Out of the shed and into the sun – part 1
After storing his bike for 50 years, Peter has begun t o restore it. He doesn’t want his bike to look flashy and new; he just wants it to run well and look the part.
In The Shed magazine December/ January 2025 issue 118, we begin a six-part series on the restoration of a 1952 AJS motorbike.
This series of videos will accompany each article from the magazine.
I’ve always been interested in music and hi-fi and always thought the best scenario for serious listening would be a dedicated sound-proof music room where you could listen at all hours of the night at any volume without disturbing anyone. A man cave for want of a better term.
I was lucky enough to buy a house with a large detached garage which the previous owner had built for his automotive engineering pursuits. At 13m x 5m, this is unusually large for where I live in London and would never get planning permission nowadays, of course.
The garage is a single-storey prefab of concrete construction with concrete corrugated roof panels, which was common in the 70s. For many years, the garage was just a storage facility and rubbish dump until I finally got around to transforming it into a music room and art studio for my wife (always good to have a guise for spending large amounts of time on a DIY project – I’m doing this all for you, my darling).
The miniature Land Rover is called a Toylander and two lucky grandsons in Australia will soon be taking delivery of a toy that most kids only dream of. Toylander is based in the UK and sells plans and kitsets for a variety of vehicles. Graham came across their website and bought a set of Land Rover plans on impulse, thinking he could knock one up for one of his grandson’s birthdays.
Rather than being a quick job, the project got under his skin and became a bug that has seen the house renovations put on hold, the new shed delayed and a couple of birthdays slip by in the year and a half it has taken to complete.
Although the Toylander plans are comprehensive and highly detailed, Graham’s version has gone far beyond the basic instructions.
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.
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.”
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.
Philip King was employed in insurance when he decided he wanted to work with his hands. So he joined furniture manufacturer and restorer C.F. Neary Ltd before starting his own business under his house in Remuera in 1991. Soon afterwards he moved to a commercial building in Marua Road, Ellerslie, Auckland, where he now owns two units and employs four staff.
This period has seen dramatic change in the antique furniture world. The appearance of very cheap new furniture from Asia has seen both substantially lower price expectations and the demise of many New Zealand manufacturers, which has been reflected in falling antique furniture values.
The aluminium runabout – better known as the tinnie – is the quintessential Kiwi bach boat. Most arrive in the backyard direct from the showroom or Trade Me, but Auckland boat designer Jim Pauling has created a new way of getting a tinnie: building it by kitset.
He has several sizes in his range. This one is the baby, the DIYNO 361, at 3.6 metres long. Thanks to improved technology and lower prices for power tools generally, it is much easier for the home handyman to pick up a welder, have a few practice runs on some scrap aluminium, or do a course at night school, and build his own kitset, 12-foot tinnie.
Pauling is a diehard fan of aluminium as a building material. Thanks to CNC (computer numerically controlled) cutters, it can be accurately cut to shape for sale as a kitset, which saves labour and vastly improves the result.
Christchurch potter Renate Galetzka draws inspiration for her colourful and quirky pots from her daughter’s stint as a circus trapeze artist and the books of Dr Seuss.
“I want to make people smile,” says Renate, whose pots are fanciful but functional, made to be used not left on the shelf. “I make pots to brighten your day every day.”
German-born Renate met her Kiwi husband, Liam, in the Abel Tasman National Park in the 1980s. “I was on an OE and I’m still on an OE,” she declares, and part of that on-going overseas experience included discovering the art of ceramics. She took hobby classes in Christchurch, followed by “work experience” with one of the grand dames of New Zealand pottery, Frederika Ernsten, looking after her gallery in return for lessons. Renate went on to run and teach pottery at the Risingholme Community Centre.
As sheddies, we are known to cobble together machines from whatever we have at hand. More often than not these items are less than ideal and a motor of some sort may run at a different speed to what we need. If we are looking to make a spindle moulder, belt sander, garden chipper, wind generator, compressor or similar item then it is likely that some sort of gearing will be necessary to give the right RPM at the business end.
Calculating the sizes of gears, sprockets or pulleys is a relatively simple exercise. Below is an easy reference to save having to work it out from basic principles each time.
Introduction to electronic music – part one – instructional video
Have you ever imagined yourself as a John Bonham or a Jimi Hendrix? The magic of electronic music means you can set up your own one-man band, create original masterpieces, or rearrange your favourite instrumental.
In this new series in The Shed magazine, Enrico Miglino shows just how easy this can be with advice on what tools and aids are needed to get you started.
This video is to accompany part one of the series published in the October/November 2024, issue 117.
The Ayrburn Classic Car Festival will take place on the scenic grounds of the Ayrburn Winery in Arrowtown, Queenstown Lakes District, on Friday 21 to Sunday 23 March 2025, coinciding with Otago Anniversary Weekend. Set to become New Zealand’s premier classic car event, this festival promises to be reminiscent of some of the most prestigious motoring events globally, thanks to its stunning location and world-class execution.
Chosen for its breathtaking views and lively atmosphere, Ayrburn Winery adds a unique dimension to the experience, offering visitors not just a car show but an immersive day out. A celebration of motoring heritage set against the spectacular backdrop of one of New Zealand’s finest estates, the festival will showcase the exceptional craftsmanship of New Zealand’s automotive industry.
Prestige and classic car owners are invited to participate in this inaugural event. If you own a special vehicle and wish to be part of this landmark festival, please contact the event team to secure your spot.
The smell of marcocarpa and scream of saws greets visitors to a family-run sawmill up a valley behind Motueka where Lloyd Knowles specialises in making one-off timber products, often with intricate profiles, for do-it-yourself builders, renovators and furniture-makers.
“We make a whole range of stuff from weatherboards to architraves, as well as replica mouldings using different profiles. We just make a pattern to fit whatever they want. Negative detail is the flash term,” says Lloyd, who runs the business with his wife, Diane. Most requests for bespoke work come from Golden Bay and Motueka.
Taranaki farmer/inventor Dave Hunger has done it again. Dave has featured in The Shed three times before with his innovative and wacky inventions—a giant trebuchet, a replica of Henry Ford’s first tractor and a giant wheel you pedal along. Kiwi ingenuity at its finest and yes, No 8 wire does sometimes feature.
This time Dave has created another pedalling device—a contraption which he calls Goliath and which has a 38-inch (965 mm) tractor tyre in front and small wheels on the back.
Sentimentality and chainsaws don’t usually go hand in hand but Dave Neame uses the machines not to massacre but to preserve pieces of wood for posterity.
The long-time logger, who is based in North Canterbury, uses his prowess with a chainsaw to mill trees into slabs that can be turned into furniture, kitchen benches, or used as building features.
“I get approached by people who’ve got trees that have sentimental value and they want more than firewood or mulch out of them. I come and mill them up and they can get made into something that becomes a family heirloom.”
The Shed magazine is eclectic, informed, and always fascinating. Aimed at those with a few tools and perhaps a few clues: this is the magazine for real sheddies.
Packed with ideas, projects, advice, and peeks into other people’s sheds providing inspiration, ideas, and techniques, or just for the sheer enjoyment of the sheddie’s endless inventiveness, The Shed is the project enthusiast’s bible.
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