A keen wood turner in our shed KEN, saw this piece of burl and thought this would make a great bowl …
So off he went and cleaned it up … got it something near round and then REALISED this is not going to be a bowl it has holes in it ……
So he went home and had sleepless nights thinking what can I do ???? and the an idea !!!!
And so was born this beautiful UNIQUE Clock …..
WE HAVE TALENT IN OUR SHED ……. even if they DON’T know what they are making???????
Our shed were approached by NEXT SENSE asking if we could frame 13 individual tiles that children had created.
Our men set to work immediately and produced the above wall hanging frame, complete with French Cleat on the back to hang the frame.
Our men were so excited to see the finished product and realised that some of the tiles also had Braille on them ……
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Suba contacted our shed wanting an ART LIBRARY …. so we showed her our street library … she was sold …. ordered on the spot …. delivered on time ….. SUBA was so pleased …. we even gave her a piece of ART to start the show!!!!!!!
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Our shed was approached to make an activity center for a family with a child of special needs. This child requires stimulation and interaction in ways that are difficult without Assistance.
One of our members took this on and came up with this amazing CREATIVE concept and design …..
Proud creator of Lion’s Honour Board
Parramatta Lion’s club commissioned Parramatta District Men’s shed (PDMSInc) to build an honour Board that would look very similar to their existing Honour Board. The existing Board was almost full.
After some review of the requirements our shed identified on of members who had considerable skills at this type of project …. although it was may years since he had completed such work. With heart in mouth a quote was prepared and subsequently accepted by the Lion’s club ….. so the work started with many restless nights spent by our expert ….. worrying if he could really do this. Our executive had great faith in our shed members ability and encouraged him to relax and build it ….
Framework begins
Accuracy was so important in this project with some very fine joint work involved. Our shed expert spent many hours practicing his joinery before the final cut …… He also built some “jigs” to help with the detailed routing required to create fluting in the pillars of the frame.
Detailed flutes and joinery
Once the frame was completed to satisfaction the infill panels had to be meticulously fitted ….. this required a great deal of patience and precision cutting …. this is where the shed “Festool” equipment came to the forefront. Vertical alignment of the infill panel patterns was also critical.
Infill panels
Alignment of in fill panels
Next was the final sanding and preparation for finishing …. this took many hours of careful hand sanding and finishing in as dust free an environment possible. Several coats of the finishing had to be applied to obtain the professional finish required.
Finishing
Final Product
AND THEN AFTER ALMOST 12 MONTHS of part time work the final product was PROUDLY completed
Final Product and It’s very proud CREATOR
It all starts here ….
Roadside collections
Hard wood fencing – from local fencing contractors
PCC asked our shed if we would like to be involved in an environmental project to help Parramatta and prevent some landfill …. the initial plan was for Our shed, on council roadside collection days, to pick up usable re-recyclable wood and metal.
After several sessions of roadside collection it became evident that there was not a lot of material to collect …. some of the locals were beating us to it ….. so we made arrangements with some of the local fencing contractors to deliver to our shed old hardwood palings destined for the tip. So a benefit to the fencing contractor and to our project.
During the PDMSInc collection periods PCC discovered that Primary schools within the LGA were looking for garden type seating and potting benches for their garden areas.
So PDMSInc member Robert McKenzie went through a detailed design and approval phase with PCC to come up with the final products …. bench seats, potting table and mudpie kitchen. Robert made a proto-type and refined it once or twice to end up with FINAL PRODUCTS (get the plans for potting-bench-final-design, pdms-up-cycling-design-documents-garden-box-and-others ) HERE
Creating Bench seat frame
Stabilising Potting Bench
Mud-Pie Kitchen
Twelve months down the track from the start of the idea the products were delivered to 13 schools in the local area ….
Final product ready for delivery
Here are some of the happy recipients ……. (to see all the schools visit our NEWS page)
Pendle Hill Primary School
Rydalmere Public School
Oatlands Public School
Standards ready for delivery
The idea was that 4 local Schools would join a parade for the remembrance ceremony of the sinking of HMAS Parramatta 11.
