The Shed 89, March — April 2020

Issue 89 of The Shed has a great mix of build projects and sheddie talents to enjoy.

Nigel Young records the build of a mega-sized spit roast BBQ. Built by the team at the Halswell Menzshed as a fund raising project, this big trailer-mounted gas-burning beast of a cooker can take a full sized pig for those big gatherings or fund-raising projects. If you are looking to build a spit roaster, this build project will tell you all you need to know.

Ray Cleaver introduces us to Eldon Peters of Taranaki who has made a set of drawers with a real difference, it is also a musical instrument - an organ. This is something you don’t see everyday so don’t miss this great sheddie project.

We have the fourth installment of our build a Kiwispan shed series and Part Five in our “How to Weld” series, this issue, a guide to welding stainless steel.
Coen Smit shows us how to make our own Newton’s Cradle and in our Upcycling Project this issue Enrico Miglino takes an old rotary dial telephone from the 1960s and gives it some hi-tech attitude.

Bryan Livingston gives us five basic golden rules for brewing your own beer and Tom Rodwell meets the amazing folks at the New Zealand Traditional Boat-building School in West Auckland who are doing their very best to keep some extraordinary boat-building skills alive and share them with a new generation.

This issue’s Microbit project is on making a general-purpose, wearable MP3 player. Then we head to Tokyo with Ritchie Wilson where we join him on his holiday and an opportune search for some sought after Japanese steel tools.

Rex Thorley is back with his e-bike advice, this time it's maintaining your e-bike. Rex’s ‘How to make any bike an electric bike’ from Issue 85 was hugely popular with readers, so we asked him back for more e-bike advice.

This Issue’s Off the grid column is about the ‘powers of inside out thinking’ before we head to Christchurch to meet engineer and vintage Austin expert, Bob Hayes, an extremely talented former mechanical engineer.

You will enjoy meeting John Hickey of Whanganui too, John turned the loss of half a leg into an opportunity for a new and creative career using supplejack vine to make distinctive furniture. His story shows you just can’t keep a good sheddie down.