a Shed in Ryde

Welcome to the Wrap Up for Shed Night #7. What a beautiful evening to cap of one of the few warmer summer days. We started with the usual bbq before getting down to work. The following photos were all taken by Ken. Thanks Ken.

Due to the house behind the shed being demolished we are currently without power, and probably will be for the next 6-10 shed nights. Bummer. But Tony came to the rescue with a generator. Not sure what the neighbours thought about it chugging away, but it did the job. The lights had a very authentic glow about them which came and went as the generator surged and slowed. It reminded me of living on the farm at Gulargambone!

As you can see, the generator is the Suzuki SE700A. Don’t know what that means, but it gave us light!

So, what was the plan for Shed Night #7? We were going to strip down an old 3.5HP Briggs motor that we managed to get going last time, but was sounding sicker the longer it ran for. Here is a picture of said Briggs engine!

You can tell it is a really old motor, because the photo is in black and white.

Pulling a motor apart (especially when you don’t have to put it back together) is something I always find fun. You always learn something, and you get to see what the condition is inside. Everyone seemed to be fascinated by the motor!

When we eventually got it all apart, Ken took some “arty” shots of the bits. I love the look of metal objects covered in dirty sump oil photographed in black and white. It has that shiny wet look that makes you just want to touch it. It can almost look edible. Almost.

The other task we had for the night was two wipper snippers, condition unknown (courtesy of council clean up) that we wanted to try and get running. One appears to be missing a part or two. I have not confirmed this, and sincerely hope Terrance and Tim were not just being slack. I will have to check it out myself because I don’t trust them.

The other one, a modern looking Ryobi unit started really well but wanted to die. Usual 2-stroke story. The G-man once again proved himself worthy of the challenge. He seemed so excited when he discovered the carby was similar to the blower from last shed night!

We are very blessed to have such a technologically advanced shed. The “G” went to the internet to try and source a workshop manual for the snipper!

It would appear he found what he was looking for!

It was not long and the snipper was running well (though throttle responce was still worryingly slow for “Mr G”). Still, we were once again impressed by his skill and persistance to the task of getting a worthless piece of machinery nearly working properly again!

Our next Shed Night will be the second friday in April (depending on when Easter and school holidays are… must check that).

“How many tools can one man own?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions!”

The next Shed Night is on the 9th of March. I guess you are wondering what is coming up? I am so glad you asked.

Due to things being a bit up in the air with regards to power at the shed we will be having a fairly simple night. The usual bbq and beer will be followed by stripping down a 4 stroke engine that is a bit sick. We will try and ascertain what is wrong with it, and if it is worth repairing (I can tell you now it probably wont be worth repairing, but I don’t want to spoil the evening).

The aim of Shed Night is to relax, have fun, get connected and be a bit purposeful. The purposeful bit has been a little lost lately. We hope to get back to raising some money for charity and/or doing projects for charity soon.

As Tim “the tool man” Taylor once said to his lovely wife Jill, “Honey, you can’t let some nicks and cuts and contusions stop you from going. If I did that I wouldn’t go anywhere.”

Due to impending demolition and contruction, it looks like the Shed in Ryde will not have power come the next shed night. We have graciously been offered a generator though!

I also wanted to thank all those who have made generous donations to the Shed of late with stuff like tools and projects. Thanks!

March Shed Night is looking like being a good one!

As Tim the tool man Taylor said, “If it doesn’t say “Binford”, someone else made it.”

We have no photos from Shed Night #6. I completely forgot to pick up the camera… but here is a run down of the night’s events!

We ate the beautifully cooked dinner I had prepared, slaving over a hot bbq plate. We drank a variety of beers and some Cider that Terrance brought along.

We then had our “Repair Race”. We divided into two teams. One team had the task of getting the garden blower to run. The other team (my team) had the job of getting the Ryobi wipper snipper to run. Both garden appliances had been found on the side of the road and condition of both was unknown. While the blower team was farting around Frank and I quickly drained out the old fuel before re-filling. I said to Frank, “How bout we give it a go and see if it fires”. He agreed. It fired and roared into life. The other team looked sad!

The blower proved to be difficult to get going. Both teams came to focus their attention on the blower. Fuel was an issue so we watched “Big G”, the “G-man” strip it and clean it and put it back together. Then, for what seemed like many hours, the “G” pulled the cord and fiddled with little screws. The blower seemed to make it’s own decision about when it would and would not start. It seemed to know when we were losing heart, and would then roar into life, bringing laughter, smiles and backslapping. It would then die and remain dead until once again it sensed that we were loosing heart.

