The Shed

Bring in the tanks

After the earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan, and after any emergency or natural disaster, an immediate call comes for supplies of water. Vital water is often the most instantly affected central supply when pipes and supply channels crash and the search for this life-sustaining substance water is on immediately.

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Build these honeyed Macrocarpa bar stools

I use dowelling for ease of construction, measuring and cutting as I go, and joining them to the stool with PVA glue. Place the dowels off-centre on the end of the rails, to avoid hitting the dowels coming into the legs at right angles.
The front and rear sections of the stool are put together separately then joined.

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Merry Christmas from The Shed

The Shed team is taking a few weeks’ holiday from the work computer and heading to the beach shed for some kickback time.
So. Merry Christmas and have a wonderful summer holiday to all our readers, followers, and fans. Enjoy this special extra time in your workshops and we will be back posting projects again mid to late January.
Have fun, be good and be careful out there.

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Dovetail cabinet challenges skills

This article is intended to offer
insight into the major steps involved in building a relatively simple dovetailed cabinet, rather than a step-by-step do-this, do-that.
Hopefully this will leave room for
interpretation and development of
better or different solutions

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The Shed January/February 2022 Issue 100 on sale now

It’s celebration time.
The Shed reaches its 100th issue this month so we have a special edition of the magazine for you as well as our 2022 The Shed Calendar included with this December/January 2022 issue. We have a few trips down memory lane, and our usual mix of advice, projects, and amazing sheddies. There’s even a follow-up to one of our most popular articles ever.

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Know the drill

There are so many varieties of building and engineering materials available these days it is likely that you will need a variety of drill bits in your workshop.
There are always a number of holes required to complete your projects at work, or more importantly those underway in the shed. We are going to cover some of the common products that are readily available from most DIY hardware stores and industrial suppliers, and also some items that you may have to ask for, or even
visit a specialist cutting tool supplier like Trade Tools to find.

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Video of Enrico on the road

This is a short video of the campervan hi-tech modifications series written by Enrico Miglino as featured in the magazine. This film covers the articles in Issues 98-100

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The Shed November/December Issue 99 on sale now across Australia

Like so many of us in a COVID lockdown, Gail Varga couldn’t just sit idly by and watch a screen all day — she headed to the shed and got building.
Usually sailing around the world on her 40-foot-yacht, Gail has been kept in her home port of Whangarei for many months by the pandemic. This was seen as an opportunity to ditch the inflatable and get building a more versatile wooden tender that could be used for fun as well as purpose. We follow the build of a two-part nesting dinghy, ‘Punga’. It’s a Spindrift 10, 3.1m long and plenty big enough for two to four people.

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Build your own robot arm

This article is all about building your own Meccano version of a robot that can be programmed to work just like the big fellas – and you can learn just how challenging real-world robots are to control. The robot arm can be programmed to move small objects from one place to another. It can reach, grab, lift and swivel.

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The 100th issue of The Shed is coming soon

The next issue of The Shed is a milestone magazine, our 100th and we are building a bumper issue, our biggest magazine for many a year.
There will be plenty of special anniversary content along with our usual projects and advice.
One of the articles we are particularly looking forward to publishing is a visit to the home shed of Mitre 10 DIY guru, Stan Scott. Stan shows us around his home shed and shares with us what he creates in his leisure time.

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Making a classic chair

The Red Blue chair, designed in 1917 by Gerrit Rietveld, has become one of the most discussed chairs of all time.
It’s not too difficult to make this as a classic chair as it’s all straight boards, but the dimensions and placement are critical.

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A DIY farm gate

The classic New Zealand five-bar farm gate is not too difficult to make on-site when you need a new one. Few people might consider building farm gates, but they can be costly and heritage gates are quite expensive so it might be worth it to build your own.

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The Shed November/December Issue 99 on sale now

Like so many of us in a COVID lockdown, Gail Varga couldn’t just sit idly by and watch a screen all day — she headed to the shed and got building.
Usually sailing around the world on her 40-foot-yacht, Gail has been kept in her home port of Whangarei for many months by the pandemic. This was seen as an opportunity to ditch the inflatable and get building a more versatile wooden tender that could be used for fun as well as purpose. We follow the build of a two-part nesting dinghy, ‘Punga’. It’s a Spindrift 10, 3.1m long and plenty big enough for two to four people.

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Fast panel fixing

Panel fixing has just been made a whole lot easier with the Button-fix system, distributed by Hi-Q Components. Designed and manufactured in the UK, the simple but extremely robust system offers five main types of button-fix connectors.

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A road case to go

The photography department here at The Shed required a means to contain and move all our
studio lights as simply as possible.
The collection of lights and accessories is growing and it made sense to keep them all in a road case for transport and organisation. This I thought would also be a good opportunity to build a case
and might be a basis for those who need to make other custom cases for sound gear, tools, or guns.

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