The Car Company” continues to move along well. So far, we have converted six LDV G10 ‘s, a Mitsubishi Delica and three Nissan Serenas. One of the conversions was completed by Grant Pinkham and Wayne Logan at Wayne’s and Wendy’s home as we were locked out at the time by the asbestos situation at the shed.

Bird Boxes Mark has now built 12 of these at $40 each and we still have some for sale.

Waste No More This organisation represented by Carlo Wiengand and working in conjunction with NCC required some signs made up to be used at festivals and fares to encourage people to recycle waste. Wayne Logan and Mark Cox priced up the job which has now been completed.

Civic Trust Bench seat project The Civic Trust are organising the installation of a bench seat to be placed near the new “Kinetic sculpture” in the grounds of the Trafalgar Centre. Mark Cox and Wayne Logan have put together a proposal to the Trust but as yet we have not heard anything back from them.

Brook Waimarama Community garden chicken house Paul Lowry approached us over the possibility of us building a chicken house for this worthy organisation. We suggested that he investigated the possibility of getting Mitre10 to sponsor the materials and then we could produce a prefabbed “Flat Pack”. Covid plus the asbestos lock down has put the project way back at this stage.

Rocking horse restoration Doug restored a rocking horse for Shane Drummond of the Car Company.

Bar stool refurbishment Colin Johnstone, Grant Pinkham, Wayne Logan and Mike Gough have all been involved in this project for a local hostelry.

Mobile “Vegepod” units Colin Johnstone, Elwyn Thomas and the team have produced three of these units now with flat packs made up and ready to go if we have future orders. Feed back from customers has been very favourable as Colin’s versions are far superior to the commercial units that are on the market.

Toy repairs We have completed toy repairs for the Natureland Op Shop

Women’s Refuge furniture move The local courthouse donated two large desks to the Women’s Refuge Centre with Robert Leighs, Denis Moriaty and Wayne Logan completing the job.

Weta Motels Doug Lawrence and Mark Cox have built a batch of Weta motels

Model locomotive smokestacks Kevin Roughton has just machined three of these smokestacks for a member of the public.

Nelson Women’s Club chair refurbishment Colin Johnstone is coordinating the removal of the upholstery and Chris Gladstone is refurbishing the woodwork on several chairs for the Nelson Women’s Club. Chris is also refurbishing a wooden clock with help from a “Dremel” unit loaned by Hal Martin.

Tile Cutting Colin Johnstone cut some wall tiles for Debbie Watson with payment taking the form of an excellent morning tea.

Storage dividers for Bridge Street Early Learning Centre Elwyn Thomas and Wayne Logan have made a start on this project

Mitre 10 community project Denis Moriaty painted some boards that were delivered to the shed from Mitre 10. The boards will be used in a community project that Mitre 10 helping hands is involved with.

Inhouse Projects

Nut and bolt storage boxes Mike Gough has now completed a production run of boxes to store all of our assorted nuts, bolts and washers.

Tidy Up Grant Pinkham continues to sort and tidy the shed tools.

Van seat disposal The van conversions produce rather large quantities of seats and fittings to be disposed of but fortunately if the price is right these units can be disposed of.

Thicknesser Bearing replacement Richard Watson and Wayne Logan replaced a worn bearing in the thicknesser. While the unit was stripped down the gear box oil was changed, and gearbox cover plate resealed, and drive belts adjusted.

Plunge Saw A plunge saw has been purchased to help speed up rat trap production

Thicknesser blade sharpening Tamal Krsna donated a blade sharpener and Richard Watson used it to good effect to recently grind the thicknesser blades. The use of this machine will save us a significant amount of money as we can now do our blade sharpening “in house”

Rocking horse swing prototype Mark Cox is building a rocking horse swing which could possibly be a future production project.

Circular Saw storage/loan One of our industry contacts has offered us the use of a large precision woodwork machining centre. We will have to consider this offer carefully as although it appears attractive there is also considerable obligation on us to look after and maintain it.

Drill press repair Wayne Logan repaired and readjusted the column return system on one of the small drill presses.

Members Projects

Boats Lloyd Houghton has completed the refurbishment of his boat and the oars. Denis Moriaty has now almost completed his camping rowing boat complete with luxury accommodation! and trailer system. Ian Carpenter has almost completed the trailer for his boat with Wayne helping out with some of the welding. Ricard Watson is completing modifications to his trailer yacht tow bar. Richard Mc Bride has a small boat project underway. Robert Leighs has a bait board under construction and is also attempting a very exacting rebuild of the electronic wind speed/direction unit from his boat.

General Mark Philips continues with a variety of projects.

Richard Watson machined some timber for a furniture project that Wayne Logan is working on.

Grant Pinkham has produced and fitted automotive indicator beepers for those senior members who are hard of hearing and tend to drive along totally oblivious to the fact that their turn signal indicators are going.

Greg West has completed an elegant solid timber door for his house in Golden Bay

Safety We have very few accidents, but Graeme Robinson tripped and fell heavily recently, cutting his head in the process. Denis Moriaty (first aider) was soon on the scene doing an excellent job. The paperwork was completed and Graeme has had no after effects.