Ken in Australia - Shop of the Week

April 16, 2008 | Filed Under Blog, Shop of the Week 

This week’s shop belongs to Ken. He writes:

Tims ShedHere’s my contribution to your new feature on “Shops”, although here in Australia we call them sheds. In Oz, you are sometimes considered less of a man unless you have a Bloke’s Shed (joking of course). In fact there was a TV series a little while ago dealing strictly with “Men’s Sheds” - a popular series in my country. Sheds can be tiny, little more than a cupboard, or huge though you usually find the big ones on farms. My spouse and I recently retired at the ripe old age of 53, built a new house along with a new shed 10m x 6m (about 32 x 20 ft). Like most sheds in Oz, the structure is colorbond steel. I have water, sewage and 3 phase power connected. My plans for the shed include a new 8″ jointer, dust collection system (purchased but not yet set up), and a few other nice-to-have tools. My main interest at the moment is fine boxes, but SWMBO has me making a few furniture pieces, as well as being her labourer in the garden. A lot of work to do in the garden as you can see from the pictures.

Tims Shed Tims Shed Tims Shed

Comments

18 Responses to “Ken in Australia - Shop of the Week”

  1. Ken on April 16th, 2008 7:23 am

    Hi Marc. The name is Ken, not Tim. Not to worry though as we here in Oz are so laid back that we answer to almost anything.
    Regards from the land downunder.

  2. Gatorbait on April 16th, 2008 7:42 am

    I’m very envious. I wish my “shop” (a.k.a. 2 car garage with wife’s van parked in there) was that size. Unfortunately is a deed restricted community in Atlanta, GA they won’t let us put ’sheds’ on our own property. Your shop looks well used and that is always a good thing. Would love to see some of the creations coming out of that thing.

  3. Marty Senetra on April 16th, 2008 8:09 am

    You’ve got enough space to build a full scale replica of the Spruce goose! Nice shop.

  4. Kirch on April 16th, 2008 8:11 am

    Nice “shed”. I am jealous.

  5. Tom on April 16th, 2008 8:45 am

    It’s a great shed!
    I had to think a little about SWMBO, but it came to me: She Who Must Be Obeyed, of course.

  6. thewoodwhisperer on April 16th, 2008 9:04 am

    Wow, how the heck did I make that mistake. Corrected. Thanks Ken!

  7. Claude Stewart on April 16th, 2008 10:56 am

    Hello Ken
    You must live in a nice part of the world, I didn’t see any insulation in there. Do you have winter there? As for me my man’s shed is 40 ft. x 48 ft. and my wife still thinks it is mostly hers although I beg to differ. But your man shed looks pretty nice to me. Claude

  8. Bruce on April 16th, 2008 3:25 pm

    Ken
    Thats a beautiful looking men’s shed. I love all of the natural light. I wish I had run water to mine, maybe this year. Bruce

  9. Vic on April 16th, 2008 3:38 pm

    Nice “man cave” Ken! I like the fridge. I think I’ll see if I can get a little one that’ll hold a decent amount of refreshment.

    Tony….naw it’s me, Vic

  10. Ken on April 16th, 2008 9:34 pm

    Thanks for the nice comments guys.

    To answer a few. I too had to work out of a two car garage, that still had to store the cars, in my previous house. A bit of a pain with all the machines on wheels, but workable nevertheless. The pictures are of the new shed when it was anly a few months old (last December). I have further improved the layout since.

    Yes, we get extremes of temperatures (at least for Australia), a few 40deg C days in summer and down to 5-6deg C in winter. Lining and insulation would be good thing, but whether it would be cost effective or not I would have to consider. This is a only a hobby after all. Rugging up or down seems to cover most of my comfort issues at the moment. We certainly don’t have the sub-zero temperatures some of you guys have.

    My main interest is fine boxes and I am nearing the point of getting together a web site, but sorting out the house and garden is a priority at the moment.

    I have recently finished a few furniture items so I may send them along to Marc for consideration in “show and tell”.
    I also have a few boxes on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/7902066@N06/ , which includes a pretty neat way I developed to make wooden hinges.

    Regards

    Ken

  11. Claude Stewart on April 17th, 2008 5:30 am

    Hello Ken
    I see your temps are a little warmer in winter than ours in Michigan but your summertime range is comparable. I think insulation is worth it just because it moderates the temperature swings every day. I seem to have less condensation on my tools which leads to a lot less rust on tools that I seldom use. On tools that I use more regularly this is not a problem. Sometimes in the winter when we have a mild steak and and rain and high humidity I will have condensation problem in the shop but not near as bad as in the uninsulated garage. The garage floor even gets wet from it making it very slippery. Claude

  12. Robby on April 17th, 2008 1:15 pm

    Nice shad dude !! Nice tools…

    Mine doesn t have the necessary machinery to qualify :o)
    But i ll get their !

  13. Jim Jones on April 17th, 2008 6:01 pm

    Nice shed Ken. What city/area of Australia do you live? We had our best vacation ever on a 17 day tour of the eastern side of the country when I retired in 2005.

    Cheers,
    Jim

  14. Greg on April 18th, 2008 3:47 am

    Hey Ken,

    Great to see another Aussie on here, was starting to feel rather lonely viewing this site.

    Your shed looked too clean mate, wish I could get mine like that, but I knew straight away it belonged to an Aussie with the beer fridge in the corner.

  15. thewoodwhisperer on April 18th, 2008 7:08 am

    Hey Greg. They may not be the “loudest” viewers, but we have a very strong Canadian and Australian fan base. Maybe we should have an international roll call day. lol

  16. jw wilson on April 18th, 2008 8:22 am

    ken, SWEEEET shed man… jealousy crawls all over me… have many great friends down under and am wondering what the spider situation is like in your part of oz? also, does your wood go crazy w/ the temperatures? again, many congrats on your fabulous shed, get your wife to get all her crap out of there, get yourself a panel saw, stock your fridge with your favorite bevies, and get yourself a cot while your at it. ha, ha. perhaps you should just build her a beautiful wooden green house? all the best from the great white north!

    jw

    ps. marc, any plans on being at any wood shows in the toronto area in the near future? thanks, jw

  17. Ken on April 18th, 2008 7:54 pm

    Thanks again. To answer a few more questions:

    I live in Sunbury, a quiet town just north west of Melbourne. But I have lived in many parts of the country and o/s while in the military. My pervious home was Canberra, the nations capital until my retirement a couple of years ago.

    Spiders are a bit of a problem, but nowhere near as much as in some other parts of the country. Wood movement can be a problem but not sure it is any better or worse than other areas. Jointer & thicknesser fixes it.

    For jw. Ahead of you there. Wife now has her own small shed for garden tools and other horrible stuff, and she also has a new shadehouse for propogating. I would have preferred a new sanding machine instead of stuff for the garden, but we sometimes have to make sacrifices.

  18. Devin on April 19th, 2008 7:38 am

    Ken, great shed! Tonnes of space (yes tonnes, I’m one of the Canuck fans of TWW). I think making a shed and shadehouse for the garden stuff is a brilliant idea that will pay of in the future…you don’t want to be moving garden stuff every time you want to get in some shop time. btw, checked out some of your flickr photos, nice work there!
    cheers, Devin.

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