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Make a Waistcoat with John

Repair Cafe News

Update: Volunteer Meeting 8th January 2022

The first Repair Cafe for Bridgend will be held on 22nd January 2022 at The Old Courthouse, 4 Station Street, Maesteg. We need volunteer FIXERS, Administrators and greeters. The Repair Cafe will be once per month on a Saturday morning, from 10:00am until 12:00pm. This is your project, ShedQuarters will only be hosting the first few sessions, after these, it will be run by the Maesteg Community. If you want to name and shape your new Repair Cafe, be part of the organisation and help the community, please come to the Volunteer Meeting on the 8th January.

In the war time spirit of “Make do and Mend”
The Welsh Government is concerned about the amount of household items that are ending up in landfill sites. To send a defective items to landfill, when it may be possible to fix them is a waste of resources. They take up space in landfill sites and to make a replacement has a monetary cost, to the individual, uses up additional resources and adds the production of gasses that harm the environment. The Welsh Government is encouraging the setting up of “Repair Cafes” across Wales. An organization called “Repair Café Wales” has been set up. Their website is:  https://repaircafewales.org/about-us/
Repair Cafes are similar to the Repair Shop that in on TV but it is run by  volunteers rather than professionals. But the aims are the same; to bring back items into use, that would be otherwise be thrown out. Bridgend County Council got in touch with BAVO (Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organizations). Who in turn got in touch with us at Maesteg Shedquarters to see if we would help in setting a Repair Café in Maesteg.
The Shed had a meeting and we agreed to help. We felt the aims of the Repair Café fitted in with the ethos of a shed. That is to make use of the skills accumulated by its members over their lifetime and to help them to gain new skills. It also fits in with another aim of the Shed: to be of use and active in the community.
 If you are not confident in making repairs, or handy with tools, there are a wide range of volunteering opportunities within a Repair Café. Yes we would need people with skills in repairing whatever objects would be brought in but there are jobs for “meeters and greeters”. There is quite a bit of paper work and record keeping to be entered onto a computer. It is called a Repair Café so there are jobs for people to make teas and coffees and to make people feel welcome.   
A date has been set to run the first “Café” on the Saturday 22/01/22 from 10:00am to 1:00pm at The Court House, 4 Station Street, Maesteg CF349AL to see how things go.
To get a flavor of a “cafe” in action, in particular to see how the administration is carried out. Two representatives of Shedquarters and a representative of BAVO visited the Repair Café held in the Scout Hall, Cowbridge, on Saturday 20/11/21. We were given a warm welcome and they were happy to answer all our questions and explained the paper work.
People soon started to arrive. In the time we were there we saw a drill being PAT tested, it was being to be donated to someone whose drill couldn’t be repaired. Two Vacuum cleaners turned up. As did an Iron, that needed its cable changing and a printer that the paper kept jamming. As it was explained to us some things cannot be repaired sometimes because of the way the object was manufactured. They were telling us about an electric bike that developed a fault with its battery. The battery was inside the frame of the bike and then the space filled with a glue like substance that set hard, so the battery could not be changed. Or there may be difficulty in obtaining spare parts.   
On the BBC program “Morning Live” that was broadcast on the 25/11/21 at 9:15am  there was an interesting piece on the Repair Café movement. The message they gave out was that if you would like to put you skills to good use, or if you would like to volunteer your time. Get in touch with the Repair Café Organization to find your nearest café. If there is not one near you, think about starting one up yourself.
 

Tanio Cymru

Shed Day

We had a visitor to the Shed today. It was Ruth Morris from Tanio Cymru. Ruth is their “Programme Manager for the Arts in Health”, project. Tanio is the organisation, that runs the “Breathing Space” groups across Bridgend County and are based in Bettws. The “Breathing Space” sessions are a free, weekly, drop in sessions. The aims of the groups are to encourage the development of confidence and communication through creativity.


At the moment they have 5 groups:


Bettws
Bridgend
Bryngarw Country Park
Porthcawl
Pontypridd


They are hoping add a group in the Maesteg area, to that list. If anyone is interested you can contact them by phone on 01656 729246 or by e-mail on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Mike Gives Us The Finger

Apart from the usual activities in the Shed today, Les showed us some videos of simple but effective painting techniques. Some of the lads are going to have a go with acrylics in the next few weeks, we already have a couple of budding artists.

