Innehållsförteckning för No 089 March-April 2020 från The Shed

This issue of The Shed has its usual collection of extraordinary sheddies, showing readers how to create useful stuff or sharing how they have full lives just doing what they enjoy. It must be apparent to all that I am very much in awe of all of the featured sheddies in our magazine because I have not a modicum of the skills of the folks we feature in these pages. I am constantly impressed by the discipline and talent readers possess to get stunning results using their skills and know-how. Another factor to consider with all the projects we feature is how they keep one’s brain sharp. Working with your hands and making the grey matter work harder to figure out and solve issues is the perfect way to stay…

A warm southern welcome awaits sheddies at the 2020 Menzshed National Conference to be held in Dunedin over 17–19 April. Registration is now open, and the theme is Communities and Wellbeing Bring Sheddies Together, with the event set to feature speakers and panels on a wide range of topics including shed management and logistics, men’s health and wellbeing, shed projects and community relationships, and new and innovative technologies. Menzshed New Zealand is a registered charity that exists primarily for the mutual benefit, success, and support of and access to member sheds. The movement has gained momentum over the past 10 years, with more than 108 sheds incorporated across New Zealand and a further 30 in development. The movement is a semi-finalist in the 2020 New Zealand Community of the Year…

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.” But after getting a couple of quotes he thought he’d better get a couple of quotes from steel shed suppliers too. “Even the best of the wooden sheds wasn’t within cooee,” says the Taranaki mechanic. And it didn’t take him long to decide to go with the local KiwiSpan supplier: “I just like to get on with it and there was no messing about. I said I could give them a level patch of clay and just handed it over to them. The other guys, there was more humming and harring and I could see right away these were the guys for me.” “I just like to…

In this issue we show how to upcycle a rotary phone from the end of the ’60s, which with the help of a Raspberry Pi and a few other electronic components will become a ‘Pi rotary smartphone’. In the next issue we will look at how many projects can be created with this re-engineered device. Upcycling a rotary phone into an original and unconventional interface for a Raspberry Pi opens up countless possibilities limited only by your own creativity. Before opening the device, let’s look at the parts for interfacing: hang-up switch: detects when the caller picks up the phone receiver microphone phone receiver: used by the caller to hearthevoiceandspeak into rotary dialler: the numeric interface that can possibly be used as a numeric keyboard — the most interesting part…

Reflecting the finer points and the practicalities of boatbuilding, the NZTBS workshops and lectures truly advocate for craftsmanship. The workshops are certainly slanted towards vintage tools, techniques, and timber, but the school is not wedded to the past, and embraces new technology in healthy moderation. Throughout the year you’ll find weekend courses for a variety of skill levels, with expert teachers and small class sizes, at the NZTBS facility in Te Atatu Peninsula, around 20 minutes on the Northwestern Motorway from Auckland’s CBD. A typical two-day essential workshop skills course covers the use, set-up, and maintenance of hand tools, before moving on to a primer on epoxies, resins, and glues, then a section on gluing or fibreglassing plywood, and an invaluable section on reading plans and drawing components from scale…

Japanese tools are well thought of because of their time-tested designs and the high quality of the steels used to make them. During a recent two-week holiday in Tokyo, tool shopping was one of the things we made sure we did. The problem was locating tool shops. On a previous visit, Tokyu Hands — the large, multibranch department store catering to artists and craftspeople — was where I had purchased wood saws, spare blades, and a marking knife. This time my search for replacement saw blades was unsuccessful, as Tokyu Hands now stocks different brands. It did have a very interesting display of knife making kitsets though, and I bought a traditional 0.5m bamboo ruler which had no numerical markings. Wonderful Japan Japan is a good place to holiday: reasonably…

The cost of running a Menzshed far outweighs the income from annual membership fees. Even with minimal overhead and administrative costs, the annual fee times the number of members is clearly not enough, particularly given the capital outlay, ongoing maintenance, and the expense of components and parts that many tools require. Even indirect costs such as health and safety requirements, public liability insurances, and auditors if your organization is a trust, means that money has to be found from somewhere. In trying to address this issue, the Halswell Menzshed decided to raise funds via a fundraiser, or to put that another way, instead of seeking funds for a particular requirement or cost, they would use them to build something that, in itself, would help to raise further funds. And when…

Dr Shen Hin Lim is well on the way to developing the first effective asparagus harvesting machine. He can’t claim to have held a lifelong fascination with the tasty vegetable spears but when you turn up at the University of Waikato’s robotics engineering team looking for a project to get stuck into, what could be better than a problem that has defeated engineers for generations. It comes as something of a surprise to learn that even in today’s mechanised high-wage societies that the current crop of asparagus spear collectors just don’t work. Almost all asparagus is harvested around the world by people with sharp blades bending down to cut them off. That’s back-breaking, unpopular work and the labour costs in New Zealand are considerable. It’s a problem growers here and…

I get so many people asking me what is the best way to weld stainless steel. There are many different versions of the best way. Hopefully this article will give you Sheddies a few helpful hints on welding stainless. For the sake of simplicity, I will stick to the common 300-series stainless steels. One of the things I like about welding stainless is that the welding machinery is generally the same amperage and has the same material thickness capability as mild steel. Within reason, you could say they were cousins. However, there are a few differences with some of the physical and chemical properties of stainless steel compared with mild steel and this can affect your welding variables. And, no, I am not going to give you a chemistry lesson.…

