G'Day from the Granite Belt

[ShenLun]

Hi All

I am disability pensioner who was shown the ropes with fretwork about a year ago now. My teacher decided to stop teaching due to his age and now I am self taught.
I have about a dozen pieces down thus far and plan to restart fretworking and selling it online/markets etc.

I have only used a scrollsaw machine once or twice and haven't gotten the hang of it just yet (nor the money to buy one, as the other ones were borrowed machines). So I revert back to fretworking ( i hope that is OK to say for now).

But being a disability pensioner in my early 30's I have plenty of time to learn.

Kind Regards
ShenLun

[lanemaux]

Hi there ShenLun . I am a touch older than you at 57 but also on the disabled rolls (prostate cancer stage 4) I've been at scrollsawing for a few months and if you are having half the fun I am you'll get your own machine fairly soon methinks. You might try looking for a used machine on one of the online sites. I used Kijiji to find mine. It cost me 20 Canuckbucks and ain't the cream of the crop as scollsaws go (smallish and only uses pinned blades) , but I'm still havin' a gas. You can't go wrong with this lot here on the forum either , as they are a helpful and caring lot , hearts o'gold. So welcome and happy sawing amigo.
   Mike

[spirithorse]

Welcome, ShenLun,
Jump right in and show us your projects as you continue your hobby.
God Bless! Spirithorse

[wombatie]

Hi ShenLun, welcome to the forum.  I'm Marg from Australia.

[Hawkdave]

Hi ShenLun and welcome to the forum.

I volunteer at a local Men's Shed to earn my government benefits. This is due to leaving the workforce after 42 years due to ill health. I work with and help many people in the same situation as you, and the one thing that comes to mind is, their work is just as good as the able bodied people.
I see you are an Aussie from your greeting. There is a website for Men's Sheds in Australia and you can check by using your postcode to see if there is a Shed near you. I have included one for Stanthorpe in Queensland just to show as an example.

http://mensshed.org/find-a-shed/#map_top

Remember though to use your postcode to find one near you.

The concept of the Men's Shed is to provide a place for Aussie blokes to get together and talk to each other, something us Aussies find hard to do. There is a requirement in age of 55 years and over. But there are provisions for people in your age category who are on a disabilty pension.

Now, you are asking what can a Men's Shed do for me.....
Most sheds have woodworking machinery and the members with the experience to show you how to get the best from those machines. The Shed I belong to has most machines and we can take our own projects there to work on. Just check out the link below to see what we get up to.

http://www.communitywebs.org/willosmensshed/

If you want to know more information, do not hesitate to drop me a message.

I wish you the best of luck for 2016.

Dave