We also discussed making some Cigar Box Guitars, Les is going to source the materials for our workshop, then we will be ready to go.

Mike gave us a short talk about his new acquisition and I asked him to repeat it for the video below where he demonstrates the sound using finger picking and a bottleneck for old country slide effect.

Chris Smith-Robbins has been running a Ham Radio Digital Net for over 18 months now. He is a very active and enthusiastic Amateur Radio operator living in Croeserw, North of Maesteg, his callsign is MW7CCS. Over the past couple of months, the local Ragchew Net group have been contemplating creating a digital club, they have already been on an outing (field trip) and are booked to go to Llansteffan in August.

Chris and the gang are also getting ready for a Railways on the Air (ROTA) activation, locally, outside The Old Station, Cymmer, Port Talbot SA13 3HY on the 25th and 26th September, the station is now a restaurant called The Refreshment Rooms. The new Club Callsign is MC5WRG. If you want to see how much fun Amateur Radio is, come along and have a look.

Ham Radio is a great way to combat isolation, there is always someone to talk to, especially on the digital modes, where you can talk to people all around the world, without massive antennas or expensive equipment. It couldn't be easier to get into Amateur Radio now, the exams are in three levels and can be taken on your computer at home.

Below is a video taken today 31/07/21 of Chris using the new club callsign on the 2m Band using Single Side Band mode. For more information on Amateur Radio, come to ShedQuarters Maesteg on a Thursday after 10:30am.

The Facebook page for W.D.R.G is here: Facebook W.D.R.G.

Today's Action Filled Episode

I went upstairs in the Conference Room to find John Gates (Master Fabric Engineer) being serenaded by some of the ShedHeads This was after we had successfully downloaded software for our laser engraver, to enable cutting or engraving next week. We are due to have a film crew visit us in August and they are very interested in the music, unfortunately two members of the group were away today.

John Gates is in the process of making waistcoats for the band. In the woodwork room, there were some carpenters banging nails into some wood, I'm sure it wasn't random, perhaps it would have been a good idea to ask what they were making....... next time.

In the main room downstairs, others were putting the world to right as usual. But hopefully in the near future we will get them involved and active in two of our new projects, thought up by our members, making cigar box ukes and painting using acrylic paints.

As it was, everyone was doing something, which can only be a good thing.

We could do with some musicians, if you know anyone (Male or Female) that would like to join in, improve their playing, learn to play, or just sing. We have various instrument at the Shed to have a go on, including keyboards, guitars, drums, ukuleles and even a 5 string banjo.  

A Boxing Day Mining Disaster at a Maesteg Colliery


You can just imagine the news paper headlines in 1863.


At the meeting of the Shedquarters Men’s Shed last Thursday 10th June, Mr. Roy Meredith gave a talk and power point presentation on the disaster at the “Gin Pit” Maesteg. No it was not names the Gin Pit because they produced gin. It did produce coal and also iron ore to be used in the iron works. Which was where the Tesco’s store is situated today, just below the Gin Pit. It is believed it was named the Gin Pit after the horse driven machinery that wound the coal and iron ore up the shaft. The depth of the shaft was only 345 feet deep. Maesteg town centre is built where the coal seams come very close to the surface.  The coal was worked on an incline, so the actual workings would have been lower than that.
The colliery shaft is situated in what is now Maesteg Welfare Park, in front of the hospital. The area is fenced off because whatever they used to fill the shaft has started to settle. There is now a memorial to the 14 man and boys who died on the 26th December 1863.
The coal part of the pit was worked using the “Pillar and stall” method. The stall was a narrow road way driven into the coal in a grid fashion. Leaving the pillar squares to help hold up the roof. The stalls are worked to the boundary and then worked in retreat. It is then that the coal within the pillars is removed and the roof allowed to fall in. This method of working was notorious for the difficulty of ensuring good ventilation for clearing any gas(methane) out of the workings.
During the inquest it was stated the on an inspection that took place on Christmas Eve, the “Fireman” did not find any gas. Christmas day was a holiday so no inspection took place. It was when the work started back up on Boxing Day that the incident took happened. The incident was blamed on a 21 old man and a 14 year old boy who it is thought took a naked flame into the workings and that was what caused the explosion. The verdict of the inquest was accidental deaths. Both the 21 year old and the 14 year old were among those who died in the explosion.
It was not known what compensation was paid to the families of the men and boys killed.

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