The Shed 100, January — February 2022

It’s celebration time.
The Shed reaches its 100th issue this month so we have a special edition of the magazine for you as well as our 2022 The Shed Calendar included with this December/January 2022 issue. We have a few trips down memory lane, and our usual mix of advice, projects, and sheddies. There’s even a follow up to one of our most popular articles ever.
We begin our look back over 100 issues of the magazine with the founder of the magazine, Jude Woodside. The magazine was his dream, and in 2005 he made that a reality and was the owner of the publication until 2017. Jude introduces us to the team who helped to kick-start the magazine 16 years ago and the serendipitous moments that happened in those early days.
This magazine is all about the skills of the sheddies we feature, and we have featured a lot of them over the years. We thought it would be fun to randomly select 100 of them and showcase their skills and talent once again. Enjoy the special article of 100 sheddies from our first 100 issues.
Readers may wonder who these folks are who write the articles and take the photographs for the magazine. It will be a mystery no longer as we ask all our current Shed team to tell us a bit about themselves, how they got involved with the magazine, and their favourite moments in the sheds they have visited throughout NZ and beyond.
We have hundreds of articles on our website, but for years the most consistently highest-ranked article has been the build project “Make a Trailer Camper” from 2014. As we are currently doing all this looking back, we thought we would ask the writer of that article, Alex van Dijk, to write a follow-up story on how the trailer has performed and what other modifications he has made. Alex and his family have used it extensively around NZ and there are plans afoot to ship it across the ditch to Australia for even more family camping adventures.
Who better to help celebrate our magazine’s milestone with us than Stan (the builder) Scott — probably New Zealand’s favourite sheddie. The Mitre 10 DIY guru is very well known from TV and radio, and Stan invites us to his home in Gisborne to show us what he does for fun in his shed. It’s a real treat to see what he creates, collects, restores, and what he does to unwind after a busy day. He’s as active and accomplished as you would expect, and his shed is a special space for projects and more.

We are up to Part 8 of the Mastering the lathe series, and in this issue Bob Hulme turns out a handy pair of stair gauges.

The second and final part of “How to build a dinghy” by Gail Varga really gets down to the nitty-gritty of construction — the cutting, glueing, fibreglassing, and painting of this versatile Spindrift 10 vessel. To describe a Spindrift 10 for building purposes: it is a stitch-and-glue plywood nesting dinghy, a single-chine design, ie only four panels make up the hull.

It all started with a chat over coffee with Dad and ended up with Murray Grimwood building a pedal-bike project with power assistance. It had swing-arm suspension of both wheels using bungee wraps; if you wanted stronger springing, you just added a wrap or two. Murray’s other project this issue is a tractor-shaped bookshelf for a grandchild. Never a dull moment Off the grid with Murray.
We have occasionally lamented the fact that young sheddies are few and far between these days, but 18-year-old Scott Gregan is one of them. Scott is still at school but he’s developed a real passion for knifemaking. He went to a couple of classes and now has his own part-time business making knives from his home shed on the outskirts of Timaru. His efforts, business nous, and skills are to be applauded by all fans of the knifemaker’s art.

The Shed’s resident sheddie therapist, Mark Seek (The Shed shrink), looks back in time to mullets and 80s movies. He shares his mistakes and his total awe for our sheds and what they do for our mental health. 
Enrico Miglino is having a great time on the road in his hi-tech campervan, and in Part 3 of his series we will see the fourth onboard computer he has installed. It’s another Raspberry Pi 4B, covering a key role in the design of his smartvan. Enrico has also included a video so we can see his modifications and what life on the road is like.
This time of year means lots of socialising, and Bryan Livingston of Brewers Coop has some great advice on summer celebration brewing.

Also, as this magazine is our summer holiday edition, we always strive to include a location of interest to sheddies as you drive around the country over the holidays. This summer we head to the South Island and visit the Geraldine Vintage Car & Machinery Museum. It’s a machine-lover’s paradise — with seven buildings chocka with machines of every kind.
We always enjoy showcasing clever sheddies, and this issue is no exception. Meet David Dilks, who many years ago was awe-struck by a fairground organ and decided one day he would make one himself. Well, he has recently done just that and it is made almost entirely out of timber.

“The 320-pipe fairground organ that David made from scratch is visually and acoustically impressive. The array of beautifully crafted pipes, different shapes and sizes, the accordion-playing monkey, and the drums make quite the show.”

It’s a fun project, and David shares his many skills and various projects with us on the large rural property on the outskirts of Wellington.
As usual, Shed founder Jude Woodside closes the magazine with his Back o’ The Shed column, by reminiscing about some great writers and projects in those early issues back in 2005.