I'm a Dairy Farmer for the last 20 years and before that I did an apprenticeship as a Fitter and Turner which also included Toolmaking. I bought my first metal lathe while I was still at High School, a 1904 capstan lathe. I still have it and many other machine tools of various ages. They are all still in their working clothes. I just like using, repairing, building and modifying machines and being on the farm gives me a reason and resources to have a go at a lot of stuff.

We have been having a wet and windy winter and have had several trees come down so currently I have been playing around with slabbing timber out of the redgums. I have front end loaders and an old crane so we can move logs easily so I am thinking of repurposing an old lathe bed and carriage for a guide for chainsaw milling. I have more plans in my head than I think I can ever complete!

I have a lot of good old machine parts and other resources sitting around the farm which others think is just junk. I don't care and they all come over when they need something. I like seeing different ideas on the net and this forum looks great.