Men In Sheds

[alanwetherall]

Hi I am new to the site so please treat me carefully. We are setting up a men in sheds charity woodworking workshop in Corby Northamptonshire with a full semi-professional workshop. (Excellent new table saw, bandsaw, both SIP machines, thicknesser/planner the rest of the machines are donated equipment) We have two experienced woodworkers and aim to teach others some of our skills. The question is we want to make stuff that is not too difficult to make and we can then on to provide funds for the charity. (buy more materials machines etc). We are at present producing garden planters and also an Adirondack chair as an example. Has anybody experience in this area and what would you recommend

 

[Luke Barnard]

I think projects that can be done in an evening/afternoon, whilst also teaching some useful skills are good for new starters. More involved projects can become overwhelming and frustrating. For example, making a set of hardwood coasters starting with rough lumber. With something like this, you could take someone through many aspects of milling wood to specified dimensions, and still have a finished product in a few hours. But on the back of that they know how to prepare timber for more complex future projects. Other similar projects are things like are trivets or simple picture frames.

 

[robgul]

The Mens Shed local to me (I'm not a member) makes a range of bird and other animal feeders - mainly using pallet wood. If you go to the Mens Shed website there are (or were) links to various locations and some examples of the stuff they make.

 

[Jameshow]

I have made a few thinks to keep up the interest in my local men's shed.

During the summer holidays I went through the "post pic of the last thing you made" thread and filed all the projects I thought might be possible...

We are going for CIO status ATM.

We have a building in the pipeline depending on the council to lend it to us.

I have a table saw, band saw, benches etc already.

Cheers James

 

[Bod]

Mens Sheds, need to be aware of H&S requirments.
What put me off going to a Mens Shed, was watching one of the, who I thought was a leader, insist that gloves were worn, whilst using a power sander. (linsher/disc type, not hand sander).
Gave me the hebby g bebbys, did'nt go back.

Bod.

 

[Sideways]

To second Bod's observations, I've seen numerous attendees at a men's shed who would swear blind that they know what they are doing but who aren't safe to be let loose with a file or a piece of sandpaper.
It's a shared space, you have a duty of care. You need someone to be responsible for Health and Safety, you have to give them authority to insist on training / demo of the machines before use, good safety and working practice and you need to actively enforce a veto on any behaviour that you consider dangerous to a member or to others.
Stereotyping wickedly, old farts are ornery and sometimes don't want to b told! You have to be sensitive in how you handle them but don't start down the slippery slope of letting people do as they please.
Lastly - pallet wood is crap. Full of nails, screws and other junk.
Use a lot of that and your members will save themselves a few quid and the shed as a whole will spend a small fortune on broken blades and cutters, scarred tables and all sorts.
Lesson hard learned - no logs on the band and tablesaws. No pallet wood either. And don't put reclaimed floor wood through the planer etc. You'll wreck your machines sooner rather than later.
DAMHIKT

 

[alanwetherall]

Thanks for the reply’s so far. We are a member of the national men in sheds as well as being a registered charity.

After suffering a bad kickback on a table saw I am very big into jigs to make it safer. Jigs so far are table saw sleds and taper jigs for the table saw. Plus, a really cool set of jigs to make slanted garden planters with horizontal layers of wood. I really enjoyed designing this as I couldn’t find anything like it for sale anywhere. So far 9 different jigs.

With hold down clamps and jogs the intention is for a relatively unskilled person to make something without going anywhere near the blades.

There is an excellent range of picture framing you tube jigs which I have made which enable anybody to easily make picture frames. We have built our own router table but are not doing any fancy picture frame profile’s yet

Forgot to mention we have a Snapmaker 3D printer which has router and laser attachment which we haven’t exploited yet.

Thanks for the help so far

alan

 

[alanwetherall]

Just a follow up we have full health a safety, training system in place for every machine (nobody will use a machine until they have been trained and signed off.)

Secondly absolutely no pallet wood, i have developed local wood supplies which means we do not need pallets. They make the work dirty, unsafe, take longer, damage your tool blades and usually look crap at the end
alan

 

[Richard_C]

RSPB have some bird box designs on their website, need to search a bit. They say its a 2 hour project, so good starter project to do in one evening. With things like that you are using relatively small quantities of material and although the design/size is standard-ish there are opportunities to personalise.

 

[Robbo60]

Are you going to have a lathe as this is something a lot of people haven't got space of money for but would like to try turning?