We then pulled out another very sorry looking mower with a 4-stroke Briggs motor. The oil smelt like dead fish and it looked like it had been sitting outside for several years. We changed the oil and fueled it up and away she went. She sounded like a Harley, the exhaust was gone. Sadly, after running for a while she was not turning over very smoothly at all. In a future shed night we might pull it apart and see what has gone wrong. Pulling things apart is always a great opportunity to learn!

Finally I pulled out another mower that was brought along to Shed Night #5. It was a young mower that had been brought up in a very abusive home. When I had attempted to clean out the carby last time I had broken a plastic fitting and given up in disgust. So this time we tried to make up a linkage to replace the broken part. We did this and got it to start, but it would only really run flat out of nothing, so we need to do some fine tuning to work out why.

All up, a successful night with some lost souls being brought back to life!

Future Shed Nights we have the following planned:

* An excursion to a bigger and better shed for a night (“The Big Shed Out” night)
* An engine strip night (“Shed motor mayhem” night)
* A construction Night (“Shed Extension” night)
* A night when you can bring something broken, and we will try and fix it (“Shed Fix” night)

Remember, we can make the world a better place one shed at a time.

There is a good mechanic in the Chipping Norton area. The website is on our links page, or you can go straight there from here! Tony owns and runs the shop so you know you are getting good service!

I will see if one day we can feature Tony’s shed on the website. He has so many great toys. I mean tools.

This Friday will be our 6th Shed Night, the first for 2012. It also means we have been shedding for 6 months now. Cool!

So, to mark the occasion we will be having a “Repair Race”. This means that each team will be given a broken piece of garden rquipment which involves a combustion engine. The team that gets their machine to run first, wins. The state of each motor is unknown. They have all come from the side of the road.

We will also have the usual bbq and beer with stimulating conversation. Email for more info!!

This photo is from a shed trip back in about 2005 where a bunch of us went out to Gilgandra. A gentleman by the name of Ross Stockings showed us some “Agricultural Blasting”. We will NOT be doing any of this at the coming Shed Night. Not intentionally anyway. :)

Everything have been quiet in the Shed over Christmas. We will be having our 6th Shed Night on the 2nd Friday in February. Stay tuned for more details!

I only have time for a quick review of our shed night last night. We had some visitors and newcomers which was cool. We started a mower to edger conversion. Perhaps what exactly it is will become clearer later…

We also got a wipper snipper working that had not run for several years, a mower that was not going (we got it going… but then it died :()

Some arts-farsty photos below taken by Ken… edited by me!

Some of us discussed the ins and outs of camper trailer design. I love how Dan pretends to actually listen to me when I talk. Leon could learn from Dan. Photo by Tom!

And as always we adhered to OH&S requirements…

This Friday evening from 7pm we will be having our fifth shed night. It is a special christmas night. We will be putting the canoe to one side and have some other little projects to do. Once again a very basic bbq tea will be available. More info can be had from emailing me at dave@ashedinryde.com

Another enjoyable night, though I really do question our work ethic. Too much eating, drinking and chatting – but we did achieve some good stuff, and more good photos!

Photo above shows some of the toys before the lads arrived. Honda Cb450 and GB400 plus the old Stihl 08s chainsaw from around the 1960′s. It got a new chain and bar this week so I needed to show it off. Goes well for an old saw. They just don’t make them like that anymore!

Michael rode his bike to the shed night, and Tom took a great shot of it. It is a Suzuki Harley look a like. Lounge on wheels!

But, back to the canoe!

We removed the remaining plywood attached to the flotation foam stuff. This took a little while. Shot below show Ryanin the fore ground working hard at this while Tom is in the background cutting out some ply on the bandsaw ready for the new seat that will go in the middle of the canoe.

Finally the seat was ready for a trial fit. All this took a while as the bandsaw is having issues. It would appear as though the rubber on the top wheel of the saw has stretched and does not want to stay in place. The job got done finally and is a rough fit, pictured below.

Frank seemed pleased with the results!

So we celebrated by eating some No Frills fruit cake. The cake did not do justice to the enormity of the achievement.

So we played with the chainsaw. Should you “play” with a chainsaw? We weren’t juggling with it or anything…

You should not operate a chainsaw while using your mobile phone. Thanks to Tom for the pic, and for the one below to finish off. A lovely shot of the beautiful tank on the Honda GB400.

Stay tuned for future Shed Night info. December will be our end of year Christmas Shed Night bash.