If you’re a sheddie like me you will be torn between the desire to build, and the space to put your creations. One solution, of course, is to make things as gifts for family, friends, or work colleagues. A perfect gift, which is often sold as an executive toy, but is equally suitable for anyone you know who has even a slight scientific bent, is a Newton’s cradle. As most of you will no doubt be aware, and can easily see from the accompanying photographs, Newton’s cradle is a series of spheres suspended from a frame which at rest just touch each other. If one of the end spheres is pulled back and released to collide with the next sphere, the kinetic energy released should transfer to each sphere in…

Let’s face it, e-bikes are everywhere and they are here to stay. If the thought of extra complications and potential breakdowns are putting you off buying one then you’re not alone. Would you like an e-bike that you can build and maintain yourself? Something that goes better than most, is easy to service and diagnose, with readily available parts and plenty of support, is becoming a priority for a lot of people looking for an e-bike that won’t end up as landfill in a few years’ time. “A priority for a lot of people looking for an e-bike is that it won’t end up as landfill in a few years’ time” There are quite a few different types of drive systems available these days and most of them go well…

“Bushman’s curse” is John Hickey’s blessing. The Whanganui sheddie makes furniture out of the dreaded supplejack vine that makes parts of the New Zealand bush impenetrable to all but the most determined. John is not only determined; he also actively enjoys his forays into the quiet bush around Kai Iwi where robins and fantails keep him company. He manages to do all of this with one artificial leg, the result of a motor accident in 1996 when he momentarily fell asleep at the wheel. He had been working for 15 years in salvage and demolition, then changed to courier driving, which he thought would be a safer occupation. “Demolition was such a dangerous job so I thought courier driving would be cushy in comparison. But I was always tired; the…

I’ve been reading your great magazine for over 10 years, and I hate to be ‘that guy’ but I was a little concerned about one of the articles in this month’s issue [The Shed Issue No. 88]. In the music box, a mains-powered light was added, operated by a relay from the controller. There is clearly exposed mains wiring inside the unit, and this really should be contained in a safe case. I would suggest that a cardboard box tied shut with a piece of string is not a suitable container for mains wiring. Although you would like to think most people wouldn’t open the box and poke around, the fact they could easily do so is potentially dangerous. Kevin Steele Thank you for your comment Kevin, you are absolutely…

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The cradle demonstrates the concept of the conservation of energy and how energy can be transformed from one form into another. By raising one of the end balls you generate energy of position (potential energy). As soon as the ball is released the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy as gravity draws the ball down. As it strikes the second ball in the row, some energy is converted into sound energy and the remainder is transferred to the other balls in the row until it reaches the last one. This ball, on absorbing the transferred energy, has no option but to swing away from its neighbour, thereby converting the remaining energy back into kinetic energy and rising up and away until it converts its kinetic energy back into potential…

Visit any city waterfront and you’d be forgiven for assuming that boatbuilding is the high-priced preserve of the playboy. A visit to an anonymous warehouse in the backwater Auckland suburb of Te Atatu Peninsula tells a different story. Restoration projects and practical workshops intermingle here with anecdotes and the Pythagorean theorem, and there’s always an undertow of big stories that swell from small details. At the New Zealand Traditional Boat Building School (NZTBS) you get very much a sense of a living history adapting to modernity with all the ingenuity of the skill’s forefathers. One tutor recalls his Dickensian days as an apprentice shipbuilder in the navy: “We filled the decks with ‘oakum’ — old rope that we’d tease out by hand just like prisoners in Her Majesty’s prisons in…

Often handicraft is an encounter with history. One such example was a recent NZTBS course in steam bending timber, a skill found historically in architecture, craft, and furniture making, and a feature in hull construction throughout the world. This workshop was conducted as part of the rehab of a 35-foot whaling boat owned by the Te Waitere Club in the Kawhia Harbour. This craft was actually a lighter copy of a true whaler, designed back in the day for racing and still used for that by the club. A jaunty but serious kauri vessel, the blue boat is both nimble and robust. The attendees worked on the de-ribbing process, dismantling the interior seals, then cutting out old nails. Every second rib was cut out, at the same time cleaning up…

Keep your batteries at room temperature That means between 20–25°C. The worst thing that can happen to a lithium-ion battery is to have a full charge and be subjected to elevated temperatures. So don’t leave or charge any lithium-ion battery in your bike if it’s hot out or in direct heat. Heat is by far the largest factor when it comes to reducing lithium-ion battery life. Performance and range will also decrease in cold temperatures. Avoid charging your battery in sub-zero temperatures. Fortunately New Zealand’s climate in general is favourable for keeping a battery in a healthy state. The bigger the battery the better. The more watt hours the better. Batteries deteriorate over time, whether they’re being used or not. The bigger capacity or amperage battery you can afford or…

One of the perennial arguments in biology is why living things turn out the way they do. Is it a matter of inheritance or environment? In humans, for instance, which is more important — nature or nurture? Bob Hayes is firmly of the belief that his skill from a very young age in technical matters is a legacy handed down from his parents and grandparents. His maternal grandfather was the famous railway engineer Robert West Holmes (1856–1936), who was responsible for the 1889 design of the celebrated Raurimu Spiral on the North Island’s Main Trunk railway line between the National Park and Raurimu. Bob not only inherited his first and middle name from this illustrious ancestor, but also, he thinks, his engineering talent. Stranger than fiction Bob left school in…