In The Shed issue 78, May/June 2018 we meet two Sheddies who are restoring, preserving and upgrading valve radios. We head to Whanganui to meet Graham and Val Hawtree who are avid vintage radio buffs. They have hundreds of vintage radios in their collection which is getting close to warranting a museum to house them in. Then we visit Alistair Ramsay of Retro Radios in Dannevirke who restores valve radios and also brings some into the 21st century with Bluetooth and USB upgrades.
We head to Pukekohe to report on the 39th Annual Classic Motorcycle festival and discover The Colonial Trading Company in Featherston which is a real man cave of a shop for Sheddies everywhere. We review the book by Bruce Shalders, Railway Houses of New Zealand then head to Taranaki to cover the ground up restoration of a Plymouth Superbird muscle car, known as a Roadrunner. Jude shows us how to weld from scratch a sturdy bench to support his lathe (part one) before we head to London where expat Kiwi, Dean Johnstone, builds some replica $150,000 Infinity hi-fi speakers in his shed. Paul Downie makes world-class Harpsichords in his Auckland workshop and he shows us how he does that unique and delicate building these wonderful instruments that are sought after far and wide. Hugh McCulloch sees the replacement of an old fridge as a Sheddies opportunity to renovate their kitchen and we have the final part of Mark Beckett’s soldering tips and tricks. We head back to Taranaki, to Eltham, to explore the collection of incredible bits and pieces gathered over the years by Mike Coil – he has even collected a piece of tarmac from NZ’s first tarmac street!
Enrico Miglino gives some solid 3D printing advice re choosing your projects correctly, before Coen Smit shows us how he made a stunning steampunk Viking rowboat and Bob Browning also shows us how to build a simple honing guide gauge from MDF. We finish off this issue with a visit to the shed of Otago artist Sean Boyd, who creates extraordinary works of art from discarded everyday items.
Ramping it Up: Make a pair of ramps for home car maintenance
22 February 2018
This story comes about because of a mishap with my trusty car ramps which I had for more than 20 years. They were a clever pressed-steel design, a product of Spedding Ltd, one of the country’s original importers and wholesalers who took on manufacturing as a response to the import restrictions and import licensing laws of the time.
