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Simple bins

Many black plastic bins from the hardware shops don’t allow enough air through or are only big enough for postage stamp-sized sections or blocks of land. I make my own compost bins. Now that might seem fairly easy, but how many compost systems either take a huge amount of effort, or produce something reminiscent of milking-shed sludge? These bins require very little intervention besides putting stuff in.

Make your own simple compost bins
By David Todd
Photographs: David Todd

Some Shed magazine projects, while inspiring, are way out of the league of many of us. So, here is how I made my own simple  compost bins. 
I’ve spent summer holidays with technicians and riggers and electricians and fitters, but I’m just a home handyman. I’ve done a minor amount of renovations to previous houses and much of my own house maintenance. I like growing my own veggies. We were nearly self-sufficient in potatoes last year and are hoping to do better this year. Currently I’m self-employed in IT.
Good compost needs balanced grist for the mill:

  • green stuff (lawn clippings, kitchen food scraps and the like); and
  • brown stuff (untreated sawdust, leaves, shredded paper, cardboard packaging)

and air and water.

Many black plastic bins from the hardware shops don’t allow enough air through or are only big enough for postage-stamp-sized sections or blocks of land.
I make my own compost bins. Now that might seem fairly easy, but how many compost systems either take a huge amount of effort, or produce something reminiscent of milking-shed sludge? These bins require little intervention besides putting stuff in.

Materials
I used 4.8 metre lengths of 150 mm x 25 mm untreated pine (rough-sawn boxing). The reason for 4.8m lengths is that I cut them into four 1198mm lengths. That is, measure 1200 mm, and cut on the wrong side of the line. Do this three times, and on the fourth time,  measure for the actual length of 1200 mm with the saw kerf. It’s important to do this reasonably accurately.
For the notches, set the fence on your router with a 25 mm bit so there is about 65 mm from the end of the wood to the edge of the notch. Rout a notch that is around 37 mm deep.
I set the fence on the router as above. I set the combination saw for 37 mm, then clamp a length of wood to the sawhorse so that each end is clear of the end. Have the clamp so the handle is up (I prefer a G clamp to an F clamp as they clamp harder).

Cutting notches
On the left-hand end (matches the way I set the fence on the router), I mark a line indicating the depth of the notch on the far side of the wood. On the right-hand end, I do this on the near side.
I use the router by pulling it towards me. Then once one notch is cut, I can flip the sawhorse around and do one notch on the other end. Flip the wood over the sawhorse, mark for the other two notches and repeat.
Four lengths is the minimum, really. The actual notches don’t need to be done 100 per cent accurately, and the first ones I did (read: sloppy first attempts) worked best. The wood doesn’t have to nest together properly.
I’ve found the huge amount of air available, and the addition of brown stuff makes a nice light compost and not the usual sludge. It doesn’t require a huge amount of effort to turn (and aerate).

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Making a clean sweep – how to make a magnetic sweeper

31 July 2026

After mumblings of discontent about the potential punctures and those “messy engineers”, I decided to make a simple magnetic sweeper. The concept is not new. Magnets have been used for picking up road debris for a long time, and they are very effective.
The challenge, though, is where to find magnets that are strong enough, and how to effectively remove collected steel waste from the magnets. In an ideal world, it would be great to be able to turn the magnetism off and on.
This can be done, of course, by shifting the magnetic poles in the same way that magnetic chucks do on a surface grinder.
Very effective, but I couldn’t see our tool makers in the shed being happy to see the magnetic chuck from the surface grinder being “borrowed” to pick up nails.

The Shed magazine August/September 2026 issue 128 on sale now

19 July 2026

Sentimental Journey
Jack Ryder had a unique ability to hypnotise sports stars, politicians, and celebrities into donating items for his museum and sports memorabilia collection. Now, his grandson Clint manages this West Auckland landmark, but the property development vultures are circling.
It is hard to imagine a less likely location for a living museum than the back blocks of suburban West Auckland in Avondale.
Yet here, towards the end of a lengthy no-through road, the Ryder family hold tight to a self-built vestige of Auckland’s yesteryear. While the surrounding streets are turned into homogeneous multi-unit town housing, the Ryders’ two-acre slice of Pavlova Paradise remains, less a multi-generational home ground and more a celebration of the character of the city’s past.
Slipping through the tall white gates past the twin concrete lion sentinels at the street end of Ryder’s long hedge-lined driveway, the modern world slips away. Ahead, in the shade of a 100-year-old Pecan tree, an enclave of antique edifices opens out along the back-fence line like a set from a period movie. This corner of vintage Kiwiana is the handiwork of the late and industrious Jack Ryder, a coach-builder and wharfie, who began constructing it from a group of sheds spread across the property.

New Zealand Railways celebrates 150 years

16 July 2026

In 2013, Railways in New Zealand marked the anniversary in October this year of 150 years since the first broad-gauge public steam railway opened between Ferrymead and Christchurch City in 1863, a distance of seven kilometres. The original gauge was five feet three inches (1600 mm) wide, although the standard gauge for New Zealand railways was to become three feet six inches (1067 mm).
As the Railways 150 Years Committee describes it, “People and goods were barged from the Port of Lyttelton to Ferrymead, then taken by rail to Christchurch. The Ferrymead Line operated for ten years from 1863 until 1873 when the 2.6-kilometre tunnel connecting Lyttelton and the Heathcote Valley was completed and commissioned.”
The celebrations for the anniversary in 2013 are focused on operations and displays at the Ferrymead Heritage Park during Labour Weekend and include heritage steam trips with the restored locomotive Ja1240 from Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass, Timaru and Ashburton. The Railways 150 Committee includes representatives from rail organisations such as the Ferrymead Railway, the National Railway Museum of New Zealand, the Mainline Steam Heritage Trust, the Plains Railway, the Weka Pass Railway, the Steam Canterbury Preservation Society and others. Additional help and assistance is provided by KiwiRail.