Focus: Motorsickles and foot welding
FOCUS: Every now and then, we focus on a fellow shedder and see what the’ve been up to and learn a little about our mates. Contact Jeremy, Phil or Don to get your story told.
Phil’s bike project
So what brings you to the shed? Oh good morning Jeremy and thank you. I'm happy to be here and I like your interviewing style so I look forward to our discussion today.
Very funny Phil, now answer the question ..What brings you to the shed? It's keeping my head busy and keeping myself busy or otherwise I'd be sitting at home bored. And then you do meet a number of people down here that you get on with and you can have a bit of a laugh with.
How long have you been at the Shed? Probably 2 years. I ran out of projects at home and then came down here one day and just knocked on the door and David showed me around and I signed up there and then. I’ve been almost every day since.
Do you have a personal project at the moment? Yes, doing up a motorcycle. So disassembling all the parts of the motorcycle frame to get it ready for paint.
Is it for yourself? It’s for a mate. A surprise for good friend of mine that I went to school with who helped me through some troubles three years ago. As a thank you I'm fixing it up and will surprise him with it all new and running
Did anyone help you at the Shed? Yes, a gentleman called Richard who is similar to me with a background in maintenance and fitting and turning, and if I can't think of a solution to get some stubborn old nut loose, then he's the next best guy and he’s got lots of experience and he’s always there to lend a hand.
How long do you think it will take? Well its been going on at least a year now on and off, so hopefully in the next six months it gets painted, then slowly rebuild the engine and put it all back together. I'll just bring boxes down here, paint and clean and reassemble.
Any other projects coming up? This will be it for the moment as I’m heading away for a while and then when I get back home I'm sure I'll have lots of different projects I can do. You never tend to run out.
Where are you heading off to? Japan and then Phillip Island… Phillip Island motorcycle charity. With the Black Dog riders we have 50 Riders as of last night, and we all meet up in Bega in Victoria/New South Wales, then right around to the Alpine region of Victoria and then make their way to Phillip Island for the World Superbikes. We are the nominated charity for the world superbikes so we get a stand and we get some help from different people and we raise money down there and then give all the money back to people in communities helping others around suicide and depression.
Do you volunteer at the Shed? (Phil is also a committee member) I do BBQs. I do four or five a year. Usually when they're struggling for participation but that doesn't happen too often. This weekend there's two BBQs going on today and tomorrow and they've got more than enough people. But one of the barbecues is at Manly markets which is just around the corner for me so they have my number and if need be they can just say, hey come here. Just on that basis, we do get a lot of people coming in off the streets with different community projects they might just want, you know a chair or an old picture frame fixed, and I'll have a crack at those sorts of things every now and again depending on the workload.
Is there anything you like to see change or improve at the Shed? We're definitely always on the hunt for more members. We've got a really strong member base of over 270. That's increased by 10% just in the last four or five months. So the main change that we're going for now is we're putting an application into Brisbane City Council to lease some more land and then develop another big shed to help out with the growth.
Is there anything you’d like to learn at the Shed? Yes, welding. Most of the technology stuff that we've got here, I sort of self teach and it's been good to learn different things there. And that's part of the reason I do come down as it keeps the brain active trying new things. Even though I’ve been in a mechanical environment all the time, I've never been confident at just basic welding. We’ve got all the tools here and all the experience and I’ll learn my way through that.
What will you weld up first? Probably my foot to the table. I don’t know. Probably some motorcycle bits and pieces and that sort of thing. A custom harley? Haha, yeah
Ok Thanks Phil… It’s been a pleasure to talk to you today Jeremy and I can see why your following is so large. (Canned Laughter)
For more info on the Black Dog Ride