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Alistair Allen’s Kiwiana sheds in Oamaru

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Woodwork: getting started (2)

20 November 2025

A home workshop is a special place and will function much better if you are able to plan how it is set out. My first workshop was in a single garage which was also the home of a very old Austin 7. As I bought machines, things became a little tricky. It was not that motivating on a winter’s evening, knowing I had to shift the Austin and re-arrange the workshop before I started. Our architect’s major renovation to our home included the redevelopment of my workshop area and from a single garage to a 9 m x 6 m workshop was a massive leap forward, even if it is shared with an MG.

The Shed magazine December/January 2026 issue 124 on sale now

17 November 2025

The Stude-Maker
Studebaker marketed their groundbreaking 1950 Aero-Nose models as “luxury for everyman.” A young Trevor Halstead thought this was a bit of him, so he began purchasing Studebakers in the early 1970s. The fact that the Champion model he chose was $50 less than the Ford he really wanted did play a small role in that life-changing decision. As they say, the rest is history.
“To the man on the street, they became known as bullet noses, and while they proved to be Studebaker’s best-selling model in 1950, those aero-lines did not age so well, and by 1952, the company reverted to a more conventional front end.
Fast forward a couple of decades into another hemisphere, and a one-man Studebaker ‘Next Look’ revival was about to begin, in the workshop of Studebaker devotee and custom-builder, Trev Halstead. This time, though, those vintage lines would take on wild and offbeat shapes.

Woodwork: getting started – part one

13 November 2025

Not be too many weeks pass before someone asks me how to get started in woodworking as a hobby. I have had a life-long interest in making or building things but only in the last 20-plus years has my woodworking become dominant. Most people contemplating something in the woodworking area say they have had previous exposure to the craft, but often that was just a brief introduction during their school days.
Perhaps the biggest decision is first to determine that you want to start making something out of wood. Once under way, you will probably move in a particular direction that interests you.
One of the best places to start is at a woodworking hobby class at a local school or polytechnic.