The aluminium runabout—better known as the tinnie—is the quintessential Kiwi bach boat. Boat designer Jim Pauling has created a new way of getting a tinnie: building it by kitset and estimates a good welder or DIY handyman could build this aluminium runabout in a couple of weekends. At 3.65m length overall and a beam of 1.67m, the boat cuts quite a nice shape on the water from most angles.

Welding pipe and welding chrome molybdenum (“chromemoly”) are two essentials in making a rollcage in a race car. Frank Wigg at Race FX in west Auckland likes working with chrome molybdenum and says it is not that hard to weld. We use chrome molybdenum for rollcages and it's near perfect, he says. I've never had a failed rollcage yet, thanks to good welding and chrome molybdenum.

At the Centre for Fine Woodworking the first area we tackle with our students is sharpening. To the observer or beginner this subject appears complex and laden with conflicting advice. Yet it is important to get tools sharp without much fuss and in a manner that is easily repeatable. We have developed and teach initially a standardised approach which enables us to equip students so that they will very quickly be able to make wafer-thin shavings with their planes and clean-controlled cuts with their chisels.

In this second part, we come to the fretboard and stringing. The last article covered the construction of the ukulele’s body and involved the bending of sides and fitting the neck etc. Now is the time to talk about the bracing of the soundboard and back, the construction of the fretboard and head.

Following previous articles in The Shed magazine about fasteners such as nuts and bolts, it is appropriate to turn to another kind of fastener, blind rivets, or “pop” rivets, as they are commonly called. These rivets you can normally buy from nuts and bolts shops and hardware retailers. “Pop” is actually a brand name registered by Emhart Technologies of America for their blind rivets. Blind rivets is the proper descriptive term.

Setting up a shed is all about mates and how we help and support one another Yes, it’s great to have a shed and mine is called Brent’s Man Cave—thanks, Chris :)— or Storage Facility No 4 but it couldn’t have happened without my mates, so cheers guys & gals.
I had an idea for a decent shed and one day it got a kick-start with a mate. That’s how it went on, too, showing the classic way your mates will give you a hand when the job has to be done. Doug worked for a road contractor. “Mate, there’s some steel portal trusses in the yard and the boss is going to sell them.” That was the beginning.