Innholdsfortegnelse for No 103 July - August 2022 i The Shed

It’s been absent for a few years, for obvious reasons, but the Auckland Blade Show is back — bigger and better than ever. Get along to the Ellerslie Event Centre on 24 and 25 September to get your hands on the finest custom blades in the country. With more than 30 makers exhibiting, there will be hunting knives, kitchen knives, even swords and axes. A variety of suppliers will also be exhibiting, allowing you to buy all the materials you need to get into the craft yourself. If you use knives, like knives, or simply love quality products handmade in New Zealand, you won’t want to miss out. Come down to the Auckland Blade Show 2022 to spend time with some of NZ’s foremost knife makers and maybe grab yourself…

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When I was a boy I got to handle a reasonable range of tools at school. In year three or four we had an hour of fretwork on Friday afternoons (we provided our own coping saw and plywood and worked on our school desks). My intermediate school had a metalwork room (Mr Swartz) and a woodwork room (Mr Lamb). In my first year of high school we had a period a week of woodwork in a well-equipped woodworking shop (I made a box for holding Kodachrome slides). If you have concerns about the lack of exposure to tool use of any youngsters in your life, two recent books may help. Woodworking is Awesome! by Chris Peterson The American author Chris Peterson’s many books are on a variety of topics, but…

The distant hiss and roar of steam engines, the screech of locomotive brakes, a guard’s whistle blowing, and the clang of railway-crossing signals greet visitors arriving in George Hawkins’s shed. Above the sounds of the rail yards come intermittent sirens, squeals of children playing in a rural school, and a church choir in full voice. About the only thing missing from this room of rail is the smell of diesel and coal-fired steam trains. With around 14 metres of track, running the circumference of the inner walls of his shed, George has created a slice of NZ Railways history, circa mid 1960s, give or take a few years, a little poetic licence, and a lot of humour. Personal touches Everything on the track references George’s personal memories, historical details, or…

I have recently installed a photovoltaic array on the roof of my new house. I did this in my last home, and for the same reason: I wanted to minimise my outgoings given that I am now on a fixed income. I know all the arguments about amortisation cost, etcetera. but I had the money so I invested in PV to ensure that, no matter how much the price of power increases — and you may be sure it will, by at least 10 per cent per year — I will be relatively insulated. In my last place I luxuriated in power bills that were as often in credit, so coming here was an eye-opener. I use no more power here but I was paying in the vicinity of $180…

To help you decorate your place, we’ve asked the Resene experts to share some of their top tips: Wet weather wise A good project to get done when it’s raining or cold outside is your prep work. Strip your walls of any wallpaper or for painted walls, start cleaning them down and filling in any cracks or holes. When you come to paint, make sure you have windows open so the air can circulate, and you can use heaters to help the paint cure. Wallpapering is also an ideal winter project that you can get done regardless of the weather outside. Resene wallpaper is also a handy option to hide less than perfect walls. If you’re in an especially cold part of the country, you can add Resene Wintergrade Additive…

In New Zealand, Mitre 10 markets a series of woodwork kits for children, aged 5–12, made from untreated pine, which are assembled into things such as butterfly houses and pencil cases. The one I bought was for a toolbox with dimensions of (H) 200mm, (W) 140mm and (L) 340mm. The nails needed are included and the only tool required is a hammer – which the instructions helpfully point out has to be purchased separately. The Mitre 10 salesperson I gave my $29.98 to told me the shop hosts practical classes for kids on some Saturday mornings, where the sound of hammering is heard throughout the store. The kit for the toolbox had pre-drilled holes for the nails. Especially with young children, I would suggest pre-drilling is an excellent idea. “The…

