Thread: How making these models got me seriously interested in Woodworking (cont.)

Bryon, very nice indeed. What part of USA is wife from? I live in Indiana which has a lot of corn farmers.
After I bought a lathe alot of my work became easier.Enjoy Dallas

Hi Dallas, My wife is from Olympia, Washington State. She moved here to Australia 6 years ago after we met on the internet 4 years earlier. I've actually been to Indiana once before to visit a mate of mine who was living at Purdue University for a year. Unfortunately It was a very fleeting visit and I didnt get to see anything much of Indiana sadly.

Another great piece of work there Bryon.

Originally Posted by bryon

My wife was quite interested in the progress of the Ford Pick up and actually gave me a hand sanding bits and pieces from time to time. She comes from the USA where she has a father who is a corn farmer and suggested I look for a plan of a tractor on the Net to see if I could make it as a present for him . She found one on the internet, ordered the plans and so I was then committted - apparently. The tractor was a vintage Allis Chalmers and I approached the making of this model the same way as before - don't be daunted by the completed project - make one piece then another and so on. The wheels on the tractor presented a challenge I just couldn;t overcome without the aid of a bandsaw and this is where my wife's interest and encouragement was going to play in my favour!!! She could see I needed a bandsaw to make the wheels so how could she object to me getting one??? she couldn't! she could also see the value in a bench sander and a lathe -which SHE bought as a surprise for my birthday - you guessed It - A $99 GMC Well at this point in time I had never used a lathe, so set about trying to use it and felt something was very wrong with this whole wood turning bizzo so I turned to the net - this forum in fact and found pretty much what i expected - that the lathe was a dud - plus I still didn't have any lathe chisels. I was able to pick up a set of 3 lathe chisels at the Bendigo Swap Meet for $15 and persevered for a while but even she realised - this was not a good lathe. Especially after we had seen the Bendigo Woodturners Club in action at a local display they had one day. She agreed we needed a better lathe, so i bought a Ledacraft mini lathe which proved to be like chalk and cheese compared to the old GMC. But Before I got the GMC or the Ledacraft my tractor progressed to completion and again with all the round bits turned on an electric drill set up - the results are pictured below

I was never a farmer but own the small 480 acre family farm back in the midwest. This tractor is fantastic. My I suggest that you go to the following website.
Mytractorforum.com You will find about 22,000 members from around the world. Everyone there is form the big farmer to the people with riding mowers. They are a great group of people. Post your tractor there. They will love to see it. I bet you can even sell them there. I kow it has a lot of hours in it but these people collect everything related to tractors. You might be able to make money and if you don't you will get to show off your beautiful tractor and woodworking skills.
Very nice. If any of you are looking for tractor or mower parts the tractor forum is the place to post what you are looking for. Your father inlaw will be very pleased with the tractor. My Aussie wife has me making kangaroo christmas displays. Funny how our wives want a little of home around.

Excellent work.

Hi Hobo thanks for the kind words --- whre abouts in Australia does your wife hail from?

The wife is from Sydney. I would like to live there. I like sydney better than any large city here in the US.

Originally Posted by Hobo

The wife is from Sydney. I would like to live there. I like sydney better than any large city here in the US.

Geez--- The USA must be alot lot worse than I thought
From what my TV tells me--- Sydney is gridlocked morning till night--Dearest housing in the world for average people/housing.If I was you I would look at Perth

Now I wait for the flack from those that live in Sydney LOL

Originally Posted by AUSSIE

Geez--- The USA must be alot lot worse than I thought
From what my TV tells me--- Sydney is gridlocked morning till night--Dearest housing in the world for average people/housing.If I was you I would look at Perth

Now I wait for the flack from those that live in Sydney LOL

You have not seen gridlock until you hit our interstate freeways. We can have 7 lanes going in each direction at a stand still. We have more people living in Southern California that in the whole of Australia.

Sydney has a charm that many cities do not have. London, Peris and many others are very nice. I have traveled all over the world and I realy like Sydney. The shoping is great. Everything being on the water. When we come down I stay out at Penrith and take the train into Sydney all the time. I love taking the ferry out to Manly and The gardens on the water front. Circular Key has the art museum and I just like living in Sydney. I have lived in Detroit, Chicago, Saint Louis, Seattle, Indianoplis and New York.

Your public transportation runs on time. You can take the whole day trying to go across LA. I live 65 miles to the east and it is all wall to wall people. Nice weather and mountains but we can have gridlock a 100 miles in any direction.

