To maintain your Blue Dot Woodworking Accreditation you will need to, you will need to undertake a Verification of Competency (VOC) Assessment as follows. Woodworking members aged under 75 years will be assessed every 24 months Woodworking members aged 75 to 84 years will be assessed every 18 months Woodworking members older than 85 years  will be assessed every 12 months You will be assigned a simple task which shouldn’t take more than about 30 minutes. This is not a test of your craftsmanship; it is simply a demonstration that you can competently use the machinery unsupervised without endangering yourself or others.  You can book your VOC Assessment by clicking on your preferred VOC Assessment date below. The Rostered Supervisor for the day will oversee your assessment and he will either deem you "competent" or refer you to a Trainer for further assessment or training. If you choose not to do the VOC Assessment,  you will no longer be able to use the Machine Room equipment unsupervised.

This is the day two practical session of the Introduction to CNC Routing event. No need to register or take a ticket to this session. Just turn up.

Join everyone in our summer garden for fresh baked scones, jam and cream with friendly companionship. All existing members as well as any prospective members are welcome. 

Flight Simulator Slots are filling fast, only 11 spots left for Wednesday's talk and demonstration so get in quick. Good Luck! This month we are very pleased to advise that one of our own Sheddies will be providing the monthly talk. Nick Bagshaw will provide us with the latest information regarding our very own 737 Flight Simulator and after the talk, there will be an oportunity for Sheddies to participate in a viewing of the simulator and possibly even a guest flight. So far approximately 40 Sheddies have already had a flight in the Sim, so this particular demonstration is aimed at those who have not yet had an opportunity to experience the Sim. Since there is limited space in the Flight Sim room we really want to give the interested new people some exposure to the Simulator. Below is some Flight Simulator information which Nick provided to the Flight Simulator Group late in 2024 for your information. _________________________________________________________________________________________ It’s just over 2 years since the Shed was donated the Sim by Derek Froud. Since that time a huge amount of work has been done by key Shed members and external experts to get it up and running, with several challenging periods on the way. By May this year we did manage a reasonable form of routine operation, and since then a significant number of Sheddies have experienced a flight, or more, on it. For some it was a thrill, for others a challenge! But practice makes perfect, so keep on trying! The autopilot operation has been mastered, but use of the Flight Management Computer (FMC) to fully automate from takeoff to landing still presents some challenges in programming. This week Mike Glasson and I have been doing some essential maintenance: the captain’s yoke requires attention and we found a broken cam in the Throttle Quadrant unit, which explains why we occasionally had problems in releasing the brakes to take off! Mike applied his usual inventiveness to make a replacement, and all is well! Much work has just been put into applying to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for a grant to enable us to upgrade the software licence to properly cover multiple users, replace computer 2 (on its last legs and running Windows 7) and getting a new set of pedals (rudder and brakes) for the First Officer. Stephen Keenihan spent much effort in wrestling with the complicated application form – well done! And we obtained letters of support from VIPs both within and outside the Shed. We should know the outcome by May next year, with the grant applying from 1 July. In the meantime the Sim continues to operate with minimal impact on the Shed’s finances. We are now back on track after a torrid 5 days of problems with the Flight Sim. Last Thursday when Mike and David were running it the main power supply fuse tripped (for no obvious reason) and, after restarting, the main computer would not turn off so had to pull plug. Some serious damage. Since then Mike and I (with a lot of help from Les) have spent the last days working on the problem, not helped by trying to download replacement software and running out of internet download capacity! However, we were this morning able to replace the main hard drive with the clone we made last October (always back up!!) and the system is working again. Some tidying up to do this week but we should be ok for the Wellness session! On the plan for the session I suggest that I make some introductory remarks (with slides) to set the scene, then Adem Samulski adds a few pertinent comments (so 15-20 minutes thus far) before we go down to the Sim. Mike is setting up another monitor on the wall to the left of the Sim, which will enable people to see action on screen. I'll start off as pilot and Adem as F/O, for a take off and circuit, then we'll invite members to sit in the F/O seat and try a take off. Not everyone will be able to do this on the night, but the message is: book a session with one of our four "trained captains" at a later date. And we can run another Wellness session in a few months time. The above edited information has been provided by Nick Bagshaw as part of the discussion regarding this session. Flight Simulator Group _____________________________________________________________________________________________ We also hope to have one of our Sheddies (Adam Samulski) along who is a retired 747 pilot who will also be able to discuss the 737 simulator from his perspective Don't forget to stay a while after the talk to share in some .Shed fellowship with drinks and nibbles available and to participate in the 2025 inititive for a Door Prize for some lucky participant which will be drawn at approximately 5:45pm

