The drill press is one of those tools that we all take for granted. Its design hasn’t changed in a hundred years: a chuck on a spindle that is spun by a sequence of belts and pulleys. Now a New Zealand company, Teknatool, has thrown that out with the launch of a revolutionary new concept that has implications for machine-tool technology across the board.
Anyone flying into New Plymouth airport may look twice at a hangar on the western end of the airfield with an unusual tail of a large aircraft poking out. Few would realise what’s within: ZK-PBY, a 1944 Catalina flying boat, the only airworthy one in New Zealand and a remarkable aircraft with a remarkable history.
New Zealand has been slow to adopt the electric bike revolution that is sweeping the globe but a couple of keen Kiwis (and a Canadian) are using their ingenuity to create e-bikes with a difference.
Hydroponics is all about growing without soil. In many ways this simplifies the lot of the gardener, but it gives them added responsibility for providing plants with the right level of nutrients. As water with nutrients tastes, feels and looks much the same as plain water, a testing instrument called an “EC meter” or “CF meter” is used.
How often do we need to bend sheet metal, but are put off because of the drama involved? We may turn to a couple of bits of angle iron fitted into the jaws of a bench vice and try to exert even pressure as we fold the metal. I’ve done this and felt less than satisfied with the results.
Chris decided the solution was build an outdoor bathroom featuring two baths so he and Meg could both enjoy a long soak together.
There are two sure things in modern life (and no, not death and taxes): they are technology and cables. Lots and lots of cables. Some are used for interconnecting devices such as HID or human interface devices, a computer mouse, keyboards and the like. In many cases, wireless technology is thankfully removing the umbilical tether.
When a friend at Metpresco Engineering offered Jason Clarke an old, universal tool and cutter grinder for his garage workshop, Jason had to think about how he could power it.
If there’s one sort of person that cannot resist a challenge that’s a Kiwi backyard inventor. When a mate sent Dave Hunger an internet photo of a giant wheeled contraption and a challenge to reproduce it, Dave rose to the task.
Don’t try this at home. In the town of Niagara Falls, you are heading along a street. You suddenly overfly a car, then a bicycle travelling along a path near the water. In an instant you are over the lip of Niagara Falls. In a scary moment you find yourself looming over the precipice and then zooming away across the face of the thundering water.
“You must have too much time on your hands.” That’s what people often say when they see my model cars. I’m never really sure what to reply, because it’s something I do instead of watching television or building the real thing. But the question I get asked the most is how long it took to build.
How hard could it be for a couple of seasoned and more-or-less professional Kiwi do-it-yourselfers? When the kitset tin garden shed—3.45 metres long by 1.75 metres wide— arrived in a tidy package after being ordered online, it comprised pre-cut, mostly pre-drilled and numbered parts. All you needed for assembly was a drill and a screw-driver.
When we planned the renovation of our 1986 rental property one of our aims was to use products and materials that were both affordable and kind to the planet, as outlined in earlier articles in this series in The Shed magazine. We found it was possible to do both with little compromise.
Chris Vesper is an Australian tool maker who has enormous respect for his ancient craft. I met him at the Timber and Working with Wood Show in Sydney earlier this year. He makes some of the highest quality tools available anywhere in the world, working from a large shed on his parent’s property in semirural Victoria.
I regularly need to cut a multiple number of short pieces on my saw bench for small box components, kids’ building blocks, small pieces for furniture etc. In the past I have clamped in place various contraptions to ensure each piece is the same length. It is difficult to hold small pieces to cut them accurately but this jig solves the problem.
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.
Sign up here to The Shed monthly email newsletter for exclusive reader offers.
Sign up here to The Shed monthly email newsletter for exclusive reader offers. For signing up, we’ll send you a free copy of The Shed, just simply put your postal address in the form.