Category: Projects

Things you can do in a men’s shed, useful information.

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Food Bank Chute

Report on a Coquitlam Shed project

Location: Gordon Church, Burnaby
Charity: “Don’t Go Hungry” Food Bank
Visionary: Rhonda Gale
The Team: Cal, Robbie, Dave3 & Doug2
What is to be accomplished?
Move the groceries from the parking lot to the Church basement.
The plan:
Build a chute from the parking lot to the basement (Static conveyor), easy eh?
The hitch:
1. A condemned handicap chair lift is installed on the stairs.
2.The chute must fold up against the wall so the stairs and handrail  are accessible.
The action:
1. Remove and recycle the handicap chair lift.
2. Plan, build, paint & install the chute
The results :
Check out the photos and …
You be the judge.


The acceptance :👍👍 & many more thumbs up.

Groceries moved in record time with minimal effort!
Sorry you must click on each picture to download, then view each individually.
Men Helping the Community
Doug 2
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Mother’s Day

Thanks to the Men’s shed I was able to finish off a hand railing for a great mom. In time for her Mother’s Day.

 

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Narwhal Tusk Box

A couple of months ago one of our members announced that he had a Narwhal tusk that had been in his family for decades and he would like us to make a box to protect it.

This challenge was enthusiastically accepted by the members who meet at our workshop on Friday mornings.

First and foremost, the Friday crew had a cup of tea and consulted, in depth, about the new project and how we were going to live up to the task of building a box for the tusk.

Second, we have no money but the owner of the tusk was prepared to make a donation to the Shed and we wanted to make sure that we kept it all.

An old display case made from clear cedar was found (by a members wife, she probably wanted to get rid of it). Then Mike Walsh at Walsh Plastics Ltd. donated the acrylic for the cover. We were off and running.

We had another cup of tea.

Each week, after tea, we would make a little progress reworking the display case and each week someone would come up with an idea that made the simple box a little more complex, a little more refined.

A few cups of tea later we handed over the product of many laughing hours of comradery, good will and a little creativity.

Now, another member has thrown down another challenge, build a bird box for his budgie.

Going to have to have another cup of tea, we have never built a budgie box before.

This time we may have produce a “how did they do that” series of videos.

 

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Phoenix 3 Progress Report

Phoenix 3

At the beginning of August 2016 I finally finished building Tootee my 15’ row, sail and motor boat (if you ever finish a boat like this).

Phoenix 3

The first thing I did was show it off at the Richmond Maritime Festival in Steveston and that is where these two photos were taken.

Phoenix 3

Then it was time to go sailing. I hadn’t sailed a small boat in decades and I must admit that the first outing was a bit disconcerting because I was so clumsy. I did better the second time and the third time there was lots of wind and the boat handled it well, she is very forgiving. She sails as well as she looks. Unfortunately I don’t have any sailing photos to share, it is difficult to sail and photo at the same time especially when you are sailing in a narrow channel.

The white hull next to Tootee is Sweet Pea 3, another Phoenix 3 we are building at the Britannia Historic Shipyard in Steveston.

The Phoenix 3 has proved to be all I dreamed she would be.

Mike Jennings.
Coquitlam Men’s Shed.

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Chess Pieces

Chess Pieces

I am working on hand carving some chess pieces, mostly during our Tuesday meetings at the shed. I have 3 so far. I did a king, a queen and a rook. I add lead weight to them, stain and varnish them and add green felt on the base.

Chess Pieces

The chess board I made previously as a project in itself. If you are interested I could post pictures of the construction of the board.

Chess Pieces

I need 32 pieces for a complete set, which at my current rate could take a few years. 🙂

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Phoenix 3

I was reading the Wooden Boat Magazine and came across a series about how to build a 15’ sail and row boat called the Phoenix 3. It is an Australian design by Ross Lillistone. I liked the look of the boat, the series was written in a way that drew me in and the skill required didn’t seem far removed from the Chesapeake Light Craft Chester Yawl I had built a year or two ago. I sent for the plans, I was hooked.

The attached photos show the progress to date. I hope to have it ready for the spring (I have already built the spars). Then decision time, something has to go.

Phoenix 1 Phoenix 2 Phoenix 3

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Dreem Boat

I was so happy with my Chesapeake Light Craft Chester Yawl that I joined the Vancouver Wooden Boat Society and took it to the Wooden Boat Festival on Granville Island. There were a couple of small wooden runabouts there and I was intrigued. That fall I started to look around for a small wooden runabout to restore, I put an ad on craigs list and soon I was offered this perfect little runabout shown here after restoration.

This is a 1955 Dreem Boat (that is the way it is spelled). This one was built on Kingsway in Vancouver, BC and sold by the Hudson Bay Co. along with the 1956 18hp Johnson outboard. It made its way to Ney York and then back to the West Coast (not under its own steam). The hull is moulded birch. The motor still starts easy (although I did install a fuel pump to help that and get away from a two line fuel system).

Now I have to flip a coin to decide which one to take to the Wooden Boat Festival.

Dreem Boat

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Chester Yawl

When I sold my cruising sailboat because it wasn’t getting used enough I missed having an excuse to be on the water. I had read a book about keeping fit and the author said that he had bought a Whitehall skiff and how much he enjoyed rowing it. This seemed like the answer to me so I looked into Whitehall skiffs, beautiful boats but there was no way it was in my price range.

A little more research led me to Pygmy Boats, they have a kit for their Wineglass Wherry and I was enthralled. A little more research and I came across Chesapeake Light Craft and I settled for a kit for their Chester Yawl.

The kit was so accurate and complete only moderate skill and very little fitting required. The frames and bulkheads and the precisely machined strakes formed the shape. No strong back is needed, you just have to be careful to make sure there is no twist and the rocker is right.

What a way to get on the water again, it is a thrill to row.

A project like this would be perfect for a Men’s Shed.

yawl

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Cedar Strip Canoe

After most of a lifetime I have come to the conclusion that I love boats. This is my current cedar strip canoe, the second I have built. Both were built using the book “A Strippers Guide to Canoe Building” as inspiration. I do mean inspiration, while the book comes with patterns for moulds etc. it suggests various ways to finish the canoe. I picked my way with guidance from the book and I feel that I have my unique canoe. It paddles as well as it looks.

Building and maintaining kayaks, canoes, sailboats, runabouts etc. are projects that I hope will be part of the Coquitlam Men’s Shed as it evolves.

canoe1 canoe2