Latest news and features
Upcycling a vintage Brionvega desk lamp
Here’s a video of this project by Enrico Miglino from Issue 88 of The Shed.
Currently, every issue has an upcycling project on classic and vintage technology.
Plug or cap it with Stockcap
When you are pulling apart engines, machinery, and hydraulics, and you need protection to plug off or cap fluid lines, ports and threads, throw away the rags and the tape and contact Hi-Q components.
Shine like a diamond
It’s been a long-time Kiwi favourite for a very good reason — Autosol Metal Polish is the ideal way to clean, polish, and protect all types of metal surfaces.
Festool still setting the pace
Many of the standard features of today’s portable circular saws originate from Festool’s TS55.
The latest generation of TS55s are innovating again…
Drumming up a top kiln
Nothing vertical beats the excitement of opening a kiln and seeing the effect of naked flame on your creations. Gas kilns produce glaze finishes that are often unexpectedly beautiful but commercial gas kilns are usually expensive and bulky.
Selleys new No Mould silicone
Here’s a video from Selleys about their new No Mould silicone that seals and stops mould growth.
Make a swarf sump
It’s a hassle to clean out my workshop vacuum cleaner bag. Metal swarf tends to clip itself onto the fabric and I spend a lot of time picking off the bits individually.
Question: How to pick up small swarf in the workshop without sharp metal or other rubbish going into the vacuum cleaner bag?
Steel just too hard to beat
Harley Coombe didn’t want a steel shed. “I’m a wooden shed man,” he says. “It’s easier to modify and hang stuff on the walls.”
The Shed March/April 2020, Issue 89, in shops now
Issue 89 of The Shed has a great mix of projects and sheddie talents to enjoy.
Nigel Young records the build of a mega-sized spit roast BBQ. Built by the team at the Halswell Menzshed as a fundraising project, this big trailer-mounted gas-burning beast of a cooker can take a full-sized pig for those big gatherings or fund-raising projects.
Flying high
A video of Harry aboard his flying fox went viral and the story was viewed more than 164,000 times on the New Zealand Herald’s Facebook page, prompting hundreds of comments full of admiration for the “real Kiwi man”. Reporters trudged to his door and the phone rang red hot with people wanting his opinions on everything from sanity to the secret to happiness.
Distilling at home
One step up from home brewing your own beer is distilling your own spirits, whether whisky, vodka or a liqueur.
It’s okay to do this by law in New Zealand at home and for personal use although there are restrictions in Australia and many other countries
Its hammer time
Making a hammer head is a project not really worth doing financially, given the cost of a handle alone vs. a new hammer and how easy it is to get an existing hammer and re-forge it to suit your special needs.
Having said that, mere project economics never stopped a true Sheddie.
Shed Issue 88 now on sale Australia-wide
Great news for all our Australian Shed readers, the Jan/Feb Issue 88 is now on sale nationwide.
Click on this link to see what’s in this issue https://the-shed.nz/home/2019/11/27/the-shed-januaryfebruary-2020-issue-88-in-shops-now
A sheddie poem at Christmas
Down the garden and over the lawn
Pop wonders off each day
Unlocks his shed and opens the door…
A message to Australian subscribers of The Shed
Your next issue of the magazine is not getting posted to you till January 8.
Our apologies for this late mailing but Christmas seems to have slowed down deliveries to our mailing house in Sydney.
We can assure though that the wait will be worth it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the team at The Shed
A set of easily made drawers
This easily made set of drawers may be just the answer in your home workshop and it can be made in a day. I have seen many versions of this set over the years and, because of its simplicity, it is easy to make the size and number of drawers to suit your particular requirements.
Video – Upcycling a milliampere meter
Enjoy this short video of our first upcycling project in The Shed. From Issue 87, upcycling a milliampere meter.
Introducing Selleys Hold Up
Here’s a new product from Selleys that simply sticks almost anything without screws or clamps. Instantly hols even on vertical surfaces. Great product for those looking for an alternative to drilling and plugging walls etc.
Get on yer (electric) bike!
The thought of having an electric bike is very tempting and makes the idea of reaching that café far more appealing but the cost of replacing your bike has you thinking twice about making the jump.
Besides being a bit dusty you have a good bike that cost a few dollars in its day and it seems a shame to banish it to the corner of the shed forever. What if you could turn your bike into an electric bike without breaking the bank?
Size matters, but so do good looks
Philip Solomon has years of experience putting up large sheds and his top tip is that shed aesthetics are important.“A lot of people just focus on what they want to put in the shed until it goes up and then they say, ‘Oh, I don’t like that’,” he says.
The Shed January/February 2020, Issue 88, in shops now
For many of us Kiwis, summertime can mean it’s time to dig out the family tractor. Because summer means beach-holiday time and using that good-old-boy tractor to get the fishing boat in the water as often as possible. To celebrate our love of old tractors, we head south to meet a tractor restorer from Oamaru, one Colin Harvey, who has shedfuls of tractors and spends all his time tinkering with and restoring some great classic farming workhorses.
