By JO HARRISON
NEW England Antique Machinery Club member John Broom loves nothing better than to tinker about in the shed putting his hands to good use fixing tractors and old farm machinery.
Over the last year he has taken up the challenge to restore one of the club’s antique Clyde chaff cutters.
“I have always worked with machinery since I was knee high to a grasshopper,” John said.
“I love the old stuff and it’s good to get them going.”
The Clyde chaff cutter that John has been restoring was first manufactured around 1890 and used through to about 1945. Chaff cutters were used to cut straw and hay to feed animals, especially horses. They were one of the most commonly found pieces of farm machinery on a property and declined in use once machinery replaced the use of horses.
John has worked on the chaff cutter whenever he has had a spare moment.
“I have been restoring it for the club just over 12 months now,” he said.
“A lot of the timber work was rotten and needed replacing, some of the steel work was broken and required welding-up and re-riveted.”
Working on old farm machinery can be very challenging and requires a bit of imagination, especially when machinery is not complete.
“Sometimes it gets a bit difficult and you have to use your imagination to try to replace a piece on the machine that is missing,” John said.
“You scratch your head sometimes thinking how do I get that piece to connect with another piece, it can be one big puzzle.”
John believes that the work the New England Antique Machinery Club does in restoring antique farm machinery is very important.
“So much of this machinery has gone to the scrap heap and disappearing,” he said.
“A lot of people would never have seen this machinery in operation so we need to make sure we record our history by restoring these wonderful machines.”
John is hoping to have the chaff cutter finished for this year’s New England Antique Machinery and Heavy Horse Field Days from 9-11 November at the Armidale Exhibition Centre.
“I don’t know if I will make it for this year’s field days, I still have a few bits and pieces to put in side of it and a few bits I’m waiting for, so we will see,” he said.
