This is a note from the old bearded Australian bloke in the video. Not really in the habit of broadcasting my thoughts for the amusement of the entire planet but in this case a few words of thanks and appreciation shouldn't do much harm.. So.. Thank you Mr. Engel for the privilege of sweeping the floor, poking a few holes and turning round holes into square ones at the forge. It was the highlight of the trip from Oz to Montana 95041. In fact, meeting you was the main reason for the trip. Your kindness and patience with an old coot from Australia will be remembered with a quiet smile when the day seems dim. Thank you also Mrs Engel for having us in your home for supper on several occasions and for introducing Pauline to your friends. Regards Chris Harris Crows Nest Queensland Australia PS: For those whose kind and amusing comments appear below, nobody really speaks Chipmunk down here.... Except for politicians that is and no one listens to 'em........ Mostly.
To be honest I don’t come here just to see the wagons. They’re great. But what keeps me coming back is the attention to detail. It’s just crazy how the finished product is always perfection. No stone unturned. I love to watch you go through every painstaking process and not miss a single detail. Thank you for the high quality content.
Fridays, for me, are not only the end of the week, but a rare view into the inventiveness of times gone by, when watching your videos, so thank you! 😊👍
Your new posts always make my weekend. I teach English in a cram school in Taiwan, and nothing I do here is remotely similar to anything you do there. But your work is endlessly fascinating, and watching it just makes me feel better about human beings in general. You've got a hugely positive channel, here, sir. Thank you very much for sharing your work.
It is always pleasing to watch this work. When a man has his own way of doing things and lets another man into his shop to help, there is a significant amount of trust and respect flowing back and forth between the two. It is satisfying to see smith and striker working together, too. Each must know the other's movements and intentions - one word is sometimes too much and full sentences are inadequate...silence is most common.
I look forward to this more than any other subscription I have. It just soothes my soul for some reason. Still don't know how he finds the time to not only do the work but change the camera angles and edit the vids.
@Shoestring Tom Same. Worked with an Amish blacksmith in Pennsylvania. I used to do just enough shoeing to get by but that burning fingernail smell combined with hay, straw and manure has stuck with me for 45 years. Loved it.
I have many different interests, but yes!...I really enjoy watching Dave work. Now for the attempt at a humorous answer: It's no wonder he has time to get all that stuff done...just look at how fast he works sometimes...he should really lay off the coffee, Mountain Dew, or Sundrop! (just imagine it) :D
Very nice to get visitors especially to Chris who chipped in and did not mind being in the video . I didn't comment on last weeks unusual one but found it a pleasant change from your normal upload , now we can all see you have a mischievous amusing side to enlighten the 'run of the mill' working day .
I was always surprised that you don't have dozens of people a day begging to do anything for the pleasure of watching you work. If I lived near you I'd be happy to clean up the workshop just to be able to have the chance to learn something from you. Unfortunately I am about 13000 Km away.
Thanks Dave. You are a real artist both in the shop and with the camera including the editing. Your videos are #1 on my list of what to watch! Please keep them coming!
The water wagon is coming along nicely. I bet you appreciated the help. It looks like he really did help and not just get in the way. I know that sometimes help in the shop really isn't. Thank you for sharing. I think I am addicted to your videos. It's not a bad addiction to have.
I've watched this episode more than 3 times and never wrote an encouragement. Your video here is excellent. and I'm just a little bit jealous that somebody else got to pick up a punch and help you get that crazy 1/2 X 5" with a goofy two radius surface plate drifted square for the bolts. Harris has a true gift there in many ways. Number 1, on the gift list, just being there when it counts. And never mind the opportunity to sweep the floor! What a gift indeed! Sorry for not getting this out for three years.
What better way to learn about a country than in fast motion. It speeds it up a bunch and as busy as you are it must help. lol . Another great video and I could watch you work in regular time. That's how much I enjoy what you do.
Late spring or early fall after the first snow on the Rockies is the best time to see Montana. So Chris and his wife picked a fairly good time to visit. Have been through on I 90 maybe 150 times. I've seen maybe 3/4s of the U.S. and Canaduh and Montana is still the most beautiful area I've seen yet.
Your knowledge, skills and abilities constantly blow me away, knowing just where to hit/press on the metal to get it to bend the way you want it. I have several friends from Australia and they are all "Good People", so glad you were able to meet Chris and Pauline. Chris looked like he had a good time helping you.
@@Bluswede maybe him and Dave could put out an album. Wagon builder chipmunks songs. I see music videos. Riding along on wagons singing. This could be big!! What do you think @EnglesCoachShop ?
