The Shed 121, June/July 2025

A family affliction
With the genealogy of the five generations of South Island engineers in the family, Ross Hayes thinks nothing of rebuilding Land Rovers for fun, family and farm.
Ross Hayes was 17 when he bought his first Land Rover. It was road-legal, but that was about it. It turned out that it was cosmetically covering up a huge amount of rust, so it wasn't going to make the long haul.
Ross bunches his lips. “I got a bit disheartened and decided that if I couldn't trust anybody to sell me a good one, I'd build myself one.”
He bought a 1954 short wheelbase Series 1 Land Rover in December '96, just after he turned 18. “I paid six hundred bucks to a guy out of Naseby called Owen Rawcliffe, who's since passed. I brought it back to Oamaru through the Danseys Pass and set to pulling it to bits.”
He bought workshop and parts manuals from the UK and a set of Whitworth sockets and Whitworth spanners and got stuck in.
The Mistress, as he came to call this ‘54 Series 1, spent five years, three months in the workshop – 6000 hours – while he pulled it to bits and rebuilt it.
His idea was to start with a chassis, and everything that went onto the chassis was either rebuilt or brand new. It was hard to get parts back then in the 1990s.
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A great idea made real – the Auckland Library of Tools
Why buy a new tool for just one job when you can borrow all you need from a tool library? Less waste, less storage and all fees covered by a library membership. It's a win-win.
Project:
Building a gantry crane – how to construct a workshop heavy lifter
3d printing
Bob Hulme has another project for your Alibre Atom 3d program. This time, he demonstrates how to make a camera shroud to help you see your digital camera screen on sunny days.
AJS motorbike restoration – part 4
Part 4: electricals, upholstery and fuel tank. The road to restoration never runs smooth. Peter discovers that his knowledge of electronics is severely tested, where patience and perhaps some self-improvement is required. You could call this series of articles ‘Zen and the Art of Being a Sheddie’.
Book review – Tools: A Visual History, By Dominic Chinea
Dominic Chinea lives in England and gets up early on Saturday mornings to trawl car boot sales, looking for tools which are either attractive or potentially useful. He has written a book about a selection of his tool collection, researching the history of the tools and their makers.
Building My Dream Shed – Part One: Foundations
She’s a hard road to find the perfect shed. However, The Shed magazine founder, Jude Woodside, is giving it a bloody good nudge.
Arduino basics 102: Errors
Our Arduino Wizard shares some thoughts and solutions to dealing with ‘Errors’ and provides guidance on how to display to the user that something has gone wrong… somewhere.
Off the grid – building a bike-based smoothie maker
Murray asks himself, “Why am I off the grid? Why do I fix rather than replace?” The answer is simple: he’s getting himself ready for a post-oil world.
Mini truck restoration: My retirement project (part 2)
As the project reaches its conclusion, Coen decides he needs more grunt in his mini truck, but there are supplier problems aplenty to annoy and frustrate.
The Shed Shrink: The Drop Dead Years
Our Shed Shrink suggests there is a cunning way to avoid an earlier-than-anticipated meeting with your maker: have a laugh and have one often.
Woodwork project: Unintended Consequences
Having successfully built a stylish kitchen table, Nigel reckons he should now have a crack at an entertainment unit to house their TV and stereo. The result is satisfying, but the journey was not without its issues
My shed: Bill and his Harley: 60 years and counting
Bill Jackson’s Dad was an engineer and decided his son should go to university to study law, unlike the rest of the family. However, strong engineering genes shone through, and in the ‘50s, Bill accidentally became interested in restoring American motorcycles. The result: a sheddie was born.
Back O The Shed: New tricks, old dog
Jude has built himself a new dream shed and has some big plans on what he will create in there – and it's not what you would expect.
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