 

[Tenacity]

I've just started a little job of making bee hotels (insects and butterflies welcome) from off cuts after modifying my sons bin store. Sideways comment about pallets very true, luckily fence railings were pretty clean as I'd stripped them off. Just gathering bamboo and other bits to finish. There are plenty of illustrations on the web and I've got the RSPB bird box plans. Great small projects and as Spring is just around the corner, honest! Lowish material costs and hopefully can be priced to sell well.

 

[Keith 66]

When my dad died i donated most of the tools i didnt want to keep to a local mens shed, A few years later another shed sprang up a lot closer, i donated a load of tools to them as well. I have visited them & they are well meaning, what i saw was far too many machines crammed in far too close together & dust extraction that was pitiful.
I dont know who advised them on how to set it up but they obviously hadnt a clue about H&S.
The only guidelines that would seem relevant on workshop design layout & spacing would seem to be educational Design & technology oriented.
H&S training is all very well but as i know from having to do compulsory Design & technology association training (DATA) in school for workshop & machine safety, Such training ticks boxes but rarely teaches any skills. Its all about arse covering.
Anyone running a shed needs to think seriously about how they train people & keep on top of it.
I will join up once lockdown is over, having sold my Union graduate last year i have occasional need of a wood lathe & they have two!

 

[alanwetherall]

Are you going to have a lathe as this is something a lot of people haven't got space of money for but would like to try turning?

 

[alanwetherall]

Yes we are lucky enough to have 2 lathes. A large 900mm and a Clarke desktop lathe. We intend running courses on wood turning as there seams to be a demand for it
Alan

 

[alanwetherall]

I like the idea of a bee Hotel. Ticks a lot of boxes. I am an engineer (Turner) so I am looking forward to the lathe work

 

[Davey44]

Hi I am new to the site so please treat me carefully. We are setting up a men in sheds charity woodworking workshop in Corby Northamptonshire with a full semi-professional workshop. (Excellent new table saw, bandsaw, both SIP machines, thicknesser/planner the rest of the machines are donated equipment) We have two experienced woodworkers and aim to teach others some of our skills. The question is we want to make stuff that is not too difficult to make and we can then on to provide funds for the charity. (buy more materials machines etc). We are at present producing garden planters and also an Adirondack chair as an example. Has anybody experience in this area and what would you recommend

Hi fellow shedder. Yes, I've now been closely involved in setting up two sheds and while I'm no expert at woodworking, and never really took to it, I have gradually become more interested in it as a craft. In point of fact, many 'sheds' start their lives by offering simple woodworking to its members. In our second shed, our chairman has made a very useful suggestion which relates to the type/s of other crafts or passtimes we are able to offer. As a result we are purchasing things like airfix models and similar small scale modeling. Additionally, we've invested in a couple of pyrography stations. We'd love to have the space to widen the offerings, but there is no opportunity to do this as we are situated on a space constrained site which houses a number of community services. How brilliant it would be to be able to provide things such as simple computer use training, 3d printing and some of the softer crafts. If you want to know more about us and what we do, please indicate and give me an email address and I'll feed back things contact details.
All the best.

 

[Old Man Sudor]

Hi I am new to the site so please treat me carefully. We are setting up a men in sheds charity woodworking workshop in Corby Northamptonshire with a full semi-professional workshop. (Excellent new table saw, bandsaw, both SIP machines, thicknesser/planner the rest of the machines are donated equipment) We have two experienced woodworkers and aim to teach others some of our skills. The question is we want to make stuff that is not too difficult to make and we can then on to provide funds for the charity. (buy more materials machines etc). We are at present producing garden planters and also an Adirondack chair as an example. Has anybody experience in this area and what would you recommend

Hi is this still running, I'm from Corby and just starting my woodworking journey, something like this would be a huge help to me

 

[Astrobits]

Try:
https://menssheds.org.uk/find-a-shed/to find your nearest shed
Nigel

 

[Keith 66]

I visited the shed again with more tool donations a while back, while i was there an old boy was using a table saw, no crown guard or riving knife & the bit of wood kept riding up, how he never had a kickback i dont know. I had a word with the guy that runs the shed & he had not realised, he is well meaning but was over ridden by two old guys from industry who "Are qualified wood machinists & they say we dont need those bits as they get in the way etc etc", so they had removed all the guarding. I pointed out to my friend that when someone chops off his fingers he as organiser & the committee are liable as they allowed it to happen.
I think it sunk in, & sincerely hope nobody has been hurt.

 

[Astrobits]

Too many videos on youtube are from America where there is rarely a guard or riving knife to be seen.
Nigel