@@a0cdhd So good to see several people express that sentiment! My first job started with a broom...if you push one around a shop for a week and pay attention...you will learn a lot about how things work, who does what, and who "knows things".
@@a0cdhd I understand the sweeping and cleaning. The mid-level military officers of the world seem fascinated with that sort of thing...ordering the cleaning of latrines with toothbrushes and whatnot...but painting rocks? Wait...is THAT how they keep Uluru / Ayers Rock that lovely color?
The running gear seems to be coming along nicely. A helper is nice-especially when a fellow needs someone to just hold the light and to hand over that wrench which is just out of reach. Besides that, a bit of company is almost always a welcome thing. Wish you well.
Wonderful stuff! It's great to see real craftsmen at work! Even better, there's no music, just the soothing sounds of the workshop. Great to see an Aussie helping out too! Cheers from "across the ditch" in New Zealand!
Two happy old bearded guys .. breathing life into wood and steel. Old style craftsmanship blends with love and harmony to give birth to a Borax Water Wagon. Beautiful beyond words.
Gotta love the interwebs! My Pop would have so enjoyed RU-vid channels like this and reaching out to folks all over the world with just a click of a mouse...he was an avid letter-writer with pen-pals all over from selling car-to-tractor conversion plans through the classifieds in the back of Mechanix Illustrated and Popular Mechanics. Several of these "customers" were from overseas and a few wrote to him to tell of the substitutions they'd had to make given that they were working with Triumph, MG, Holden and other manufacturers' cars, instead of the American makes from which he had specified parts in his plans. Very proud of Americans' fighting men in WWII, Pop also made sure that this Midwestern American boy knew about how tenacious the Australians were through the battles of WWII. Pop was 26 years old when Pearl Harbor was attacked and, after reading the newspapers and hearing radio reports from the South Pacific, sympathized with your ancestors being left with only minimal help from us early in the war due to the Allied "Europe First" policy. If I remember right, Port Moresby on New Guinea and Darwin in Northern Australia were bombed heavily many times and in harm's way constantly. Plus many Australian cargo ships were sunk by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Then, there were Australian ground units and RAAF squadrons serving in North Africa, the Middle East, and Greece...as well as the Australian units that were absorbed into the RAF Bomber Command and making "deliveries" direct to Hitler's doorstep. Your people definitely made the papers here in the 'States! Yup, Australians have every right to be proud of who they are...maybe more so than some...but I didn't say that last bit aloud, so as not to offend anyone! Reading this over, I can see that this may be viewed as a bizarre post in this place and time...but I'm going to leave it here because I've run across several Aussies in my online travels and not a one of them showed me anything other than goodness, and a little outside-the-box thinking...plus I know a little history that wouldn't hurt my fellow Americans to also know. G'Day!
@@jeffclark2725 Yes, yes...The Borax Wagons were what got me watching, and I've been following along ever since. I'm fifty-plus years closer to this type of craftsmanship than my contemporaries, being that my family have been slow breeders. My parents were in their mid-forties when I was born as were THEIR parents. That means that my grandparents were in their prime around 1900. Being farm folk, transportation and power was mainly equine in nature up til aroung WWII. There was all manner of horse-drawn farm equipment around the farm and my pop had had the 'joy' of working with teams of draft horses. He swapped out the horses, long passed on, for a Farmall F-12 tractor and shared that joy with me. Looking back at it 50 years on...a horse-drawn 'Dump Rake' can be a beautiful thing!
What a great way to spend a vacation, helping out on a fantastic build. I also picked up on that technique of getting the bolt or pin to go through the steel on the other side of the wood. That will come in handy when fitting new handles to garden tools.
@@tomtruesdale6901 Well no.. Not exactly Tom. It was more like Dave handing me the spanner and pointing at the nuts and me pointing at the nuts with the spanner and raising my eyebrows and him nodding in the affirmative. The end result being that the nuts were tightened and no further conversation on the matter was felt to be necessary. Dave is such a clever bugger that his method of indicating what was to be done was so intuitive that even the dimmest of intellects could understand what he wanted. Didn't have much trouble at all with language although I can speak American if required.
@@a0cdhd I have several friends in the Queensland area and sometimes when we talk I have to listen real hard, being in Texas adds to my "accent" and makes it just a bit different. I plan on one day dropping by Dave's shop to say Hello.
