News - December 2018

Dull November brings the blast

Then the leaves are falling fast

Just one more verse of this excruciatingly bad poem (Sarah Coleridge 1834, daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge of Ancient Mariner and Kublai Khan fame) and then it will be ........woops, nearly slipped in the C-word..........the end of the year!

Mudeford Club Lunch

Our Mudeford Club lunches continue to be popular and our final lunch of the year will be on Friday 21st December at the usual time of 12 o'clock. Note, no omelettes on Friday Mr Buckley!

General Meeting at Greystone's House

Our next Room 1 General Meeting will be this coming Tuesday 4th December at the usual time of 2 pm. This will be the last one until February as Greystone's House will be closed from the 21st December re-opening on the 7th January so we will miss out on our 1st Tuesday of the month slot.

Christchurch Men's Shed AGM

The AGM did not deliver any big surprises other than to see how much we had achieved in the past 12-months in terms of activities, membership and community projects! The committee stood down as required and were dully re-elected (my offer of £5 inducements not to vote for me were clearly insufficient) For the benefit of anyone who was not present at the AGM:

• Membership stands at 32 (since increased to 35)
• CMS currently hold funds of £633 (This figure does not include the grant from the Bournemouth Airport Fund)
• Contribution to HCA operating costs in the year to end of October 2018 was £824 including an estimated £210 spend on tea/coffee in the canteen

The chair asked for volunteers to form a sub-committee to handle tasks such as organising work parties and handling community projects. The sub committee would effectively be a "working group" as apposed to a formal committee and would not be expected to handle paper or admin work. Tasks involving costs to CMS or Health & Safety risks would require pre-approval by the CMS management committee.

The following members put their names forward:

• Jeff Perkins
• Brian Vaughan
• John King
• Nick Mowll
• Bob Wood
• Berry Gardener

The minutes of the AGM are available. If anyone would like a paper or electronic copy, please let me know.

New Members

Please welcome Andy Skarstein and Stan Wescott

Safety in the Workshop

The use of machinery in the workshop was raised at the AGM and with new members using the workshop it would seem a good time to remind everyone of the need to work safely. Some of the machinery in the workshop is potentially dangerous. Anyone who is not familiar with using certain items of equipment should wait until they have received operating / safety advice before going ahead. Members are reminded that they are responsible for working in a safe manner and not endangering themselves or others. If a member notices anyone working in an unsafe manner, they should bring this to the attention of the person concerned. There is a copy of the workshop Risk Assessment on our notice board and I would ask all members (old and new) to review it when they are next in the workshop. Safety equipment such as face shields / safety glasses / ear defenders are provided for members use - please see that they are worn when working with lathes, drills, bench grinders etc! So far we have not had so much as a cut finger - let's keep it that way!

Greystone's Workshop

November was extra busy in the workshop! Nick Mowll has installed LED strip lighting over the wood lathe and the end benches plus an additional power socket for the first bench by the door. Jerry Russell has made a shadow board for a set of "everyday" tools and currently has a second board in hand for mounting tools behind the wood lathe. It is surprising what a big difference these additions have made. Len has been putting the final touches to his tool box and Nick Vaughan made some "on-trend" coat racks from old tools. Jeff Perkins has the magic touch when it comes to sharpening drills and also turned a set of finials on the wood lathe. Barry completed a set of (3) raised planters for the Rainbow Pre-School in Highcliffe. Yours truly has brought a couple more bench planes back into use - a Stanley and a Rapier, both No.4 size. Any Skarstein and Bill Davies have been working on home projects and Mac Truss, John Scase and Barry are regulars on Wednesdays. Peter French has started on a model steam engine and came along with a friend who is interested in building and flying radio controlled model aeroplanes.

Workshop Power Supply / Heater

If anyone has the misfortune to trip the power in the workshop, the contactors are in the box by the door into the workshop however if these have not tripped, the main power supply is located in the kitchen at high level (you will need a step ladder) and the contactor for the workshop is at the bottom right. You might ask me how I know this - well I couldn't possibly say but if you were to ask Nick....... Also, if you have the heater on in the workshop, please turn it off again when leaving. The switch for the heater is on a separate power supply to the lights and sockets also turns on a second heater in the back room which we discovered when it got hot enough to melt some plastic bags!

And finally...

Did anyone else notice that Christchurch is the 4th happiest place to live in the UK according to the Rightmove Happy at Home index. No grumpy old men down in the shed anyway!

Keep smiling, it will soon be C.....nearly did it.....the last verse of the poem!

See you all soon,

John Pegram