Oxford Men’s Shed
Part of the Men’s Shed Movement
I am a proud member of the Oxford Community Men’s Shed. We have facilities in Pearson Park, in the heart of Oxford township and are providing a good service for the local and surrounding population.
The Oxford Men’s Shed is part of the “The Men’s Shed Movement” in New Zealand. Which continues to grow rapidly with well over one hundred “sheds” nation wide. The highest concentration of sheds per population being in the Canterbury District, with over 30 sheds setup, plus new ones coming into operation shortly.
The Men’s Shed movement has being running for more than 12 years now. Like most of the sheds, the Oxford Men’s Shed was started by a small group of keen like-minded local men.
To give you a little background, the idea behind the “Men’s Shed” organisation, is to provide men with a safe place to go, where they can learn from others, as well as tutor those with lesser skills, covering a vast range of activities. Health and wellbeing is another main focus and it is well proven that men in the company of other men, will open up and talk about subjects of health and all sorts of other subjects freely, which has nothing but good outcomes.
The main focus in the Oxford shed in the past has been woodwork, but with the added skill set of some newer members, we are now able to work with metal. The shed is keen to attract more men who are interested in computerised equipment and has acquired 2 CNC routers. With the intention of expanding to other types of equipment such as 3d printing if and when the need arises.
The Shed has a very good range of equipment with lathes, saws, planers, band saws. All items have been replaced over the last year or two with the latest models in the wood shop. The metal shop has a new welder and lathe also, along with most of the tools needed to carry out many jobs.
The Oxford membership sits at around 50 members during the year and we have 4 sessions a week in the shed, so there is a time to suit most people to come along and enjoy the experience.
The Shed can be used by members to make projects for their own use, small jobs for people in the local community (for which there is usually a small donation charge) plus work carried out when required to help out the local council. Items are often made for selling at various markets we attend, but Covid has curtailed this at present.
Most of the timber used by shed members is donated by the local community who no longer have a need for it and has good stocks of small amounts of all sorts of timber sizes and types.
Members make all kinds of interesting items ranging from small jewellery boxes to garden seats and picnic table sets. People have made a range of serving and cutting boards and other wood ware which were sold at the markets pre-covid but are still available from the shed at any time.
The Shed is currently being renovated to make our space more efficient. A new larger and more comfortable area is being created specifically for sitting and having a cup of tea and a good chat. Which can be used also for meetings. We are also clearing out a lean to and altering a wall which will allow for expanding our metal shop. We have a new dust extracting system, this will sort out the dust and waste chip from the machines as part of our health and safety programme All of these changes will benefit the members greatly
So if you are a male over 18, who can drink a cup of tea or coffee, you have passed the skills test and you will qualify for membership.
Written by Ray Charles
Chairman - Oxford Community Men’s Shed Trust
