The Shed Issue 79, July/August 2018

In The Shed Issue 79, July/August 2018, we head to Wellington to document Shea Stackhouse making a small knife from Damascus steel, fondly known as a Puukka (that’s Finnish for small knife). While we are there we hang around to meet some knife fans who receive knife making advice from Shea at one of his regular knifemaking classes.



In The Shed Issue 79, July/August 2018, we head to Wellington to document Shea Stackhouse making a small knife from Damascus steel, fondly known as a Puukka (that’s Finnish for small knife). While we are there we hang around to meet some knife fans who receive knife making advice from Shea at one of his regular knifemaking classes.
Whanganui is where we meet master birdhouse builder, Steven Price. Steven went from building practical houses for people to building amazing houses for birds before Enrico Miglino introduces us to an Arduino-type board, BBC micro-bit. In this issue, we build a houseplant moisture monitor.
Raf Nathan shows us how to build some simple iPhone speakers from native timber that make great gifts and we discover the world of spectacular glass artist, Carmen Simmonds. Carmen makes her own glass, creates pieces from it as well as giving tuition to those eager to learn this fine craft. Lachie Jones follows the install of a flat-pack kitchen by Gary Hatfield and gets some solid tips and advice for us sheddies and, if you enjoy the art of clockmaking, you will be blown away by the work of Aucklander, David Curry. Not only does David make skeleton clocks from scratch, he makes the tools to manufacture the parts! As well as stationary engines electronic ignition systems and more.
Landlocked Piopio is where we find Max Laver Marine making unique boats and canoes from Macrocarpa, David Blackwell discusses the essentials and beauty of a good square and Geoff Merryweather forges a set of sturdy loads skates for moving heavy pieces of machinery around your shed.
Jude Woodside completes his strong and sturdy-as lathe bench by making and fitting steel drawers and Mark Beckett warns us of the dangers of cheap USB chargers. Part 5 of our series on 3D printing sees Enrico explore the features of the 3D software, Tinkercad, that make it perfect for newbies and we go on a journey with Ritchie Wilson, to save money, get some history on and learn all there is to know about sharpening stones and sharpening tools.

 

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Build an Almost Ready to Fly Warhawk

Then there is the relatively new kid on the block: the ARF (Almost Ready to Fly) model.
These come all packaged up in a huge box, beautifully built and packed, with all the hardware. But you do need to assemble them which can take up to a week. It isn’t quite ‘instant plane’ but it does provide some building satisfaction and a sense of achievement, albeit a rather shallow one, a bit like a healthy walk down to the bakery to buy a pie or taking Viagra.
To the supplied kit, you need to add various glues, an engine and electrical components (servos, relays, wires) to operate elevator, rudder, ailerons, throttle, flaps, undercarriage etc. The engine these days could be glow plug, 4-stroke or 2-stroke, electric or petrol.
This part of the hobby is now huge and the range and quality of products is astounding. ARF aircraft kits are readily available from many hobby shops and certainly online from within New Zealand and from lands far away.

Mac N Sea

Piopio in the heart of the King Country – a landlocked area with a village population of about 400 – is the last place you’d expect to find a boat builder. Boat builder Max Laver, however, is well settled there and business is thriving.
Boat repairs, restoration, and making small craft by hand is the speciality of Max’s business, where he works with fibreglass and timber, and specialises in custom-built dinghies.
“We focus on how well we can make a dinghy, not how cheaply,” he says.
Max is a marine surveyor as well as a boat builder.
He spent two years in Lowestoft in England learning City and Guild-level wooden boat building, and finished his time doing two more years learning in New Brunswick, Canada.
In 2009, after many years boat building, Max decided to study marine surveying and the two qualifications work hand in hand.
“I didn’t excel at school as a kid, but I loved to build,” he says.

Industrial style at home

My daughter was looking for a large lamp for her husband’s birthday and struggled to find something with the modern industrial-type of look that she had in mind. She asked me if I could make something around her thinking. She particularly wanted a large tripod base with an adjustable lamp on the top.
We searched around for a suitable lamp for the top and found an adjustable lamp on a spindle base at Lighting Direct on sale for $89.95. We would have preferred a matt black finish but we felt the chrome model would work very well.