@@tomtruesdale6901 Interesting. No. 1 daughter went to Weatherford then Southern Methodist. Be pleased to talk more on c.harris@bigpond.com. This is Dave's public comments thing, not mine. R CH
Dearest Mr. Engel, such fine quality of work. The assortment of wood files/rasps is itself awesome. Each time you used that big flat one I just smiled. I will get to Montana one day, I hear there's some really grand state parks there too, stay safe, and keep up the truly great work. Jim
Well put, says the sick guy who is happy to wake up on the right side of the grass each day...and happier to join his buddies in a hangar at the local airport to engage in teaching folks young and old to "make". We are working on our second airplane build, and I do my level best to learn something every day!
I really enjoyed the Borax wagon series so much I’ve watched it 3 times. Watching you manufacture the reach has taught me another trick of the carpentry trade when drilling through bolt holes. So, thank you.
You sir are a master of many skills. When I was much younger sixty years ago I would hang around a blacksmith shop in town. He repaired wagons and shoed horses and everything else. I wonder sometimes why you do not have a central vac instead of sweeping. You are a wonder to watch and takes me way back.
Dave watching you hand form those reach hounds by eye and having them fit so perfectly is fascinating. Decades of experience making it look like a robot made them 👍👍👍
LOL!...one of my favorite replies when asked, "How did you make that?", is, "I just banged a couple rocks together until it appeared.". Then I confess and tell people that I saw several of them on the internet and copied what I thought were the best parts of each one, combining them to make mine. I usually finish with, "Any idiot can build one of these!". As I say that I'm waving one hand at the thing I was asked about and the other in the air to indicate that I am the idiot that proves the statement. I love seeing that light behind someone's eyes switch on...the light that says, "Maybe I CAN build one of those...this idiot did!".
Having been there Many times while I was in the Navy... I can confirm they're Awesome People! Aside from home... (the US of A!), it's my favorite country in the world!
You are the inspiration of my heart I’ve never been more edgumacated and entertained at the same time as having my soul. Soothed beyond compare Thank You
You can tell, with fair accuracy, when you've a good new worker in the factory. As part of the orientation tour, make a point of showing 'em where the brooms, brushes, and other cleanup stuff is...then, in the next day or so, purposely leave 'em with no production work to do. If they grab a broom on their own, you have a keeper! I have to admit to having done this a lot with the people I've trained over the years. The past few years, that damned smart phone pops out of a pocket all too often when I pull that trick. I couldn't help but notice that Chris had a broom in his hand about 17 minutes in...
Agreed!...making things is becoming a lost art in America...We need to fight against that! I am not the craftsman that Dave is, but I AM a member of Learn Build Fly, a 501C non-profit "corporation" that is a group of builders and makers in Wausau, Wisconsin. We get together twice a week in a hangar at the small Municipal airport and teach anyone who walks through the door how to make stuff. Our main project is our second full-size airplane...but visitors aren't "building an airplane" when they are in the building...they are learning various skills that just happen to result in an airplane rising up out of nothing but steel tubes and bits of wood and cloth. Along the way people can choose to learn welding, woodworking, sewing, electrical circuits, engine overhauling, computer design, LASER-cutting of computer-drawn parts, 3D printing of computer-drawn parts, CNC cutting of foam forms for fiberglass parts drawn on the computer, how to build a CNC machine to cut computer drawn foam parts, advanced broom-pushing, and a few other things that I am forgetting to mention. People can also sit and chat with a 90-year-old Korean War Veteran who has done some neat stuff in his life...or, on special, nice, summer nights...we'll "play hooky" and all go flying as there are enough pilots and planes around to get the non-pilots like me airborne! We need many more groups like this across the country to show kids that there's more to living and working than flipping burgers or getting a college degree and "pushing paper" in an office somewhere. All a group needs a central project that requires many different skills and some charitable donations, which come fairly easily from local manufacturers who need people on their production floor that know how to make things and solve problems. The time is soon coming when problem-solvers, builders, and makers will be able to charge a pretty penny for their skills, because there won't be anything in the labor pool but people cluelessly staring at their smart phones and demanding "a living wage" for that skill!
Enjoyed the video. I hope they had time to visit Glacier National Park and Yellowstone in your state. I sure did enjoy them when I was out there. I wished I'd known you Mr. Engel then I would love to visit you and your Mrs. in the shop. Thanks for taking the time to produce the videos. Y'all take care and God bless.
Hey Dave and your visitors from Australia. Hope you all enjoyed your visit time and touring. You worked great in the shop with Dave and we could see this wasn’t your first time in the shop and smithy. That’s some excellent workmanship you showed Dave. Always enjoyable viewing your videos. Thanks for sharing with us.
Another video I could watch 10x and still feel like I missed something, mabe it's just the work at hand. I've always enjoyed metal & wood work. