Innehållsförteckning för No 95 March - April 2021 från The Shed

The effect adults have on young children should never be underestimated. We have a couple of articles in this issue that reinforce that belief. One is a story of a father and son sharing time in the shed and working on projects together. The other is a tale of a dad who was a prolific inventor and builder in the ’50s, approaching projects with initiative as well as making stuff for his children to enjoy. One youngster is getting his memories made for him as we speak; the other, as an adult, honours his clever, fearless, sheddie dad. It is incredible just what goes into young minds. Even if they are not keen on getting on the tools themselves, it is always surprising what they pick up just watching you…

This project involves using your lathe to check the balance of a mower blade after you sharpen it. Some of you may not be convinced about sharpening the blade to begin with. However, it makes mowing easier and saves fuel, which might just save the planet — even if it escapes my comprehension just how extra carbon tax will change our climate. At the very least, using less fuel will save you money. It is important to restore blade balance. Excessive vibration will shorten the mower engine’s life and accelerate the wear on other components. My design is for wall mounting. Unsealed bearings are used to minimise friction so the balance is as sensitive as possible. The diameter of the spigot at the front can be sized to suit your…

Being a hybrid and of medium size, my milling machine has a manual drive for the X, Y, and Z axis. Like many sheddies with similar machines or mill drills, I have been frustrated by having to wind the longitudinal X-axis hand wheel a zillion times to set up work on either end of the table. Opportunity knocks When the Covid Level 4 lockdown arrived I was stuck at home, like everyone else. Looking for something to occupy myself, I decided to revisit my idea for a rapid traverse for the X axis. Some time earlier I had bought a 24VDC windscreen wiper motor, planning to fit it to the end of the table, opposite the hand wheel — until I realised I would need a clutch plus some sort…

It doesn’t pay to crow too loudly. No sooner had I sent off the previous article — smugly claiming great progress in resilience — when the micro-hydro went silent. Oh, it was there all right, just not turning around — which seemed to limit the juice coming up the line, which seemed to limit what went into the batteries. Then the Ohau fire sent some warning signals, especially to those of us who live in forests. Also, we’ve been gaining increasing amounts of real estate from our upstream neighbour. Now don’t get me wrong, we quite like soil; but, suspended in water, soil is mud. And mud fills tanks, clogs pipes, and abrades Pelton wheels. Project No. 1 The Pelton wheel hadn’t been taken apart for a decade. Not only…

Summer is one of the hardest times of the year to brew a good beer. While the weather is great for holidays and camping, the summer heat often adds that cider-type ‘home brew taste’ to our beers. This is largely because the ale yeasts that we brew with are best brewed at between 18°C and 22°C. Unless you are brewing in a temperature-controlled environment, it is hard in summer to keep the brew cold enough to stay within this range. A breakthrough yeast However, a new yeast strain has hit the market and its ideal brewing temperature is in the range of 30°C to 40°C. To brew that warm and have a clean, refreshing beer was the sort of thing we brewers could only have dreamt about in the past.…

Damascus steel is a product about which there is as much myth as fact. It’s nearly impossible to know where it originated; however, it is unlikely to have been the capital of Syria. Its origins are buried in archaeological time, along with the equally mysterious wootz steel. The original Damascus was steel forged with wootz or high-carbon crucible steel imported from centres in southern India in the Middle Ages and forged in the Middle East. The blades that resulted were characterised by a pattern in the steel that in some resembled water — in Arabic, damas is the root word for ‘watered’ — and in others ladders and other patterns. Traditionally, weapons made from this metal were rumoured to be phenomenally sharp, able to cut into armour, and difficult to…

In this, the second part of the DIY magic mirror peephole, we see the most difficult part of the project: the software set-up and the mirror testing. In part one — Issue 94 of The Shed — we mentioned the Magic Mirror 2 framework. This is the main application that should run on the Raspberry Pi. To better understand the strategy I have used to make the software, it would be very helpful for you to study the sketch on page 74 of Issue 94. The scheme of the Magic Mirror software architecture shows how the components of the framework are installed on the system and how they take control. Taking control When the Raspberry Pi is powered, the boot section loads the Raspbian Linux operating system, then, as the…

Every sheddie owes it to him or herself to build one of these stools, which are called ‘knockabout stools’. It’s the bit of furniture that has a multitude of uses around the house and shed, is easy to build, and uses up those odd bits of timber left over from grander projects. It doubles as a step to get to those things that always appear to be just out of reach, it acts as an extra little table to support the coffee cup you don’t want to spill over your laptop, it holds that extra book you want to keep handy, and so forth. In short, it’s a knockabout stool/step/table. Because of the varied uses to which you will eventually put it, the stool needs to be sturdy and stable…

This sprawling diamond in the rough of a museum captures the imagination and holds more treasure than Ali Baba’s cave Anyone driving up through the gates of the East Coast Museum of Technology (ECMoT) could be forgiven for thinking that they had entered a movie lot. Turn of the century railway buildings and crumbling rolling stock look like props for a classic western showdown. The main brick building — the former Kia Ora Dairy Factory — with vintage cargo lorries pulled up at the loading dock, could be the setting for a Mafia heist or perhaps some story of clandestine revolutionaries. The historic sledge house homestead and neighbouring enclave of buildings are reminiscent of a colonial street in a rural town with no name. Eclectic yes, and at times haphazard,…

Reading the story in The Shed, Issue 91, about the development of the jetboat by Bill Hamilton, and the letter in Issue 93 titled “What about Uncle Alf”, about the Bill Hamilton jetboat and the design and development of a pump propulsion unit in a boat, brought back memories of my father, Tom Frater. Tom, who was from Napier, was keen on boats. In those years, Ford 10s and flathead Chryslers were the engines of choice for propeller-driven boats. Tom got his first boat when he was about 20 and used it where Hawke’s Bay Airport is today — pre-earthquake, when that area was underwater. He served his apprenticeship as a motor engineer and later as a diesel engineer, working for the Ministry of Works in Coote Road, Napier. Home-made…

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. 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 English wheel, and more. Learn how to form door seams and…

Is there a frustrated inventor in you? Got a great idea but no idea how to get it to market? Well, the Fieldays Innovations programme and awards wants to hear from you — and that goes double if your idea can be applied to the primary and agriculture sectors. Fieldays Innovations bills itself as a launch pad, connecting innovators with industry professionals, investors, and corporate decision makers. Anyone with a great idea — individuals and companies, big or small — can get the support, insight, plans, and commercial backing they need to take their idea to the next level, and the one after that. New and established Fieldays Innovations is also an annual awards event, held in conjunction with Fieldays. The award categories are arranged to suit innovations at different…

Want to make your own outdoor fire, bedside cabinet, or Damascus steel knife? How about an outdoor slow cooker barbeque or a ukulele? Maybe you want to learn how to make your bicycle electric? These are just a few of the projects we have included in this new edition, Best of The Shed 2. All have clear instructions that demonstrate the build process and include diagrams and parts lists. SUBSCRIBE TO THE Shed WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE REAL DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE FROM $ 29 TO SUBSCRIBE WWW.MAGSTORE.NZ OR 0800 727 574 Offer ends Sunday, 18 April 2021 1) New Zealand delivery addresses only 2) Prize sent to subscription recipient unless specified otherwise 3) Offer available on print subscriptions purchased through Parkside Media only 4) Offer is not available in conjunction…

This third and final part of the Magic Radio project is slightly different from the vintage upcycling projects we have explored in the pages of The Shed until now. In fact, it is a brand-new application, as I mentioned in the second part of the project in Issue 93. After the first experiments to find the best set-up to connect the upcycled radio to a Raspberry Pi, I moved on to the software side of the project. As a reminder, the set-up scheme in the first illustration shows, all in a row, the hardware components chosen to complete the project. I am seeing the Magic Radio as a single project, for better understanding, but the Raspberry Pi application can also be done as an independent one. I aimed to make…

This is an account of my personal experience with one 3D printer over one year. My observations are specific to my machine, but they generally apply to other 3D printers. I’ve used the printer a lot during the year. It is marvellous to be able to have an idea, draw it up, and print it within a few hours — two or three iterations and a useful end result. Some items are very small, such as a spacer to move a hinge a fraction, a new band for my watch strap, or fixing the handle on a portable radio. I have wanted a 3D printer for ages, but was deterred by the price. Back then it was $1000 to $2000 for a basic machine. I was very tempted by a…

During the first Covid lockdown in 2020, Thames resident Ted Egan finally got on with a project that had been on his mind. “If you mention something enough, as in ‘I’m gonna to do this’ or ‘I’m gonna do that’,” says Ted, “others will follow up on it; I got told to get on with it” — especially by friend, Kirsty, with whom Ted has the odd beer at the local bowling club. Covid lockdown provided the time to do it, as Ted has a great workshop in the large garage underneath his house. Not that he is any dilettante when it comes to making models; Ted has produced a great many models, some of which are housed in the Thames Museum. Ted says his favourite would have to be…

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