- Joined
- Feb 5, 2014
- Messages
- 43
I grew up in a basic culture where everything had to be created from scratch of whatever was available on hand. My Dad was a self taught Engineer of sorts and all of his sons were taught many usefull skills while still in our teens. In 1972 at only 17 years old, while my family was in the Commercial Fishing Accessories Business but we made fourteen foot oars by hand with draw knives. One morning I got a brainstorm that i could construct a large wood turning lathe from scratch. Utilising a 7"X 9" X 17' heart pine timber as the main beam, a 3"X 14"X 17' heart pine timber as the bed, a large creosote pole set into the ground underneath on one end and another one protruding high enough at the other end to hold a motor which turned a shaft. Pillow block bearings could not be had so I robbed the mower blade spindles from two Yazoo lawnmowers, one for the live head and the other for the other end. A few pieces of small angle iron here and there, a ten inch pulley, a washing machine motor suspended by gravity to provide belt tension, and I was making my very first lathe turned boat oar by sundown that same day. My Dad used it for twentysix years and another man continues to use it for making oars today. As you can tell...I am quite proud of my very first brainstorm project.