I like the people there and have many friends. I even work with one of the Architects in Sydney who is married to my wifes good friend. I have a farm and I know all about country life and I enjoy it very much but I also like living in the city.

The US is beautiful and so is Australia. Each has its special places and culture. If you must live in the city Sydney is a very nice place. All big citys are expensive. Enjoy what you have the grass is not greener on the other side. We just like some places better than others.

Hi Hobo.
You have done a very good job and I can tell it comes from the heart.I was just having a bit of fun.

Originally Posted by AUSSIE

Hi Hobo.
You have done a very good job and I can tell it comes from the heart.I was just having a bit of fun.

I figured you were poking a little fun at LA. Believe me There is no one who would trade any part of Australia for Southern California. Our beaches are grimy and poluted. The northern California coast is one of the most beautiful places on earth but Southern C is wall people, bad air, gridlocked to the point that it is hard to go shoping in your local town. I have a beautiful view of mountains from my front windows. They go up over 11 thousand feet. They coverd with snow at the moment and are beautiful. In the summer the air is so bad some days you can not even see them. It is better than it was years ago but it has cost us billions of dollars to clean up the air. Funny thing we build man made rivers to bring water in and the mountains trap all the bad air. Why man things he needs to live in desert waste land where nothing grows has always puzzled me. We plant green lawns and plant trees from around the world just to have them blow over in our high winds. They do not get deep enough roots for lack of water. The trees are very dry and split with ease. We should have desert landscaping. Humans do very strange things. LOL We pay so much to be stupid. LOL Every where has its nice parts. Even the ghetto has a charm about it. Not where I would want to live but It is a culture onto its self. Aussies live in one of the nicest places on earth. I know there are poorer parts but take time to enjoy the French wrought iron on the old homes. Even the old parts of Sydney have charm. I have never herd a bad word about Australia here. Americans like all things Aussie.

Hobo
Where abouts in California are you? Does 65 miles east of LA put you in Lancaster?
regards
John

Originally Posted by ivanavitch

Hobo
Where abouts in California are you? Does 65 miles east of LA put you in Lancaster?
regards
John

Nope. Lancaster is way north up over the mountains. LA, Lancaster and where I am would make about an equalateral triangle. I am out towards Palm Springs. PS Springs is 45 to the east of here. Lancaster is about an hours drive to the NW of here. I am in Redlands if you look it up on a Google map. I am 2 miles north of 10. I look up at a huge mountain range. There are 3 ridges over 11,000 ft with in 40 miles. Palm Springs is at the base of one. I can see from my front yard one too the NW and another one to the East and If I am up in one of the bedrooms I can see the one at Palm Springs. They are coverd with many feet of snow right now. It is our winter here. We just had another huge rain storm the wiped out 41 huge million dollar homes at the base of the foot hills to the west of us. It was Los Angles county's largest fire last summer and there is nothing holding the soil on the mountains. They have a lot of basens to catch everything but they were full. Even Melrose which is one of the most expensive area to shop had some flooding. I am high and dry. It will never flood where my home is and I am not near anyhing that will burn. My dads house and uncles houses did burn in the 2003 fire which burned 2800 homes in front of my house. We have a huge river between there and here but the river goes dry most of the year because of so many wells and water usage. My uncle and dad died before the last fire. I owned the house and the insurance payed off. I had the house up forsale and I came out all right. My uncles house was on 2 1/2 acres and was a 6000 sq ft house. It was huge. It had a pipe organ in it and barns with horses. I went up and hooked up the horse trailer and got the horses out but we lost the house. My cousion piolets a yatch and an corporate jet. He was not home. I got everthing out of value but still lost beautiful furnitue etc and the organ which was worth at least one hundred thousand dollars. So California is the land of shake, bake and burn. LOL
Oh to live in the land down under. I would much rather live there than here in So California. I know you have fires. We build in places we have no business building. Money talks and things get built at tax payers expense. It tickes me off that fire and rescue along with all the road crews to save the people in flood and burn areas. It is my tax dollar that helps pay for it. Makes no sense to me. They have great views at others expense.
Sorry for so much information. I am just sitting here watchint the tellie and all the disaster that is going on at the moment.
It sounds like you have been here or know someone who does.

Just dicovered this . Beautiful. Lots of delicate work there and a bit of relief carving for the wheel guards ? Hope the FIL liked it .
Cheers Peter