How?


A little something about the machines I use. 

Lathe
   I use a small metal lathe for all the round
   parts, like the wheels and steering gear.
   Maximum diameter is   Ø160 mm. and
   the maximum length is 450 mm.
   The only modification i made is installing
   a digital read out on both axis.










Standing drill
The next machine is an old standing drill I got a few years ago.
The motor had burned out so I replaced it with the motor of an old water pump. It runs a bit fast now, and doesn't have the torque it used to have before, but it does the trick.
As you can see from the picture i use it with a hole saw for making the blanks out of the wood. Its also used for making straight angular bores through the parts for the shafts etc.













Milling machine
Finally there is the milling machine. Again a miniature metal working machine. the table is about 600 by 200 mm and has a travel of 400 by 150 mm. I use it to machine the grooves in the chassis parts, and to machine the sides of the trailer.
As you can see it leaves a big mess machining wood. Especially the rear fenders of the tractor are a messy part to make: removing  more material then your left with at the end ....





Circle saw
One of the most important machines in the complete proces is undoubtedly the circle saw. All pieces go at least one time through this machine. In this particular case i was cutting birch by the looks of it.

Some wood comes in roughly cut planks, if I am lucky, but most of the times I get some fine and straight pieces of tree, which I need to cut up first in order to get them through the saw.









Oak and Birch tree
Oak boards
Most of the material comes as 60 cm tree stumps. But every now and again I get lucky and stumble upon a load of roughly cut boards or planks. Most of the small old sawmills around here have some fine roughly cut boards in stock. A few boards isn't enough for constructional purposes, but a single board is often enough for me to produce a few tractors or trailers.






Band saw
Belt sander
Besides the already mentioned machines,
I use a number of smaller saw and sanding machines. As well as some hand held machines like a battery drill, chain saw and a sanding machine.
Not all of these are equally essential, they just help to get the job done.






latest addition: a CNC router with all neccesary software,
this enables me to machine parts smaller and more accurate.
as all parts are designed in 3D it's just a small step to CNC machining.

CNC router and laptop






Assembly table, this is where all toys start out.