In the blood
Growing up I always had a welder, torches, grinders, and tools at my disposal. All through high school our farm was the place to go to keep your heep running. Len Serena, my dad had a reputation for being able to fix it! Been involved in more projects then I can count. Dad always had a supply of metal on hand, anything from sheet steel to huge I beams so if you got an urge to build something you were only limited by your creativity.
Now that I have two older boys of my own it seems that the same thing has happened all over again. My repair shop is at my farm three miles from my home and I never know what I will find when I throw the door open. The latest project my youngest is working on is a combination ATV lift and frame straightener. Why a frame straightener you ask? Well there are about 20 ATV's total in the gang that hangs and so far we have had several twisted A arms, three bent frames, collisiion damage, 2 burnt out winches, plenty of flats, and a more then a few drowned rat machines. To say some of the guys ride hard is an under statement. There is a system of trails in place around us that will get you miles away from home. Some of the places we ride are wild and stuff happens.
I have a Millermatic mig welder, a Marquette stick welder, torches, a small brake, an iron worker bench, a forge, and a whole mess of tools. They all get used either by me our the crew. The next thing I want to aquire is a horizonal bandsaw. My latest find is a WWI surplus lathe. It is a Hendley with all the bells and whistles. We have not set up a place for it yet, but my youngest who is a machinist by trade is excited. It should raise the bar when it comes to building things. This lathe is an eight footer with a wide swing, three and four jaw chucks, a live tailstock, a boring set-up and two truckloads of tooling that we have not fished through yet. The guy even had an indexing head for it. Now I got my eye open for the bandsaw, a shaper, and a good sized mill.
My wife wonders why I need these things. I wonder how can a man with rust and grease in his veins live without them.
