Repairing prosthetic limbs was nothing for the man who helped establish the Dubbo Woodturning Club of which he was recently granted lifetime membership.

Now he is to have a building named in his honour.

Mr Grant was a maintenance carpenter at the Dubbo Base Hospital for 25 years and being able to repair prosthetic limbs was a prerequisite of the trade back then.

“It was just a bit of common sense of how to go about fixing them (but) you wouldn’t be allowed to do that now,” he said.

Down-to-earth and humble are the words that spring to mind when you meet Mr Grant whose love affair with wood and working with his hands began when he started an apprenticeship at age 15.

He tried to talk the Woodturning Club out of naming their new shed at the rear of the Arts and Crafts Cottage in Cobra Street after him, but “they said it was passed unanimously at the meeting and they had signs already made”.

“I was really stunned I suppose,” he said.

“There are plenty of others at the club that have been there about as long as I have (but) if that’s what they want to do.”

Mr Grant was a founding member of the Dubbo Woodturning Club that formed in 1984.

He was teaching homecraft woodwork at TAFE when a group of interested craftsmen got together to form the group.

He was also an original member of the Dubbo pipe band and played at many ANZAC Day parades over the years.

But Mr Grant, 73, was concerned he might not be able to make the official opening of the shed that is to be named for him on May 22.

Two years ago he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and has been at Lourdes Hospital since the beginning of the year.

But he still encourages others to try their hand at his favourite hobby.

“I think it’s essential you have a hobby. (Woodturning) is a good clean hobby. You might cart a bit of sawdust into the house but they’ve got good vacuum cleaners today,” he said.