Latest news and features
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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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.
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.
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.
Making a leather knife sheath
While you can make a knife sheath from any type of heavy leather, vegetable tanned leather, or russet as it is commonly known, will make the best sheath. Most leather for clothing and upholstery is chemically tanned by the chrome method whereas vegetable tanned leather is tanned with oak and various other species of tree barks that tanners have found to be suitable in producing good leathers.
Video of Graham and Val Hawtree’s vintage radio collection – part two
In this second video of this vintage and valve radio collection from Shed Issue 78, we watch Graham do some repairs to a radio that has just arrived in his workshop.
Installing a Kitchen
Kitchens are the heart of a house, the control room around which everything revolves, and a room that gets a lot of use, more so than any other. It’s also a workplace where meals are prepared and often consumed. It’s a hard traffic area that sees a lot of action. Kitchen styles are constantly changing and traditionally there has been a trade off between functionality and design within a set budget.
Video of clockmaker and engineer, David Curry
Aucklander David Curry shares with us his shed where he makes skeleton clocks, stationary engines, tools and more.
The Shed Issue 79, July/August 2018
In The Shed Issue 79, July/August 2018, we head to Wellington to document Shea Stackhouse making a small knife from Damascus steel, fondly known as a Puukka (that’s Finnish for small knife). While we are there we hang around to meet some knife fans who receive knife making advice from Shea at one of his regular knifemaking classes.
Time for A Spherical Clock
Here is a step by step guide to making a stylish 36mm small clock, inserted into a 50mm sphere and placed on a tapered stand which you can make easily with your woodturning lathe.
Enjoy making these clocks to sell or just for the pleasure of pursuing a hobby. For this clock, the author used pohutukawa for its density of colour and rich finish.
Video of Graham & Val Hawtree’s vintage radio collection – part one
Wander through and enjoy this huge collection of vintage and classic radios and meet the passionate owners of this amazing collection, Graham and Val Hawtree.
Extra unpublished photos of a Plymouth Superbird Muscle car restoration
It took motor engineer Michael Wolfe over 1100 hours to fully restore this rare Plymouth Super Bird muscle car for its Taranaki owner. We featured the rebuild in The Shed Issue 78 and these shots are all the photos we couldn’t squeeze into the printed article. Enjoy.
Arduino 101: Part 4
In the last issue we presented a project to create a temperature regulator. In this issue we will show you how to include an LCD that displays the highest and lowest temperatures, along with the current temperature. In the sketch I have also included a section that scrolls text, as a demonstration.
Cufflinks for an Occasion
For this pair of links, I used a textured surface I took from a slab of natural cork that I once attacked with an engineer’s wire brush. I have used this over the years on hundreds of pieces of jewellery from rings to earrings and bracelets.
Arduino 101 Part 3
In this article, we show how an arduino microprocessor is complex enough to exercise variable control, not just the expected computer approach which is that something is working, or it is not. Digital devices have only two states: on or off. An analogue device on the other hand can have a near infinite range of states.
The Shed is now the sponsor of The Auckland Blade Show
This knife show in Auckland on October 6 and 7 is not one to be missed for those who appreciate the great craft of knifemaking. They will be plenty of stands with all sorts of knives and knifemaking paraphernalia to enjoy, discuss and purchase.
Arduino 101: Part 2
So far we have begun to get acquainted with the Arduino and IDE, the “sketches” or programs that make it work, and we have got it working blinking an LED on and off. In this article we will delve a little deeper preparatory to diving right in with a fully edged project with some real- world applications in the next issue.
There is now an RSS feed on The Shed website
If you prefer The Shed’s new uploads to its website to come to you rather than you to come and keep checking what’s new, then good news.
The Shed Useless Machine competition by Mark Beckett
Enter The Shed’s build a useless machine competition and win prizes galore. Its easy.
Arduino 101: Getting Started
This is the first in a series of articles to introduce the versatile and extraordinary Arduino system to people with no prior knowledge of programming or electronics. We will take you step-by-step through how to set up, program and use the Arduino and provide a series of projects that will help you gain the knowledge you need to free your imagination and work with this revolutionary device.
The Good Wood: Macrocarpa
Macrocarpa (Cupressus macrocarpa or Monterey cypress) is a native of Southern California that like another Californian species from the same Monterey area (Pinus radiata) found New Zealand to be a more comfortable environment and thrived here. It grows faster and larger here than in its native environment, possibly due to the lack of pathogens that beset it in its home environment.
Sean Briggs, Oamaru Stone carver from Shed Issue 75, Nov/Dec 2017. Photographed by Juliet Nichols
Spend a few minutes with Sean in his mobile carving shed
Bright Spark: Making model engines and spark plugs
When I left school I took on an apprenticeship at William Cable in Wellington. Unknown to me at the time, this opportunity would lead to a life-long interest in model engineering.
It lives!
Back in early March of 2018 a Sheddie was challenged to rebuild a Johnson 25 HP outboard motor that has been stored as a box of parts for 44 years. A few weeks later…
Shed Issue 77 subscription prize winner announced
Issue 77 subscription prize winner announced, is it you?
Enjoy a train ride alongside the Oamaru harbour – photography, Derek Golding
We featured the Oamaru Steam and Rail Workshop in The Shed Issue 77, Jan/Feb 2018. Here’s a short video of one of their trains in action
Reach for the Shelves: Stylish Stepladder
Why use an aluminium stepladder when you can build one out of timber in your shed. Bob Browning gets to it and shows us how.
The Shed Issue 78, May/June 2018
In The Shed issue 78, May/June 2018 we meet two Sheddies who are restoring, preserving and upgrading valve radios. We head to Whanganui to meet Graham and Val Hawtree who are avid vintage radio buffs then to Retro Radios in Dannevirke who restore valve radios bringing most into the 21st century with Bluetooth and USB upgrades.
Upping the Ante: How to make a hall table — By Stuart Lees
If you were an avid watcher of “reality” TV shows, your opinion of what was possible with timber would be limited to basic, chunky pieces of furniture, consisting of not much more than some slabs of timber quickly joined, sanded and finished.
Golden Bay, Living Wood Fair, Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd April 2018
What is the Living Wood Fair?
The Living Wood Fair is an enjoyable, engaging, educational community event for all ages taking place in Golden Bay this April.
Getting Real: Taxidermist
As a six year-old John Ward of Taranaki saw a pheasant mounted on display in a Stratford sports shop window and he desperately wanted it or one like it. “I would have done anything to get that pheasant,” he said.
Cutting Edge: How to make a Damascus steel knife
Matt James’ early passion for knives began when his father Alan handed him a book titled Step-by-Step Knife Making: You Can Do It! by David Boye. Now Matt shows you how you can do it too, how to make a Damascus Knife.
Restoring a 1971 Johnson outboard motor
A couple of Shed readers start a rebuild project for the Shed Magazine
Shed Magazine prize-winning subscribers
Two lucky subscibers to The Shed Magazine win outdoor fires