Hammer handle design Hammer handles may appear bland in comparison with hammer heads, but this is far from true. Indeed, handles are often critical to the effectiveness of a hammer. This effectiveness primarily relates to two design elements: shape and material. In terms of shape, length is often a critical starting point as it mediates the balance between power and control. A good example of the impact of length can be seen in the ubiquitous ‘claw hammer’, which commonly comes in three basic sizes: a small/child size, with a handle under 20cm, which provides limited leverage/power but is relatively easy to control (see image at the top of page). By contrast, a ‘normal’ claw hammer has a handle of 20–30cm and can be used effectively on a wide range of…

PLUS CHECK OUT MAGSTORE.NZ FOR THE SHED BACK ISSUES Best of The Shed 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, a rocking horse, and a knife. $19.90 $65 How to Weld Learn how to weld with this best-selling book on the subject. Suitable for beginners through to experienced welders, this 207-page book will help you to transform ordinary steel into a blank canvas for invention. Professional Sheet Metal Fabrication The most detailed sheet-metal book available, this 304-page paperback includes clear instructions on a variety of subjects — including directions for using pneumatic hammers, an…

The four-year wait since the last Emex — the showcase for the latest in the engineering, manufacturing technology, and electronics sectors — ensured the expo at the Auckland Showgrounds had plenty of new technology on display. Emex is normally held every two years, but what would have been the 40th anniversary show in 2020 was cancelled due to Covid. A catch-up show last year had to be dismantled at the last minute, due to a sudden change in Covid rules. The three-day show, which ran from 31 May to 2 June, had free entry and featured an eye-catching array of robotics — certainly much easier to display than innovation in software, although advances in instrumentation and control systems are always a core element of the expo. This year’s show was…

Why a cabinetmaker’s bench? The bench has a fundamental role within any workshop, and we feel the higher the quality of the bench, the more care will be taken in its use. Consequently this will reflect in the work being carried out. A true and flat surface acts like a datum for your work. Combine this with flexible and effective ways of holding your work and a rock-solid support structure that positions the work surface at the correct height for your endeavours and you have a multifaceted holding system for fine woodworking. Here is the perfect foundation for careful and accurate work. The benches at the Centre for Fine Woodworking are based around the classic European/American cabinetmaker’s bench, which combines a broad, heavy wooden surface with two vices. Originally, the…

So many things have changed in the past 20 years or so that it’s easy to forget. Many will remember the telephone on the wall, the adding machine with a hand lever, the mechanical typewriter, and the vinyl disc, to mention a few oncecommon contrivances now overthrown by their electronic equivalents. One of the most profound changes has been in imaging — or what was once called ‘photography’. Not long ago, this medium still used the silver-salts chemical process, which had its origins more than 150 years earlier. These days, photography is 99 per cent digital and unbelievable in its convenience and immediate computer compatibility. Hamilton man Ken Johnson is a retired medical doctor, and an enthusiast keeping alive the skills and techniques of film-based photography and the hand printing…

www.seekandthrive.com ‘Less is more’ — no doubt, most of you would have heard that phrase. I have a sticker on my Royal Enfield motorcycle that says just that, and I am proud to say size isn’t everything! Let me explain before the rock throwing starts. My glorious Royal Enfield — purchased recently — has a smallcapacity engine of a mere 350ccs. I am sure the engine is made of lumpy custard, as it struggles in a headwind two up — yes, my wife enjoys being perched on the pillion seat. What’s happening back there? The Enfield wobbles along, with the front end having absolutely no idea what the back half of the bike is doing, as opposed to a more modern machine. The bike itself is based on a 1950s…

Upon reaching the retirement age of 65, I was looking for something to do when a friend suggested going to a Menzshed. Although I knew nothing about it, I decided to check it out as I had purchased some woodworking tools over the years. However, having spent most of my life in the jewellery industry, I had little knowledge of how to use the tools and hoped the Menzshed might have some guys who could help me. My skill set for DIY was largely this: if there was a job that needed doing around the house I would have a crack at it, but I had limited knowledge and the projects I undertook did not have a professional finish. There is only a certain amount you can learn by doing…