Biggar & District Mens Shed

Health and Safety

The Board of Trustees of Biggar & District Men's Shed is committed to a policy of enabling all work activities to be carried out safely, and with all possible measures to remove (or at least reduce) to as low as is reasonably practicable risks to the health, safety and welfare of Shed members, authorized visitors, and anyone else who may be affected by our operations. One of the ways this being undertaken is by development of an “Authorized Users Register” particularly for the use of some of the hazardous equipment within the Shed – until individuals can demonstrate their capability in safely operating the equipment they will not be permitted to make use of it.

Whilst the activities within the shed are of mainly simplistic nature which are probably undertaken by members at home the Shed management are committed to ensuring we comply with all Workplace Health and Safety Regulations and applicable codes of practice in our activities.

The members of the shed have come from a wide variety of backgrounds including the building trade, woodworking machinists, electrical engineers, electronics, banking and insurance, general commerce, management, as such there is tremendous source of capabilities.

Currently we have a range of equipment including – wood turning lathes, a pillar drill, crosscut wood saw, circular saw, power drills (mains and battery), sanders, routers, angle grinders, band saw, metalwork nibbler, table saw, soldering irons, jigs saw, etc. and currently only 10 of the members have so far been authorized to make use of them. Instruction being given as necessary by competent members will gradually increase the approved members.