The Shed

We love it when our readers write to us and always look forward to receiving letters to the editor. FYI, you don’t write to us enough – just saying. But I digress. In the previous issue of The Shed, Issue No. 109, we published a letter from Shed read

Mark Bedford’s stand-alone ’60s cinderblock unit sits at the far end of a long driveway skirted by large-scale factories. For this appliance engineer, musician, and general tinkerer, the industrial setting offers the right kind of seclusion. Here, he

After an absence of four years, SouthMach, the engineering exhibition, returned to Christchurch. It is the largest South Island manufacturing, engineering, and technology trade show and was held over two days at Canterbury Arena, a cavernous space th

Hi Greg, Another superb issue (No. 109) arrived in the mailbox in May. Well done to all concerned; a splendid production effort. I thought that the letter from Mr John Sanders regarding the purchase of surplus or unwanted issues by a reader was quite

This bolt-on Convert-a-Ball pintle hitch and ball mount combo is ideal for heavy-duty towing, retaining the ability to tow with a standard coupling. It includes three interchangeable, stainless-steel hitch balls with towing capacities from 3500lbs to

Converting an ordinary van to a camper-van is a project I have been talking about for some time. As a retired technical teacher, I felt that I had the necessary skills, and when a Kia Pregio van in excellent condition became available I decided to ta

If you’ve been looking for a flexible lighting system that can be easily installed in your shed, off-grid garage, boat house, or pool shed with no ongoing power bills, Senztek has the perfect solution. What’s even better is that it’s perfect for keen

AS A BONUS THIS FATHER’S DAY, SUBSCRIBE OR RESUBSCRIBE BEFORE 18 SEPTEMBER 2023 AND RECEIVE A FREE NZ CLASSIC CAR MAGAZINE CROSSWORD COLOSSUS WORTH $13. TEST DAD’S CLASSIC CAR KNOWLEDGE WITH OVER 100 CLASSIC CAR CROSSWORD PUZZLES THIS GIFT ONLY AVAIL

Crossbows have always fascinated me. As a weapon, they transformed warfare from around 650BCE through to the beginnings of gunpowder-based firearms; as a project, they have all sorts of interesting challenges. Just because they fascinate me, however,

In this, part seven of our Alibre Atom 3D series, we will look at how assemblies can be shown. There are two methods for making assemblies in this program. The first is called ‘bottom up’, whereby the separate parts that come together to make an asse

When designing the Milford 20, (see Kiwi Ingenuity, The Shed, Issue No. 107, March–April 2023), I realised that some form of auxiliary propulsion would be desirable. Many slipways in New Zealand are located within the confines of a marina, and these

The mezzanines in my shed build could present a real danger for people accessing them. The height of the mezzanine level exceeds 2m – all too regularly, fatalities occur in falls less than that within the building industry and other industries. All c

Quite by chance, I found out that the New Zealand Federation of Meccano Modellers (NZFMM) was going to hold its biennial exhibition on 22–24 April in Tinwald – just up the road, in relative terms. An added interest was that the host club, the Christc

In this issue of The Shed, I have deviated from my series of articles dedicated to electronic projects to instead showcase the recent Ghent Maker Faire and its passionate electronics makers. This annual event took place in April in the city of Ghent

Richard ran his family’s dairy farm in partnership with his brothers John and Bob from when he left school until he retired 42 years later. Given his time over, he would do it all again. He can recall the names of long-dead cows and their milking she

NEW ISSUE ON SALE NOW The Japanese motoring industry started slowly in New Zealand. The first car we were able to buy en masse off the lot was a 1963 Datsun Bluebird 1200. One classic car enthusiast came across a rare example of this model for sale o

I needed to build a new shed and it was already late fall. In my defence, I’m pretty sure most homesteaders in areas with heavy winters have a mad scramble every fall, finishing all the things that have been put off to the last minute before snow fli

Some species of cedar, redwood, locust, cypress, and so forth will easily withstand 20 years or more of contact with the soil. Other types of wood will rot out in five years, and then there are termites and carpenter ants to consider. Pentachlorophen

Recently, my wife and I were invited to a photography exhibition. Lincoln’s own, and very talented, photographer Kelly Shakespeare, with who we are acquainted, left invitations for us to attend if we “aren’t too busy”. We felt that it would be a marv

It is generally regarded as wisdom to ‘leave well enough alone’, but Martin Horspool is not having a bar of that. Here is a man who considers nothing worth having, using, or wearing until he has either found a novel use for it or transformed it utter

As with everything else Martin does, he has a system for starting a new model. “First I put together a collection of bits that I think might look good together,” he explains. “I lay them out flat on the bench and try them out, sometimes replacing bit

We’ve got room for you and space to grow. Waitaki is full of people who’ve turned their hobbies and passions into their main trade. We’re smack bang in the middle of the South Island and can offer a mixture of small town friendliness, old world charm

Sheds and their members decide the projects to undertake. However most sheds throughout New Zealand take on some community projects, examples include repairing toy library stock, building playgrounds for early learning centres, repairing old bikes fo

As I write this, I have that satisfying tiredness that accompanies a vexing job completed. The job in question was the erection of my shed portals. I’ve been waiting for over a year to get to this stage and it’s been a harrowing journey; a combinatio