Photo: Supplied.
FROM DON SMITH, WYNNUM MANLY & DISTRICTS MEN’S SHED
The Men’s Shed is fortunate to attract many retirees with mechanical and technological skills who are enthused with the desire to give back to the community. They find their tribe in Men’s Sheds and Repair Cafés, where they grant the wishes of despairing people who have lost hope that their precious or sentimental items could ever be resurrected, because of broken or obsolete parts. God, just send me a hero!
Fortunately, Peter Douglas and his type have the desire, courage and skills to master the modern, miracle machines that can virtually take ideas and manifest them into reality. The 3D printer is a modern marvel that can ‘print’ anything from spanners to engine parts, and even body bits!
Finally, the weight is lifted, when people are informed that the broken articles that they’ve kept for years and couldn’t throw away will be restored with the breath of life.
The CNC Router is the machine that carved out all the life-size Santas that adorned CBD rooftops during the Christmas period. Again, it starts with an idea, which is encoded into a computer that can then can ‘spit’ out a Santa every four minutes. Or, you can make a Santa sleigh flat-pack, which will slot together to convert into 3D form.
The CNC Laser Cutter is the saviour of people requiring multiple copies of decorated objects made out of wood or resin. Whether it’s a couple of hundred or a couple of thousand, just tell the machine. It might groan, but it doesn’t whinge.
Last but not least, is the CNC Plasma Cutter that cuts through steel like a hot knife through butter. It cuts with such precision that you could cut a jigsaw puzzle out of a plate of steel.
And so, after Peter has heroically rescued another person from the quagmire of their despair, performing miracles on the amazing machines, another relieved person casts their eyes skyward and sighs, “thank God and thankyou Saint Peter, you are my hero”.