High time for high shine
The world-famous Autosol Metal Polish is available in an easy-to-use liquid formulation. It’s perfect for cleaning and protecting all metal surfaces on cars, boats, bikes, and around the home.
Different Tusks for different tasks
Tusk offers three ranges of drills made from different grades of high-speed steel. Tusks metal drill bits are made from M2 high-speed steel with a titanium nitride (TiN) coating. The 135-degree point offers faster drilling, lower feed pressure and they have a split point or self-centering tip.
Autosol Metal Polish
If you haven’t heard of Autosol, you have to try it. This incomparable metal polish has won three international gold medals and is recommended by manufacturers and restoration experts around the world. Autosol Metal Polish safely and easily removes oxidation, corrosion, stains and rust
Make your own Kontiki for fishing
There are several New Zealand-designed and created fishing kontikis on the market but when I thought about having one, I wasn’t going to buy it.
I had the ability, so I did what any good Kiwi would do, I decided I would make one myself.
Refurbishing my bench plane
The metal-based hand plane must be one of the most enduring and useful tools in the kit of any aspiring woodworker.
Those of us who take the hobby a little more seriously will have several of them and we will probably argue that we use them all. I have six or seven but have never bought one.
Build a tipping trailer
When I first looked at building a tipping trailer, I wondered whether I would be building a trailer with a hydraulic cylinder under it, or fitting a hydraulic cylinder under a trailer. After due consideration, I realised that a trailer is a trailer, regardless of the frills.
Climate control
As a project, a weather station is a great one for beginners and advanced woodworkers alike. It can be as simple as taking a really attractive piece of timber, sanding and finishing it to a high degree (even leaving the edges natural) and attaching one or more brass instruments to the surface.
Homemade bench holdfast
A bench needs clamps, a second pair of hands to hold the work still and stable.
Traditionally, woodworkers have used a holdfast and the most popular of these was the Record holdfast, now sadly out of production.
Photos from the Very Vintage Day out show – 2019
This event is a fun occasion for all lovers of the vintage lifestyle and 1000s enjoyed a great day of vintage paraphernalia, entertainment, and vendors at the ASB Showgrounds in Auckland October 19.
Photos from the 2019 Auckland Blade Show
This years’ show was held at the same venue as last year in the historic Parnell Comunity Centre at 545 Parnell Road on the weekend of 12 and 13 October.
Here are over 50 photos of the amazing Kiwi knifemakers’ products on display at the show. Keep an eye out for a full show report in the next issue of the magazine on sale in December.
Weaving willows
Of the scores of varieties of willow commonly used in basket weaving, six grow on a 1000-square metre plot at the back of Mike Lilian and Annemarie Liesbeth’s house in the coastal settlement of Kakanui, 15 minutes drive south of Oamaru.
Mike has been making and selling willow baskets in dozens of styles since 1985.
When everything goes right
David Thompson is a builder. When he wanted a new shed big enough to fit a car hoist you’d imagine that he would knock one up himself. Not so.
The balisong or folding knife
The balisong, also erroneously called the butterfly knife, has been around since approximately 1200 BC where it played a part in the Filipino martial art form, Escrima.
Although some commercially available ones have been around for many years, they never really caught on until the 1970s.
I know one knife-maker in NZ who makes balisongs exclusively. The reason for the balisong’s popularity: four pins, two handles, one blade. No springs, screws, rivets.
The Shed, November/December 2019 issue no 87, in shops now
The November/December 2019 Issue 87 of The Shed, has a real electronics feel about it but there is also a lot here to keep all sheddies informed, entertained and well-skilled up.
Our cover story is about the goal of a Christchurch boat builder, architect, designer, sailor, Quentin Roake, to find a way to build waka in large numbers. He wants to recreate the appearance and characteristics of traditional craft in a modern version that is portable, durable, and economical to manufacture. Quentin has made it his mission to put Maori waka back on the water by marrying traditional knowledge with today’s technology
Wa-ter rocket!
A pretty simple water rocket launcher using a few high-pressure PVC plumbing pipes, air and a soft-drink bottle with water in it will provide plenty of DIY fun and show some basic physics.
I built one for my eight-year-old’s Cub Scout group and have had lots of requests from fathers asking how to make one.
On a scroll
Once, while browsing through an old wrought-iron design catalogue, Kim (the son of blacksmiths Ian Nielsen & Son) came across a peacock design and decided it would make a great after-hours project. It turned into a much bigger job than he anticipated with the finished 3 metre by 2 metre gate taking around a ton of steel and about three months to make.
Christchurch Woodturners Association
On Saturday, 24 August 2019, the Christchurch Woodturners Association (CWA) finally saw its long-term dream come to fruition with the opening of its very own clubrooms on the Auburn Ave Reserve in Upper Riccarton.
