Burning passion for Menz Shed

Harnessing know-how in trades from across years of collective work has resulted in the most efficient kindling operation yet at the Picton Menz Shed.

The popular winter fundraiser, which repurposes heat-treated pallets into cheap kindling and recycled nails, has benefitted from new additions to the process in both labour and technology.

A kitset shed – built by Menz Shed members and funded by Pub Charity – will now be home to the pallet-to-firewood fundraiser after growing too large for the existing facilities.

“All of the Menz Shed’s find their own niche with fundraising, so we chop up pallets into kindling and sell it through our friends at the Four Square here in Picton”, says member Chris Davies.

“Non-painted, heat-treated pallets either come to us from regular donors, or we keep an eye out around nearby businesses to cut up, and everything gets recycled.”

Menz Shed members form a disassembly line, dismantling pallets, extracting nails, cutting wood to shorter lengths then splitting it into kindling. As part of their efforts and utilising their metalworking and mechanical knowhow, members built an automatic splitter to cut the lengths down into kindling lengths.

“It was all made in-house, actually going too fast for us at some points, so it’s getting some improvements”, laughs Chris, “but we can also use the buzzsaw to cut them down to length too. There’s even boutique firewood requests –a lady asks for all the end block pieces that suit her pot belly stove in return for a morning tea shout, and we’ve given a good few community tasks a good go – such as wooden name badges, and the tee markers at Picton Golf Club.”

Fellow Menz Shed member Timothy McCaffrey said the extra bags of firewood – up from 660 last year – are thanks to the collective efforts of members in building the shed and splitting the kindling.

“We’ve gone from 36 members to 52 – admittedly number 50 was a member’s dog – but we’re now actually struggling for space to have morning tea, so having the Pub Charity funding allow us to make a firewood fundraiser headquarters is fantastic.

“In all fairness, we’re pretty partial to doing any jobs in return for a morning tea shout.”

Four Square Picton owner Rachael Seddon said the good cause behind the kindling contributed to their staff having to consistently restock the kindling shelves.

“It’s a great cause, a great community group of guys, and we probably sell at least 50 a week which all goes back to their efforts - so we’re pleased to support them”.

Pick up Picton Menz Shed Kindling at Picton Four Square for $10.