Tabla de contenidos para No 106 January - February 2023 en The Shed

I’m sure it’s no surprise to readers that I just adore this time of year. The opportunity to spend solid time with family and friends is something to be cherished, as is lots of time to do what you most enjoy doing when you have a good block of time available. If you are a business owner, you too will enjoy this time of year when the office is closed, the phone and the emails stop, and all is sweet — hopefully. We thought that in this summer edition of the magazine, we would make sure sheddies would use their time constructively, so we have created a bunch of projects for you to have a crack at. We reckon none of these “Six Summer Projects” is too challenging, so we…

I had been thinking about this one as a potential article for The Shed in its own right, after seeing the size of them in an arts store — all very nice, but where do you keep them as they can take up quite a lot of space. So, the main criterion for this was to be able to use it and then fold it away with minimal storage requirements. The sheddie who built this elected to have one side fold inside the other, which kept the profile down to 30mm — the thickness of the timber he had prepared. An advantage of this approach is that, rather than use hinges, with all the work that goes with trying to get them right and true, he simply had to use…

“These projects were built by sheddies who didn’t necessarily have the requisite skills” One point that came out of this project was that this is the realm of second-hand timber, with the bunk and desk demonstrating this very well. It isn’t just about the price — second-hand timber is usually dry and has long since stopped shifting. It can hide a stunning grain and colour, as can be seen by the top of the coffee table and the layers in the lamp. I built a coffee table a while back, after being given six lengths of white pine from the garage of a recently deceased family member. They cleaned up well, and it is now in my lounge. Strips of Kwila at the joins give it a contrast, while the…

To help you make your painting projects easier, we’ve asked the Resene experts to share some of their top tips: Use a paint pot Yes, we know it’s tempting to just paint direct out of the paint container, but did you know that every time you dip your brush back into your paint you are also bringing contamination and bacteria from the surface you’re painting back into the paint. The best idea is to tip the paint you plan to use into a smaller Resene paint pot and paint from there. This will keep the paint in the original can in mint condition, so if you do find you have some leftover and want to save it up for other paint jobs later, it will last in good condition much…

We all think that ‘standard’ means an agreed norm. Yeah, right. Not in the world of Kiwi trailers. Not one but two sizes of trailer tow-balls are standard in New Zealand. They are the imperial measure 17/8-inch diameter and the metric measure 50mm diameter. That’s because, over 34 years of discussion and use, the market has been unable to agree on a single standard. In 1971, the then Ministry of Transport decided at a conference to adopt the world metric standard size for a tow-ball — 50mm in diameter. This was never mandatory, although government departments such as the New Zealand Railways, Post Office, and Ministry of Works used it with new couplings. Over the years, the ordinary user continued, or drifted back to, putting the 17/8-inch tow-ball on the…

Welcome to Part Three in our series about using 3D design software and the Alibre Atom 3D software in particular. In the previous articles we have created a 17mm A/F ½-inch drive deep socket and then changed it slightly to create a socket that’s the same, but with double hex instead of single. This time we are going to make a 2D conventional drawing of the socket. This is very easy. By accessing the file of the part you have created, most of the work is already done. Hard copy drawings are still useful when you need to convey what you want to have made, particularly when CNC machinery will not be used. The details of a part you have created can be sent by email as a 2D drawing…

The man’s arms move up and down, hammering out a tune on his piano. He is accompanied by a woman, sawing away at a fiddle, while a man in green with a fedora hat sits strumming a banjo. These wooden figures are brought to life by the turn of a handle. The whole band would fit in a shoebox. It is a delightful thing, a mesmerising, sort of alive, thing. “It’s not so much the band that appeals to me,” says creator Ian Roberts. “It’s the mechanical part of the thing — getting it all to go, with hands and levers and things.” Like plenty of sheddies, Ian enjoyed the lockdowns more than most. Upstairs, wife Carol would stamp on the bathroom floor when the jug had boiled for morning…

In the mid 1970s, Paul Crowther played drums for iconic Kiwi band Split Enz. He also worked on the band’s gear and, amazingly, constructed its synthesiser. One of the various things fellow band member Noel Crombie did was play guitar, and he asked Crowther to make an effects module to distort its sound. Crombie wasn’t overly pleased with the result, saying it sounded “too professional”, which Crowther took as a compliment. When Crowther left Split Enz, he started making the Crowther Audio Hot Cake Overdrive Pedal for guitars in his Auckland garage. More than 40 years later, he is still making hundreds of Hot Cakes each year. He gets the circuit boards made, and his wife assembles the components on the board. Crowther installs the potentiometers in the metal box,…

