The Shed

Make your own linisher

A linisher is near the top of the list of the most-used tools in the workshop, whether for deburring steel to stop cuts in the hands, or sharpening tools and drills. There are few projects where it doesn’t get used. They seem to be expensive for what they are, and can easily be made for a fraction of the purchase price. The budget using new parts for this project is around $400.

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Child’s play: How to make a cubby

My daughter in Christchurch emailed that she would like a cubby house for her three young children. They had recently moved into their new house and there was a 1.5 x 5 metre garden strip adjacent to the fence in the back yard. I had read Rod Kane’s excellent article in the August/ September 2013 issue of The Shed on building a playhouse and thought at the time what a fun project that would be, so the planets were in alignment.

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The Shed Issue 80, September/October 2018

When we met Des Thomson and his expanding motorhome pod in Issue 76 of The Shed, we were very impressed with his workshop dust extractor. Happily for us all, Des has found the time to share with us how he builds these machines using and an old vacuum and the minimum of parts. Follow his step by step build of a workshop dust extractor in this Issue 80 of The Shed.

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Restoring a roller.. or three

What car maker would give every different bolt on a vehicle a different number and make sure every nut and bolt had a 3 percent chrome content? We’re talking about the same manufacturer that would put platinum on the faces of the distributor points so they would virtually last forever and “hang the cost”.

Yep, we’re talking Rolls-Royce and while their cars always mean the highest standards, their early cars were totally in a class of their own.

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Making a Classic Work Bench: Part Two – Making the Tail Vice

Right so now that your back from your warm sunny Pacific Island holiday—taken to recover from making the benchtop and frame—it’s time to get working on the vice. What we have on our hands is a beautiful little project of reasonable complexity that demands accuracy, uses both hand and machine-skills and is incredibly satisfying both when making it and using it. 

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Make a Classic Work Bench: Part One

Why a cabinetmaker’s bench? Since the founding of the Centre for Fine Woodworking, we have built benches especially to meet our needs. The bench is fundamental in its role within any workshop and we feel the higher the quality the bench is, the more care will be taken in its use. 

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The Shed is now on Instagram

Search theshedmag on Instagram to get more shed goodness. If you like your sheddie stories in photos and just a few words, then follow us on Instagram. Lots of posts going up every week for you to get a real Shed feast on your smart phone.

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Video of Carmen Simmonds, glass artist

In Issue 79 of The Shed we featured Whanganui glass artist Carmen Simmonds. In this video by Tracey Grant, Carmen shows us in some detail a few of her creative practices and we showcase some of her outstanding creations with glass and occasionally brass. Carmen is currently president of the New Zealand Society of Artists in Glass.

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Have you got a shed project for us?

We are always looking for great projects to feature in The Shed magazine and website. Are you building and creating a project that would interest other sheddies? Let us know and we will send our team around to document the task and share it with other sheddies all around the world.

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Shed 78 prize-winning subscribers

We love giving stuff away and some of our subscribers win big each issue. We had these two Teng prize packs up for grabs in the May/June issue and here are the lucky winners.
Tony Schmetzer of Christchurch and Peter Mills of Auckland each win one of these $1100 Teng packages. Well done guys and if you aren’t a Shed subscriber maybe its time to change that. The odds of winning a prize are better than Lotto so there’s yet another reason!
ttps://magstore.nz/collections/the-shed-magazine-subscription-options

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Video of master birdhouse builder Steven Price

When builder Steven Price suffered a severe neck injury at work he turned the accident into an opportunity. The Whanganui sheddie no longer mounts scaffolding; instead he designs and constructs much smaller buildings. Enjoy this video and see Steven creating and discussing his work using totara and kauri to make stunningly unique birdhouse creations in his garden and shed.

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Secrets of amplification

Electronic amplifiers are widely used in almost all electronic equipment— they can either be a separate piece of equipment or an electrical circuit within another device. The ability to amplify is fundamental to modern electronics, where a small electrical signal is amplified into a larger output signal with increased power output or signal strength.

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Let the sun run your pump

I suppose all waterfalls are solar- powered – the sunshine evaporates the water which turns into clouds, becoming rain which pours down into waterfalls. So the publisher’s challenge to make a small solar- powered pump for Greg’s sculpture seemed not too difficult. 

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