HMAS Parramatta Standard template
So our shed hit the action button, with one of our members (Torrie) coming up with a design and making a template.
Standard copying by router
One of our other members (Rob) then proceeded to copy the template by cutting out two faces and an insert between the faces. This allowed for a laminated sheet to be slipped inside the standard, thus allowing the standard to used for any occasion by changing the insert.
Inserts
Using laminated printed sheet for insert
Finished product
Complete with Bamboo handles and a template to help position and cut the inserts for future re-use of the standard.
Shields ready for delivery
Hand over to Dave Shakespeare and one of our members (John Cole who also served duty on one of the HMAS Parramatta’s) what a coincidence and what fun to see the smiles of appreciation …..
Mutli – label JIG developed by Michael Instance
The business adviser for our Men’s shed from ACRE CONSULTING Pty Ltd(CLICK on link) Ian McHugh requested our members to look at designing a device that could use a roll of labels and apply these to bottles as automatically as possible. This brief was then extended to a single label and a device to make it easier to peel the label backing papers
PDMS President, Kerry Boyce noted:
“We are set up to help our members and the community – this looked like a great opportunity of collaboration with a like-minded organisation”.
Mutli – label JIG developed by Michael Instance
After a few weeks of design and testing, two PDMS members, Michael Instance and Rob McKenzie developed wine labeling jigs for labels on rolls and individual labels.
Michael Instance designed, built and road tested the muli-label “bottle labeling JIG” as seen in photograph at left. This took a couple of iterations before coming up with what our shed thinks is the PERFECT solution.
Michael’s JIG was also trialed on an experimental basis at BEEHIVE Industries co-operative, it proved so successful that orders were placed for some more.
Cutting device for label backing paper
Cutting device for label backing papers
Robert McKenzie also a volunteer at our shed at this time was developing a device for cutting the backing paper on single labels as this was the in inhibitor to developing a labeling jig. Robert persevered and finally came up with an adjustable device which is shear simplicity but brilliant in operation …..
Micheal and Robert at Beehive Industires
Michael and Robert have made a couple of visits to the Beehive Industries co-operative to improve their designs and to train members and using the “JIGS.
In addition when Minister Ajaka visited our shed he saw these jigs as proto-types ….. and to the Minister’s joy, he also visited the Beehive Industries (CLICK on link) only to see the “Jigs in action and saving so much time, and creating massive improvements to production.
Terry Niperess instructing Boys how to assemble the Possum Box
TWENTY new homes for western Sydney’s injured or displaced brush-tail possums have been built by boys from Parramatta High School with the help from the Parramatta District Men’s Shed.
Boys (from Parramatta High School) were referred by Karabi youth center, teamed up with Parramatta District Men’s shed volunteers over a period of 10 one day sessions to construct the boxes. The boxes will be used by Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Services (WIRES) to re-home brush-tail possums from places like residential home roof cavities.
Boxes ready to be assembled
Lord Mayor Clr. Paul Garrad
Following the successful construction of the Possum Boxes, a hand-over to WIRES was convened at the Parramatta High School.
The Lord Mayor officiated in presenting the boxes and outlined how a grant from Parramatta city council to Wires was the catalyst for this marvelous community collaboration project.
A thank you speech was also delivered by one of the boys. The speech was a credit to his education at Parramatta High School.
Certificates were then presented to each of the participating boys by Deborah Martin on behalf WIRES.
……. read more (from Parramatta Sun, Thursday 5th April 2016)
BURL Bowl creation:PDMSInc was asked to take the BURL that was on the side of this tree log and make a ceremonial Bowl from it. One of the shed members cut the burl with a chain saw.
The center of the burl contained soil and decayed matter which was removed to allow access to the harder material
A base to sit the bowl in was also carved out. Both the Burl and base were carved using the “Arbotech” turbo-grinder and flexible sanding disks
