Self propelled Holt combine

Hey Bruce, That's going to be a big project. I believe that Holt built a small self-propelled sheet metal machine in the early teens as well, now whether is was prototype or production model I don't know. I have often wondered, if one were to take on the total reconstruction of one of these machines what would one do for lumber. The fine grained, dry seasoned lumber of yesteryear is long gone, if it were to be made of today's lumber it would shrink,twist and split and you would have nothing but a mess, one might have some kiln dried and then resawn (is that a real word) but what about the grain. I don't even know what variety was used originally and lord knows you couldn't paint it with lead based paint you would have nothing but a rolling toxic waste dump (heaven forbid) but you could always put the EPA guy right near the back of the machine to keep an eye on things:eyebrows: Tad

Eastern tulip poplar is close grained, stays straight and lasts a long time without any paint. You eastern guys chime in here. Am I right?

Poplar is good. White oak would be good as well.

I believe Jim Heater rebuilt one of these one stick at a time, would e a heck of a challenge. The museum will probably just get it for a display, I don't think they will attempt to rebuild it.

The wood in the combine I just cleaned up was incredible, NO knots, all vertical grain. It really must have been a sight to see when new. There was red paint on the outside a pretty blue on the inside.


By the way, the kids say the paint on the wood we saved from that old combine tastes great.

We probably won't go after this till spring, but I'll get lots more pictures once it's out of the grass.

BP.

I should add, the beams in the combine we cleaned up sure smelled like pine of fir when we cut them. I've been told they used the very best wood in the combines. Being west coast manufacturered I would imagine some sort of evergreen was used, but I stand to be corrected.

Also, Lorri Dunning had told me there are only 9 of these known. I'm not sure there is enough left of this one to qualify as #10

BP

Laminated Marine Plywood - once painted no one would know. Bob

Keep sharing the harvester stories about how it us to be. Holt anything was what built the company Cat is today.


The wood being a problem is not new.My dad had stories about right after WW2 (I think 47)he had new JD 36b pulled with a Cat 35 D working along side the comparable model Harris wood combine pulled with a D7. The owners of the Harris where very disappointed,the whole machine warped to where the engine was always overloaded so it ran hot. As well as the wood was heavier than the steel machine so the 7 was also worked harder. The problems with this wood combine caused it to be one of the last wooden combines sold locally.