( Brian Huckins)
Fabrication and Repair
In the past, farmers relied on having a blacksmith nearby to make and repair tools and equipment – in addition to shoeing their horses. As well, when household metal objects broke or got damaged, a rural family might rely on a tinker – basically a travelling tinsmith – to repair the object.
In the spirit of both these professions, I offer my services to the New England farming community to make and repair tools, equipment, and farm gear in general. My services include:
- Repairing bent, breaking or broken tillage and cultivation gear as well as other farm machines; planters, spreaders, loader buckets, mulch layers, etc. as well as hand-powered planters and cultivators.
- Teaching tractor safety and maintenance workshops. (see Training and Workshops)
- Teaching practical home & farm welding. (see Training and Workshops)
- Making modifications to these same machines when you have an idea about how they might be improved.
- Building original machines designed in partnership with you to improve the way things work on your farm. (See Implements)
- Duplicating hard-to-find tools or cultivation parts for older tractors (esp. Farmall Cubs and Allis Chalmers G)
- Repairing broken shovels, rakes, forks, and smaller hand tools.
- Making custom hand tools. (see Crafts and More)
- Doing minor tractor maintenance as your travelling maintenance guy.
Things I don't do much: repair engines, build machines you can already buy (unless you want something different), shoe horses.
I am also available to make rounds once or twice a month to do tractor maintenance for you, fix hand tools, and do quick repairs to equipment.
Interesting etymology:
A tinker was usually an itinerant community outsider and considered to be a person of little consequence, poor and coarse and given to swearing so much that the swearing was meaningless. "Not worth a tinker's damn" was a common expression, the approximate equivalent of "worthless".