Six Summer Sheddie Projects” is about combining the fun of the summer sun and the annual winddown with family and friends with the spirit of DIY that drove many of us to a self-sufficiency based around our garage workshops and sheds, and more recently extended into MenzSheds. Our Kiwi No. 8 wire mentality gave us pioneers such as Sir William Hamilton of HamiltonJet, Peter Witehira of Power Beat with his never-go-flat battery, and, in my own case, a great-grandmother who could make a chair, and then carve it with exquisite precision and beauty, with just a rudimentary range of tools — none of them powered. Over to you Now it’s your turn. We’ve come up with six projects of varying levels of skill, and invite you to have a go…

This project was a similar size to the workstation, the difference being that the employee who used that was able to walk away from it at the end of the day. With the bunk desk, however, the user was required to sleep at their station — no sneaking off for a life somewhere. The project started with two 70 x 50mm rails for the bed base, fixed together with 950mm-long 100 x 20mm slats on top, each 20 mm apart. The rails were 2100mm long. Making this first established the parameters of the bed — everything else would follow. Two end pieces of the 70 x 50mm rails were used at the ends, cut between the rails, making them 850mm long. Keeping square is vital It’s important to keep a…

The knives were out in their hundreds at the Auckland Blade Show 2022 in late September, and, judging by the quality of artistry and handiwork on display, New Zealand’s knife-making community is in the ascendance. If lockdowns had deprived knifemakers of a place to show off, then the show highlighted how a burgeoning body of bladesmiths used enforced isolation positively; to hone, grind, and shape some superb steel. It was not just the seasoned veterans who were turning up the heat. Some 70 per cent of the makers at the 2022 show had never exhibited before, yet already these rookies looked confident, well-researched, and versed in the tricks of the trade; some were also getting pretty inventive. “The show had doubled previous attendance records, in one day” An event for…

LETTER OF THE MONTH MICHAEL HOURIGAN NOT MIKE HOGAN Hello Greg, Thanks for such a brilliant article [For the love of it, The Shed issue 105]. How Jason put together such a detailed and enjoyable story with such a short visit — amazing! Re the name, Mike Hogan, in the article: it should be Michael Hourigan. I have worked on some of Michael’s exotic car restorations since the mid ’80s. The detail and finish of the cars is unbelievable! The hours of work involved in putting these cars from completely stripped down to the finished product — truly amazing. I wonder if you could somehow apologise to him [for this error]. Thanks for sending me the copy of your great magazine. Kind regards,Steve Roberts IS THERE BALANCE IN CHILDREN’S LIVES?…

The new trailer built from The Shed plan and instructions passed its first Warrant of Fitness test with flying colours. A WOF examination includes lights, safety chain, coupling, springs, tyres, wheels, wheel bearings, trailer frame, and a check that the number plate is correct according to registration. Problems with the lights cause the greatest percentage of warrant failures in trailers, according to Marcus Kavermann, Kingsland station manager of Vehicle Testing New Zealand Ltd. “We are looking for consistency in the correct operation of the lights, which must be in position, [and] not broken, insecure, cracked, or damaged, for example, or with holes in them. There must be a reflector in the light. New lights from reputable trailer components suppliers have no trouble. Some people use reflector tape, which will have…

“My project is a two-seat computer designed Vans RV-14A mostly aluminium aircraft, powered by a 210hp Lycoming engine” I still get a kick out of seeing the expressions on people’s faces when I tell them I’m building a plane in my shed. What, a real plane? is a common response, or, are you a pilot? (Yes, I am, but more about that later.) I think many people’s first thought when they hear the term homebuilt or, more correctly, amateur-built aircraft is that it’s made of balsa wood, spit, and number 8 wire. However, my project is a two-seat computer designed Vans RV-14A mostly aluminium aircraft, powered by a 210hp Lycoming engine. It comes as a kit made by Vans Aircraft in the USA, and it has all the necessary parts…

We now have the structural guts of the house built — exterior log walls, roof, windows, doors — it’s weatherproof, and we have moved in, just. As we were coming up to the middle of winter, I think our second boy, Maximilian, didn’t want to appear until the fireplace was operational. Two weeks late — we didn’t plan it this way but he arrived bang on Natalia’s 40th birthday! Good for me; only the one birthday to remember. The end is nigh So we’re onto the finishing bits, which include electrical, plumbing, cladding, bathrooms, and kitchen, plus all the fiddly bits to try to make it look good. For that first winter, we all moved from the partially finished master bedroom and en suite into the — not really finished…

