Boys & Their Big Toys

The 1971 Dennis with a Jaguar engine was the feature of a Tool Box talk from Guy Ellis.  One of 8 units in his collection it captured the attention of more than 30 members who were on hand to listen to his talk and then get up close and personal with this vintage machine.  Guy even sounded the siren which had the locals all coming out to see what the commotion was about.

Dreaming of the damage he can do.

There must be a fire somewhere so all aboard and let's get moving.

What! More Table Markers

What skilled workmanship!  Cutting out square blocks, drilling a hole and sticking a number into the top of the dowel.


But the Retirement Village who requested the set of table markers were very appreciative and now have numbers to make the delivery of the correct meals to the correct tables easier.

Sometimes it's the little things that are appreciated the most.

What Talent

If only everyone in the Shed had this talent!  Mike has only been working on restoring this table since the start of the year and it has been in and out of the Shed so many times we are thinking of installing castors.

How often has one seen a "skilled" craftsman with the ability to use 2 finishing sanders at the same time?

The reason for wearing the ear protection is so he can't hear the comments from the members when they see what he is up to.

Now all he needs to do is plug the machines in and stop posing.

Never Work with Animals or Children!

Two Happy Woodworkers

Finishing my Project

For over 12 months the Shed has been saving timber offcuts for the Erina Before & After School Care Group.  This resulted in us being asked to visit them during the school holidays and supervise a 'woodwork session'

They say in the classics, "Never work with animals or children" and this saying holds very true.  Apart from having no work benches and having to rest on garden seats in the school playground many of the children were much more interested in  chasing spiders  and other creepy crawlies for their specimen jars,  playing in the sand pit or making their own masterpieces from scrap timber.

Those who did attempt the serviette holder project managed to end up with a high quality job in a reasonable time and with a chance for the better ones to finish the job by spraying them they went home well pleased with their afternoons work. 

Next time it will be another members turn to experience the joys of keeping 15 -20  6  to 11 year olds' occupied for an hour using hammers and nails!

Birthday Celebrations

Our 3rd birthday celebrations were a very happy affair with a lot of laughter and good food to follow.  Colleen our 'Shed Goddess' was on hand to cut the cake and to accept a pot of flowering Pansies on behalf of all the men in the Shed. No offence is meant between mentioning Pansies and our Shed members in the same sentence.

This was followed up with a BBQ for which at great expense we imported master chefs Monsieur John and Monsieur  Linden who we all know charcoal the best steaks and sausages on the Central Coast.

The connection between the Emergency Assembly Point sign and John and Lindens gastronomic skills is purely a coincidence.

Our Irish Link

Our links with the Killarney Shed in Ireland continue to grow and recently we sent this Certificate of Fellowship to them.


Mark, our resident creative member, designed a presentation certificate that linked our Sheds under the  nations flags and the combined  logos of the two Sheds.


We hope Killarney Men's Shed will display this framed certificate in a prominent place in their Shed as a reminder to all of the links we have developed.

Helping the Blind to Read

Bateau Bay Shed continues to work in support of Vision Australia and our latest project was to make a Braille Teaching Board.


This will be used with young blind children when teaching them the Braille alphabet.


During the design phase we learnt that when this alphabet was invented in France by Mr Braille he didn't use the letter "W" as it was not included in the French alphabet.  Thus the reason for the 4 white pins which now make the letter "W" on the bottom right hand side of the board.