[AT] Shop thoughts (was)Air Lines

[Grant Brians]

Frank, I know exactly whereof you speak. I have little money to spend and 
the shop shows it in the lack of massive amounts of shiny new tools. But on 
the other hand when I NEED a tool I figure a way to get it - preferably used 
so that someone else paid for the privilege of getting it out of the box. On 
the other hand I just bought a new Makita chop saw because the Harbor 
Freight one I had literally fried its motor. I did so because I need to have 
it to make the money that keeps me going in the welding business.
    I cringed at buying a made in China unit and wished I could have found a 
locally sold American made one, but could not find one. By the way, is there 
anyone on the list here in California who has a top quality American made 
vise or two they would sell to a pauper like me???? I am DEFINITELY in need 
of that!
        Grant Brians
        Hollister, California
p.s. I'm on as I research heirloom vegetable varieties to see if I can put 
together more products to sell on the market!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Indiana Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 6:54 AM
Subject: [AT] Shop thoughts (was)Air Lines


> This thread has taken an interesting turn... All of a sudden it all seems 
> to be about
> huge commercial or near commercial shops and what is needed in them. When 
> I posted that I
> had not found any problems using common air hose to get air around the 
> shop I was not
> thinking that nobody should use anything else or that no one should plan 
> or dream for
> their ultimate dream shop. Rather I was thinking that here is a list of 
> several hundred
> guys (and maybe a few gals) that have an interest in old tractors and in 
> some cases have
> very limited shop facilities and limited funds. Sometimes I tend to forget 
> in my own
> tight cash situation just how much money some of you guys have to throw at 
> the hobby and
> how casually you spend hundreds of dollars on extra toys. The dozen email 
> list I own are
> all oriented toward "the little guy" and the frugal. My mind just works 
> that way all of
> the time. When I try to say something hopefully helpful it will almost 
> always be based on
> spending the least amount of money to accomplish the goal at hand in a 
> satisfactory
> manner. When I discuss shop things I am really talking to the probably 80% 
> of the members
> of this list who have the more limited shops to work in.
> There is a reason that Tim Allen's character Tim Taylor become so well 
> known. It is a
> "guy" thing with an awful lot of guys. "More is always better", "bigger is 
> always
> better", "more power is always better" and so on. That thought process is 
> fine if they
> can afford it but the problem of sorts comes when that thought process is 
> espoused or
> assumed to be for everybody.
> I tend to be an oddball...   :-)   I love to see guys shops of all sizes. 
> I am not all
> that impressed by the big huge shops that have just had $$$ tossed at 
> them. One shop that
> should impress anybody is George Willer's. It is disgustingly well 
> organized and complete
> but he hasn't just tossed money at it.  Larry Goss is another with an 
> organized shop. I
> would about kill to be organized... The "Dotson Gang" do not keep "flashy" 
> shops but they
> do some of the finest work I have seen. I get impressed when I see good 
> work coming out
> of a very simple shop or a very crude building. One of my ongoing fears is 
> of us turning
> even one new antique tractor guy off on the hobby because we convey a tone 
> of "if you
> don't have "x" or "y" to work with then you have no business in our hobby.
> Some of you know that I spent 20 years as a shoemaker / cobbler / 
> cordwainer / shoe
> service technician (you pick a name). There was a fellow named Roy Sutton 
> who became the
> one true giant in that industry who bought out almost everybody else in 
> the shoe repair
> machinery industry. Roy started out in the depression working on the 
> sidewalk. His tool
> kit consisted of an old claw hammer, a couple of knives "borrowed" from 
> his mother's
> kitchen, an ice pick and some pieces of broken glass which he used to 
> scrape finish the
> sole edges. He bought a large box of used shoes and had to scramble to 
> borrow $5 to pay
> for them when they arrived COD. He carefully repaired all of them and 
> began selling them.
>>From that start he became the giant. That impresses me.
> There are likely a few on this list that would be embarrassed to have to 
> work out of my
> shop but it has served me well for a long time. Its biggest failing is my 
> lack of time
> and organized work habits. Too often I roll up to the shop with a tractor 
> and implement
> and make some rushed repair and head back to the field leaving tools and 
> scraps in a pile
> to be put away later, after all the rain is coming quickly. That and a 
> lack of space to
> put all of the "stuff" that shouldn't be in there in the first place. 
> ;-)
> I guess I have only a passing interest in hearing from guys that are doing
> "professional" restorations or the guys with the big huge complete shops 
> doing big
> things. I prefer hearing from guys that are solving problems the best they 
> can with
> things the average list member has at hand to work with. The younger guys 
> with a table, a
> vice and a small box of tools are the future of this hobby (I hope)...
>
> -- 
> "farmer", Esquire
> At Hewick Midwest
>      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...
>
> Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
> Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. In America 100
> years
> before the revolution.
>
>
> Francis Robinson
> Central Indiana USA
> robinson at svs.net
>
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