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.
The July/August 2020 issue of The Shed, No. 91, has got something in it for every sheddie.
Even though there is something of a nautical theme to this issue, our cover story is on building a very powerful, vertical, hydraulic log splitter. Bill Stevenson from Christchurch walks us through the construction of his trailer-mounted log-splitting machine that was started prior to the Covid-19 lockdown, worked on during, and completed immediately after. A great effort.
A trammel is a really useful item to have when you need to mark a curve onto sheet metal, plywood, MDF, plasterboard, or even a paved surface when painting lines for a netball court.
Sure, you can use a pencil and a piece of string but there can be a variation due to the angle that the pencil is held and differing tensions on the string. A trammel will easily produce an accurate arc.
But a pipe bender has no other use and that is too bad because it is a large expensive tool.
I wondered if the heavy 12-ton bottle jack could be used for some other purpose. Once I had inspected it, it seemed reasonable to modify the bender so that it could be used to bend flats as well as pipe.
In The Shed Issue 90 we featured this small family business working from a shed in their back garden.
Using a 100-year-old Hattersley Domestic Weaving System, the McLean’s make stunning fabrics using traditional techniques and thread.
Incidentally, this Hattersley loom became popular after WWI when they were embraced by returning soldiers who preferred to work from home rather than a crowded and often fraught mill environment.
Issue 90 of The Shed has a treat for lovers of fast off-road action. We visit the shed of Cowper Trucks who make world-beating 800hp 4×4 off-road race vehicles. Built strong, tough, and powerful from a shed outside Whanganui, this is automotive engineering at its best.
In The Shed Issue 90 we showcased this new product designed by a Kiwi company and proving to be a huge success internationally.
In this video, Grant Oxenbridge of Carbatec New Zealand gives a demonstration of the features of the new home workshop Nova.
Here’s a video made by Enrico as he updates a vintage rotary dial telephone making it an unconventional interface for a Raspberry Pi.
This phone offers countless possibilities limited only by your own creativity.
The design for this article is my everyday carry knife, a four-inch (100 mm) dropped hunter—an all-round knife whose blade is ample, large enough to skin that buck and small enough to carry all day without getting in the way.
One of the things guitar legend Eric Clapton and I have in common is tinnitus.
Eric blames the years he spent in the band Cream, playing in front of the bass speakers of fellow band member Jack Bruce, who always had his amplifier turned up to 11.
The February/March Issue 89 of the shed is on sale nationwide from today.
Click on this link to get a fully illustrated run down on what’s in this issue.
It’s just like another tool. Your chainsaw should have a basic service by a professional shop six-monthly or yearly. But you can do several things to keep your chainsaw up to scratch at home. To show how to dismantle and check a chainsaw, we are using one of the big, forest 95cc machines. A home machine would usually around 30-60cc, but the principle of maintenance is the same.
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.
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.
Many of the standard features of today’s portable circular saws originate from Festool’s TS55.
The latest generation of TS55s are innovating again…
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
