On 5/20/2015 4:12 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:
George Shirley wrote:
On 5/20/2015 1:05 PM, Terry Coombs wrote:

Here's a link to my current project . Gotta get it finished so I can
mow some areas to plant my bee-friendly seeds .
http://s991.photobucket.com/user/Sna...?sort=3&page=1

Dang! Did you salvage that or just wear it out? We could be good
friends, I repair, repaint, do what I can to keep equipment working
until it is absolutely no good for anything. I've got "stuff" around
here that's still working that I bought or scavenged fifty years ago.

A few months ago I bought a JD 317 yard tractor for $25 ... I'm into it
around 600 bucks now . The original deck I got with the tractor is the Swiss
cheese one , I bought another just for the deck itself , and had to combine
the best parts of both into one usable deck . There are some pics of the
tractor in that keepin' busy album too . Right now I've just got new spindle
bearings for two spindles sitting on the bench - and I should be out in the
shop workinh on them instead of sitting here typing .
FWIW , I have a full machine shop here , the first permanent structure
built in our little clearing out in the woods .

Many years ago I was a gunsmith in addition to my regular job. When I
finally got a building, for free if moved, I heard my old high school
had a bunch of machine tools up for grabs. Turned out to be Navy surplus
from WWII, given to the school while I was going to it. Went over to see
how much they wanted for it and they gave it to me and used the Ag
students and their two-ton truck to haul it to my "new" building. Nearby
neighbor was a machinist with Dupont and offered to help me install
them. They worked fine and were finally sold off, with all the contents
of the shop, to a gunsmith in Louisiana for a reasonable price. Knowing
Cajuns he or his children are probably still using them. I needed a
barrel lathe and had to buy a new one, boo hoo, had to sell it too.

I was, by then working overseas for a lot more moola than I could make
gunsmithing and it was nearly more fun than being a gunschmidt. Nowadays
I just keep up my hunting and self defense weapons. I missed the gun
shop for awhile but finally grew up and did other things that were fun. G