News - July 2018

Hot July brings cooling showers

Apricots and gilly flowers

( "Gilly flowers" is a bit of a "catch-all" description but in Shakespeare's day would have referred to the carnation)

Could do with some of those cooling showers right now!

It's holiday time down in the workshop but if you thought that meant taking it easy for a while, you might need to think again!

We have been offered the chance to collect tools and machinery from an exceptionally well equipped home workshop in Wildown Road Christchurch.

This is a fantastic opportunity to set up our new (Somerford?) Shed with professional quality machinery including a large pillar drill, radial arm saw, floor standing band saw, floor standing belt sander, dust extraction system etc. etc. There is also a very large table saw and a universal woodworking machine available.

The owner of the workshop has sadly passed away and his daughter contacted us to say that he wanted his tools to go to a good cause.

As you might expect, it is a difficult time for the family and we need to be sensitive to this.

The house is on the market so we only have a limited time to move everything.

We have already acquired a cracking woodworking lathe plus accessories, a Proxon mini table saw, routers and router table, scroll saw, sharpening equipment and many other small items. These are now at our Greystone's House workshop apart from the lathe which is too heavy to take down the stairs and is currently at Les Mercer's home shed.

We need a work party to dismantle and move some of the larger items of machinery, but perhaps more importantly we need to find somewhere to store the equipment until the new workshop is ready - this could be 12 months or more away.

If you can help with transportation - we will need a transit type van and/or trailer - and storage of one (or more) of the machines or can help to dismantle equipment, please let us know a.s.a.p.

We should be able to get access to the workshop on Wednesday 1st August and most likely any day in the following week.

We have committed to clearing out the workshop so that the family are not faced with having to clean up after us so we will also need to take some stuff to the tip.

Greystone's House Workshop

Back at Greystone's Workshop, we had (46) visits to the workshop in July.

Jerry Russel brought in a very useful (240v) circular saw.

John King gave us a neat morticer and Geoff Harwood has offered us sheets of 28mm? thick Perspex which opens up some creative opportunities....

John Blakeman set up the Triton band saw which is now ready to use.

John also bought in a selection of woodworking books which together with some more we acquired from Wildown Road, means we now have a really good reference library and a resource for project ideas!

Lenny made a bait tray for his (fishing) boat and I put the finishing touches to my picture frame (anyone who thinks it is really a door for a rabbit hutch clearly has no appreciation for fine art)

Dates to remember:

The workshop is now closed until September 3rd - although we can probably get access if anyone has a pressing need to borrow any tools etc.

We will not be holding our monthly general Room 11 meeting in August - the next one will be on Tuesday 4th September starting at 2.00 pm.

The next Mudeford Club lunch will be on Friday 24th August at the usual time of 12.00 noon

Unfortunately I will not be able to make the Mudeford Club lunch in August - I will be away drinking beer with those crazy Danes!

Hope to see everyone in September.

With all the additional tools and resources available in the workshop, there will be no excuse not to start work on those autumn projects!

We may also be looking to get the community project for the Highcliffe pre-school group based in the Old Schoolhouse underway.

Regards to all - and enjoy your break!

John Pegram

Christchurch Men's Shed

PS if anyone loses their gloves in the workshop it is likely to be that man Nick Mowll who is responsible. (Only joking, Nick).