Retired joiner Paul Boatwood has a workshop in the old Fire Station in Edendale, where he and his friends hang out and chip away at builds for the community.
He is currently working on a play set to be auctioned off at Christmas to help raise money for the new Wyndham Museum.
There will be a playhouse, a Jack and Jill seat and a children’s barbecue table for first, second and third prizes, he said.
Timber for the project was donated by Gore ITM, however most of the time the group of around 10 just scrounges around for materials.
A coffin being filled and sanded in the workshop last Friday came from an unwanted set of cupboards from someone’s house.
Mr Boatwood first made coffins as a joiner in 1972, but now makes them to help people out.
"I make coffins not to make money; I make them because when people are at their worst time in their life, it’s costing them the most," he said.
From an undertaker, a very basic MDF coffin costs about $1800, but prices work their way up to $6000.
Mr Boatwood’s prices sit in the $800-$1000 range.
He tries to make them affordable, but out of solid timber and he hand-makes the lining, providing cushioning and a pillow, if asked.
The group shares a gallows humour, which, at this time in their lives, is essential.
"You have to really, don’t you?" he said. "We're in that age group, we go to more funerals than weddings."
They thought about opening up a coffin club, inspired by a visiting friend from Rotorua, where they have two.
"They had a row among themselves and split into two different groups," Mr Boatwood said.
One of the Rotorua clubs made about 80 coffins a month, he said, and most of them were for those who are still living.
He has experienced that in Southland too, where people, dying or not, wanted to see and select their own coffin before it was too late.
Mr Boatwood made it for her.
The workshop is funded by Southern Reap and Mr Boatwood also holds a "Women’s Shed" programme.
A completed shed project by an Edendale woman Sarah Cupido was lifted by Mr Boatwood and friends on to a trailer. One man remarked the heavy lifting took longer than it once did, at their age, but they still got the job done.
