The Shed Issue 81, Nov/Dec 2018 on sale now

In The Shed 81, Nov/Dec 2018 issue, we head to Blenheim to meet school teacher and dedicated sheddie Dave Pauling.
Dave makes extraordinary guitars in his shed from recycled native timber and shares his skills with us so readers can have a go too. He nicknames some of his electric guitars ‘Les Paulings’ - nice touch.

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In The Shed 81, Nov/Dec 2018 issue, we head to Blenheim to meet school teacher and dedicated sheddie Dave Pauling.
Dave makes extraordinary guitars from recycled native timber and shares his skills with us so readers can have a go too. He nicknames some of his electric guitars ‘Les Paulings’ – nice touch.
Another gifted sheddie, Kim Dawick of Cambridge, accepted a challenge after he built a motorised trike for a friend – build eight more for your other mates! Challenge accepted. He did just that and shows us how.
A young Taranaki inventor, Mark Horwell, talks with us about his shed-created gas and oil industry invention, a Switchfloat and The North Shore Men’s Shed in Auckland make a set of children’s pine bunks for a good cause.
Enrico Miglano uses more BBC microbit technology to make a fun cardboard robot and Des Thomson and his team at the Halswell Men’s Shed make a magnetic sweeper to gather all that messy swarf in your workshop.
Shed reader Richard Brown from Timaru tells us how he built a battery train set for his family and Mark Beckett sees this as an opportune time to discuss battery safety issues and good battery charging practice with readers. Jude gets making a set of fine high fidelity transmission line speakers using a Tri Trix kit designed by Curt Campbell then Ritchie Wilson tells us the history of the shed in a cupboard, plus does a few running repairs on, The Workmate portable workbench.
Our electronics team are busy again in this issue, Enrico is back with a guide to creating a Magic Mirror and Mark Beckett makes a fun toy for the kids, an electronic cricket that makes a noise when it is hit with light from a torch.
We close the issue with a look at some creative Tasmanian mailboxes with Coen Smit before Jude signs off the issue with his shed storage issue in his new regular spot in our Back ‘O the shed column

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Steampunk toys

A steampunk toy (for want of a better term) combines two passions of mine. I love making things that are a bit different, even a bit quirky. Something that stands out from the run of the mill stuff that you buy at the shops. Secondly, I enjoy the challenge of bringing together bits and pieces to make seemingly disparate objects into a semi-plausible whole toy. Steampunk toys give me the opportunity to do both.

The Shed magazine December/January 2025 issue 118 on sale now

Full tilt with Dynamite Dave.
Dynamite Dave Alexander is a self-taught doer, with an eye for detail, unquestionable discipline, and a passion for motorsports. He’s been making things since he was a nipper, and has never stopped. He was raised on a remote Hawke’s Bay farm, where the shed was his university.
Dave says he “grew up doing it”, working alongside his father Neil, learning how to keep the property and equipment maintained and running. His first job was welding all the farm gates. His next was putting in a box-section chassis for a 1942 Willys Jeep, which served as the farm’s workhorse.
At 18, Dave commenced his first customisation of his Mk ll Zephyr, installing a V8, dual headlights, and Vauxhall tail lights. Since then, he has restored, driven, and raced an impressive list of classic muscle cars, scratch-built stocks, rods, and record-breaking Bonneville salt cars.
Now – at 70-something – this multitasking, project-a-holic is closing in on his latest quest: to break 262mph (422kph) at Bonneville in his shed-built, RB-powered Lakester – a project that has been close to a decade in development.
Dave says, “I guess I could be playing golf or in the pub. But you have to do something to get you out of bed in the morning, to keep the old man out.”

Building a potting shed

Among small buildings you can create without council building consent, a potting shed is very handy. The fact the builder agreed to put up this structure to get the gardening tools out of his shed is another story.
If you can possibly choose a flat site, do so. In this potting shed, the only site available was on a hill which meant a fair bit of work for the builder because of the extra labour and time.
Then in order to avoid the need for a building consent, measure the site up to ensure the 10 m2-or-less potting shed is no closer to the boundary or to a dwelling than its own height. In this case, the boundary is nearby but there are no dwellings close by to worry about. Here the original idea was a three-metre long building but it had to be shortened to 2.1 metres because the boundary was closer than first thought.