Last Saturday, May 11, I had some friends staying in town, and we decided to drop in on the Antique Tractor Show at Lehman’s. It was a great way to spend the day. (Quite a bit of shopping got done too!)
The day was brisk, but the engine owners were warm and welcoming, eager to discuss their beloved machines.
1924 McCormick-Deering-Farmall 1-1/2 hp
Chris Curtis, Smithville, Ohio
Tiny but mighty! Chris and a friend were tooling around Lehman’s back lot on this little beauty.
Maynard 1 hp, Webster magneto with ‘make or break’ points
Dan Easterday, Pullman, WV
8 hp Sandwich Engine, c. 1920s
Ken Tesch, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
“I have fifteen different engines! They’re like potato chips, you know, you can’t have just one.”
Ken’s engine weighs 3,000 pounds, including the sled to which it’s mounted. The flywheel (in the close-up, at right) is just under four feet in diameter.
Bamford Z-2 and Bamford Z-4
Billy Cherrington, Mt. Vernon, Ohio
These are mostly Dad’s projects, but I help out. The Banfords are from England, you don’t see them very much here.”
Briggs & Stratton-Powered Air CompressorsLarry Casaey, Jr., North Lawrence, Ohio
“That one (above right) is a military compressor, dates from 1942. You could fire a breech gun from one side and fill tires on the other. Some of our early air tools have a piston drive, like military aircraft did back in the ’40s.””Dad and I started out with the B&S engines, but then we got interested in the air compressors.”
The pistons on the Casaey’s vintage air tools are easily visible on the drill shown at right.
Be sure to read Friday’s Country Life, where we visit with the Wall family of Wooster, Ohio, an organizing force behind the spring Antique Tractor Show.
