The Shed

There was a report in the news recently about a fire in a building in Whanganui. It was a very large fire and apparently practically devastated a fine historic building in the centre of town. I found myself feeling really quite concerned about this d

Researchers at The University of Auckland have developed a way to turn chicken feathers into a high-performing fire retardant. We love to eat chicken and as a result billions of chicken feathers end up in the incinerator or landfill and are a signifi

Blacksmith Josh Timmins plies his trade in a large shed on his family lifestyle block in Eketahuna. Behind the shed a large vegetable garden flourishes, chooks roam freely, and a cock’s crow punctuates the clang, clang of metal on metal as Josh demon

Let ter of the MONTH Interesting article about generators for the home (The Shed Issue No. 85) but there is an aspect about them that I came across in 2007–2008 that I would not have otherwise thought about. At that time I spent about 12 months in th

You’d be hard-pressed to find a more appropriate match of man and machine than Russell Cooper and his barrel racer. The surname ‘Cooper’, after all, means ‘barrel maker’, and is derived from the German for ‘cask’, which is in turn from the Latin word

Billionaire entrepreneur and serial disrupter Elon Musk stunned the car world in March this year when he announced that he was closing all Tesla shops which sold the battery-powered Tesla car in the US. When queried about this (temporary as it turned

Here is the first part on how to make a project involving communication between a BBC Micro Bit and an Arduino board. The project is divided into two parts: first, getting the Arduino to control an MP3 player, and, second, managing the other tasks wi

If you are going to build a shed you will want to do it right. The owners of this stylish American-style barn are happy to recommend the team that put this together. Shannon Jordan and Louise Simmons sold up in suburbia and bought a block of land in

The term ‘MIG’ refers to ‘metal inert gas’. MIG welding is also known as ‘gas metal arc welding’, or ‘GMAW’. The welding is done with a shielding gas which comes either from a gas bottle or from the wire itself. In the MIG welding process, there is a

New tools are almost always gratifying but one of the best ways to improve your satisfaction using almost any tool in the shed is to invest in a dust extractor. Just imagine how much better life would be walking into a clean shed or workshop and not

The days are getting longer and the temperature is rising. You look at your bike in the shed which has been gathering dust all winter and contemplate getting fit for the summer and enjoying some of the great trails that New Zealand has to offer. Your

You know how it goes: it started as the replacement of the shower door and the shower rose fitting. The door had three overlapping and sliding panels that were forever coming of their tracks and trapping my wife, Rosaleen, in the shower. The shower r

I don’t have a 3D printer. I’ve come close to buying one several times over the past five years, but other priorities for the $1K-plus required got in the way. There are several projects that I put off, saying, “When I get a 3D printer, I’ll fix that

LED lighting has been touted as the solution to energy consumption and is something that the homeowner can change. I’m not 100 per cent convinced about LEDs, but I’ve seen some poor lighting installations that would suit changing to make it more econ

In this fourth in our series on laser cutting and engraving, we explore some creative alternative uses for using lasers. Laser cutting is often used to create control panels, boxes, supports, and all those mechanical details that are faster and easie

Water at height is the best battery there is. We’ve known this for a long time, of course, and the prime sites have long been dammed. But since the Save Manapouri campaign, increasing resistance to major dam proposals has seen them permanently shelve

In New Zealand a car or truck which hasn’t had its registration paid for more than 12 months has its registration cancelled. To re-register the vehicle, ownership has to be proved and it has to pass a rigorous inspection. This is called ‘compliance’

The clavichord evolved as a usually rectangular box with a basic keyboard and strings stretching from the left side over a bridge on a soundboard at the right end, each string ending at a tuning pin. The strings for the higher notes on the keyboard a

The Shed expressed interest in an article on a clavichord which I designed and built from scratch when I think the only power tool I had was a very original 1960 Black & Decker (which, in those days, meant only a quarter-inch electric drill). Accompa

Honda’s inverter generators are famous for their reliability, fuel efficiency, and portability but they also supply ‘clean’ power for phones, laptops, and power tools. Older generators can produce power spikes or variable voltages that can damage mod

Hanging above the workshop door of a huge old wool store in Whanganui is an impressive, fierce dragon’s head made of driftwood — just a taste of what’s being created inside. Enter Jack Marsden Mayer’s shared shed and you’re struck by a mountain of dr

Featuring 18 of the best projects from the last 10 years, The Best of The Shed includes all of our most popular projects. With step-by-step instructions, the 176-page book will take you through a variety of projects, including a pizza oven, a trailer