All Members who intend to be part of the Woodworking Group will need to complete this Power Tools Induction Training. There is a once off Cost of $10 for this Training Course, which can be paid when you purchase a ticket. Note: Members are required to complete the 'Yellow Dot' Shed Introduction session before taking part in a Red Dot training session. There will be a maximum of 3 persons for each Training Session.  If after booking, for some reason you cannot attend the training, please advise the Red Dot coordinator, Jeremy Wallace, on 0406927650 (SMS please), or email (jeremywallace5@outlook.com) as soon as possible, so we can arrange another session for you.  If you have trouble booking please contact Jeremy by SMS. The successful completion of the Red Dot Training is a pre-requisite to booking the Blue Dot Woodwork Machinery Course. Once you have completed this Training, your Membership Badge will updated to show a Red Dot and enable you to undertake any projects in the Main Workshop that utilise only Power Tools. 

All members are welcome to join our Art Group and explore their own artistic talents, try a new medium, have a go or just watch and learn a little as other members experiment and create. No previous experience is necessary.

For our first monthly luncheon of 2025, our Cooking Group leadership of Werner Ribul and Michael Henderson will guide the Kitchen team in the preparation of a Jamaican Jerk Chicken dish with fragrant rice, peas and a fresh side salad. Anyone who likes tasty food will enjoy this traditional Jamaican staple. Dessert will be a sumptious 'Summer Pudding'  brought together for you by our dessert specialist chef Michael Henderson. Yum! Cost for food will be $20 with beer and wine at standard prices.   As usual, we need pre-payment with your registration.  You will be able to get a credit towards a future event if you cancel at least 24 hours before the event. Should you need to cancel, please send an email to wernerribul@mac.com. No-shows on the day will forfeit their ticket fee. Both of us hope you will be able to join us. Best regards, Werner and Michael

To maintain your Blue Dot Woodworking Accreditation you will need to, you will need to undertake a Verification of Competency (VOC) Assessment as follows. Woodworking members aged under 75 years will be assessed every 24 months Woodworking members aged 75 to 84 years will be assessed every 18 months Woodworking members older than 85 years  will be assessed every 12 months You will be assigned a simple task which shouldn’t take more than about 30 minutes. This is not a test of your craftsmanship; it is simply a demonstration that you can competently use the machinery unsupervised without endangering yourself or others.  You can book your VOC Assessment by clicking on your preferred VOC Assessment date below. The Rostered Supervisor for the day will oversee your assessment and he will either deem you "competent" or refer you to a Trainer for further assessment or training. If you choose not to do the VOC Assessment,  you will no longer be able to use the Machine Room equipment unsupervised.

To maintain your Blue Dot Woodworking Accreditation you will need to, you will need to undertake a Verification of Competency (VOC) Assessment as follows. Woodworking members aged under 75 years will be assessed every 24 months Woodworking members aged 75 to 84 years will be assessed every 18 months Woodworking members older than 85 years  will be assessed every 12 months You will be assigned a simple task which shouldn’t take more than about 30 minutes. This is not a test of your craftsmanship; it is simply a demonstration that you can competently use the machinery unsupervised without endangering yourself or others.  You can book your VOC Assessment by clicking on your preferred VOC Assessment date below. The Rostered Supervisor for the day will oversee your assessment and he will either deem you "competent" or refer you to a Trainer for further assessment or training. If you choose not to do the VOC Assessment,  you will no longer be able to use the Machine Room equipment unsupervised.

Want to learn how to design cnc projects and cut them on the cnc router? John Hassell will be running a two part introductory course for those interested in CNC routing. This course will give you some insight into the potential of cnc routing in woodworking projects. The course will be run over two consecutive Saturday morning sessions staring at 9:00 am in the Shed Meeting Room. The first Saturday session on February 8th  will be an introduction to VCarve Pro, the CAD software used to design cnc projects. The second Saturday session on February 15th will be practical session on the cnc  router. In the first session we will work through a simple design in VCarve Pro step by step, and in the second session we will look at how to set up and machine a project on the cnc machine. To participate in this course you will need:- 1. Reasonable computer literacy. 2. A Windows laptop computer and mouse. Sorry, VCarve Pro will not run on an Apple computer. 3. A functioning copy of VCarve Pro Trial Edition installed on your laptop. This can be downloaded at:- https://www.vectric.com/products/vcarve/ Download as a guest. 4. When you install the software it will ask you what cnc machine you are using. The Shed has a Pro V6 AR6 manufactured by Axiom. The course is free, but you will need to take a ticket as we limit numbers to the first 10 persons. See you there. John Hassell CNC Router and Laser Group  

Join everyone in our summer garden for fresh baked scones, jam and cream with friendly companionship. All existing members as well as any prospective members are welcome. 

All members are welcome to join our Art Group and explore their own artistic talents, try a new medium, have a go or just watch and learn a little as other members experiment and create. No previous experience is necessary.