Making stuff at the Men's Shed

 

Although I spent a year at high school doing woodwork, I was never really interested in doing it until I retired.

Now I'm working on becoming a 'gifted amateur', but still have a long way to go.

I'm a member of a Men's Shed where we turn beautiful pieces of timber (lumber for those in the US) into ... other things.

We have a lot of fun doing it and the companionship is wonderful. 

My first job after leaving high school was as a boilermaker/welding apprentice at a mine in the middle of Australia. So, I have some skills that are transferable to woodworking. That, along with my high school experience helps, but I've developed an appreciation for the high level of skills required by carpenters and specifically cabinetmakers.

Boilermakers (now called Fabricators) and welders use a fairly narrow range of tools and equipment (I still have my 32 oz ball pein hammer and a chisel given to me on the first day at work) and there is some leeway in measurements. Carpenters/cabinetmakers on the other hand have a huge number of different tools they need to master and an astonishing number of different processes. For example, just think of the dozens of different ways wood pieces can be joined.

Having an adult education and training background (post boilermaker days), I set out to do what training would require of an apprentice learning carpentry ie, I decided to use scrap wood to produce the most common joints. This is the method professional trainers call 'competency-based training' where one keeps doing the same thing until it is mastered. It also includes the equipment used in the process.

To date, I'm still in the early stages. The food platter above is my first real project where I have used mitred 45 degree joints that are glued and I intend to drill holes horizontally in each corner and place a dowel in them.

The base consists of two joined vinyl cliplock floor pieces and it is slotted into the pine sides where I created slots using a router.

By the time I finish this project and varnish the pine sides, I'm hoping it will be a half-decent job 

What do you think?

#Robinoz

PS: I watch many of the carpentry videos on YouTube including Anika's DIY and on Instagram I'm always impressed with the quality of a guy who presents as the Dusty Lumber Company. He is a true master of the craft.

Greta Adds to the List of Village Idiots

Over the 76 years I've lived on planet earth,  I can't count the times on which someone has claimed human life on earth is going to end or that the world will be destroyed.

There were mainly religious people who said the second coming was coming by a certain date. Then there was the group in contact with aliens who had told them the world would end but they would be saved as their friends the aliens would transport them into the heavens. Then there is Greta Thunberg, the wonderchild who is both a climate expert and a hopeful dismantler of the capitalist, free-enterprise system of which she probably knows fuck all.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has deleted a 2018 tweet in which she shared a warning that climate change “will wipe out all of humanity” unless fossil fuels were abolished by 2023. 

In the tweet, Thunberg quoted a “top climate scientist” as saying that “climate change will wipe out all of humanity unless we stop using fossil fuels over the next five years.”

It is unclear when the self-described “autistic climate justice activist” deleted the tweet, but its removal was first noticed by US conservative pundit Jack Posobiec on Saturday. The website her tweet linked to no longer exists.
 
Thunberg herself did not reply to Posobiec, and a host of right-wing commentators chimed in to remind her that the world, in fact, still exists.

“Greta Thunberg deleted this tweet because it exposes her for being a fraud,” US conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel tweeted. “Make sure the entire world sees it.”

It reminds me of Australia's Chief Scientist, Tim Flannery who claimed a decade ago that there would be no further rainfall in Australia due to global warming. 

There is a rich harvest of doom and gloom predictions in relation to global warming that has never eventuated.

I can excuse a young woman with apparent mental challenges making such a statement, but a so-called scientist. FFS.

#Robinoz

Revisiting Hobart Tasmania

 

Cat and Fiddle - Hobart Arcade

After I discharged from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), I headed to Hobart, Tasmania where I commenced work with the Tasmania Police.

On completion of training at the Police Training Centre, I was assigned to Hobart Police Station where a number of police officers worked beat duty.

Beat duty was foot patrol of the Hobart inner city area, with two or four men working at a time.

There were three eight-hour shifts. The day and afternoon shifts were most interesting as we got to meet a lot of people. We'd get the odd accident, emergency, shoplifting, assault, and traffic infringements.

It was an excellent opportunity for us, all young men, to meet women and arrange dates. 

The night shift, commencing at 11 pm was the worst - nothing much happened. We'd check shops and generally try to keep order if anything went wrong, which was rare.

There is an arcade in Hobart called the Cat and Fiddle Arcade. It was there in 1971 when I walked the beat and it's still there in 2023 although it's been redeveloped and much more spacious and interesting now.

This is where my colleagues set me up to have a rumble with a fellow who was a homeless bricklayer. It went like this:

My colleagues knew the bricklayer would be lying on a bench seat in the Cat and Fiddle Arcade. They knew that every time he was arrested for vagrancy (no visible means of support), he'd resist arrest.

I got a radio call to check the Cat and Fiddle Arcade and when I did, I found the fellow sleeping on the bench. I told him to move on and he refused to do so, so I placed him under arrest at which time he launched an attack; we both ended up on the floor as I tried to overcome him and get my handcuffs onto at least one wrist.

After a short while, a night patrol car with two officers pulled up and came to assist. Between us, we overcame the individual and hauled him off to the Hobart Watchhouse. I learned afterwards that all "Rookies" had been initiated in such a manner. I thought I got off lightly with nothing damaged by my ego.

Now, half a century later with 12 years of policing behind me and many other years at work, I'd have adopted a different approach. With age comes wisdom and probably a lot more compassion.

At the time, our standard instruction was to arrest these loafers.

I would be inclined now to let the poor fellow rest out of the wind and rain. Nobody else was there, so we had the place to ourselves and nobody was being harmed. Being penniless and homeless was his only offence. Now, I would work to find him alternative accommodation and a job.

It's not the role of police forces to be social workers, but we need to care for each other and helping someone out when they need it is a good thing. 

What do you think?

#Robinoz

Why Australians Should Vote "No" in the Voice to Parliament Referendum

Alice Springs was a beautiful town in Central Australia that is suffering from the impact of dysfunctional indigenous Australians and their communities.

Crime has run rampant. The township has been adversely affected by crime for decades, but all towns have some level of crime. Unfortunately, the level of crime during the last couple of years has reached epidemic levels.

Neither government policies nor the under siege Northern Territory Police are able to get the situation under control.

Billions of dollars of taxpayers expenditure over decades, thousands of Aboriginal organisations, private, public and otherwise haven't resolved the problems of regional indigenous people.

Why would we expect a change to the Australian Constitution to provide better solutions?

The short answer is, it won't. What it will do is provide special access to Parliament and Government policies by 3% of the Australian population who are indigenous or part-indigenous.

My short article commenting about why I won't vote Yes in a referendum that will further divide the nation is here: https://tinyurl.com/rchenry

Let me know in the comments what you think.

#Robinoz