A figure in rich Turkish dress sits behind a large box. He raises a stiff arm, removes a smoking pipe from his left hand, and moves a chess piece across the board in front of him. His opponent, seated opposite, hears the whirr of wheels turning within the Turk like an eerie life force. Any false move made by the opponent and the figure shakes his head solemnly and assumes the next turn at the game. Every 10 to 12 moves, the Turk is wound up again, like a clock, to continue the match in front of amazed onlookers. This match was noted in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal in 1835, but the famous ‘Mechanical Turk’, as it was known, had been wowing audiences since 1770. Widely toured around Europe for nearly…

This was built by a sheddie who had retired from the world of IT, and who had the analytical tools to sit down and write himself a brief. The tablet holder needed to be able to rotate as well as be raised up and down, so he started with these questions and observations: Why would one want a tablet holder that needed to be able to rotate as well as be raised up and down? The specified dimensions were large compared to the size of an iPad, particularly if the stand was to be used on one’s lap. Was this necessary? The stand had to be able to be turned. It must be made to hold an iPad horizontally and in a raised position. It would need supporting legs and…

This project was the most complex project, and isn’t necessarily for the faint-hearted. It took two guys four months to complete, partly because it changed over that time. It was originally going to be wall mounted with a fold-up desk. However, the weight of the MDF meant that actually mounting it on a wall was going to be a challenge, and coming up with a fixing method that was both sturdy and easy to change should the need to do so arise, proved to be ambitious. The first month or so of this one was spent going through this exercise, resulting in the decision that it would stand on the floor and be fixed to the wall with brackets, while the desktop would be fixed. Nevertheless, the overall goal of…

What’s happening online at the-shed.nz? Every week we upload new content onto The Shed website to add to the hundreds of articles and videos already on the site for readers to discover, learn from, and enjoy. Some uploads of the past few months include: A three-part series on installing and using a milling machine in your workshop https://the-shed.nz/time-for-a-milling-machine/ A video of a restored 1910 power hammer in action https://the-shed.nz/video-of-a-restored-1910-atlas-power-hammer/ Buying advice for anyone wanting to get their own air compressor https://the-shed.nz/which-air-compressor/ A guide to repairing a stripped thread on a mower or an engine block https://the-shed.nz/how-to-repair-a-thread/…

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The upside of making tractor models from old sewing machines is that the machines can be found for around $25 a unit — more if they are a vintage brand other than Singer. The downside is they can be cumbersome and heavy to lift and turn when remodelling. Murray says he works on one section a day. He begins by taking the machine apart. All shafts, columns, and/or blocks are cut off. He then reverses the base plate to form the tractor floor and bolts it back in place. He cautions, “I’ve had to use an impact driver on every single screw I have taken from a base plate” — luckily, the driver he bought in the mid 1960s still does the job. Murray’s ethos is: build to last. He…

So far, I’ve bought the basic airframe, the empennage or tail, wings, and fuselage. The investment so far is just over NZ$55,000, including shipping, tools, and import taxes. To get it flying I need a finish kit (canopy, engine mount, undercarriage, etc), engine, propeller, and instruments. Realistically that might be another NZ$150,000, although it will be higher if the NZ dollar doesn’t recover. I might not have intended to spend this much early on but I do have a year of building at least before any further investment is needed (phew). It is slightly scary to think that I might have to spend $200,000 to get it flying (it’s even possible it will be more), but it will be worth what I have invested in it on completion. I’m committed…

Off-gridders are acutely energy aware. They have to be; they realise very quickly that what they don’t demand, doesn’t have to be generated. It is no coincidence, then, that hand-tools are much discussed, coveted, refurbished, and, indeed, loved. One tool that ticks all those boxes hereabouts is the spinning wheel. My partner will often sit treadling one of our workhorse Ashfords (pictured above), as we have our cuppa and discussions at each end of the day; she says it’s therapeutic. I just love the way spinning wheels do exactly what they have to do, perfectly, as is so often the way with tools designed when energy was scarce. One way or another, we’ve been spinning yarns for years — and every now and then, she believes one! The earliest spinning…

You’ve laboured long in the shed or had a supernova of inspiration, and have come up with a widget that is going to make your fortune. It is innovative, transformational and, best of all, highly desirable. Now comes the difficult part. You are naturally reluctant to reveal any details to anyone, being understandably fearful that your invention will, as so often happens, be stolen. What to do? If the widget is granted a patent by the government, no one else can make and sell it without your permission and without paying an agreed payment per item, called a royalty. If you wish to gain intellectual protection (IP) in the form of a patent, you will probably have to consult — and pay — a patent attorney. If you want an…

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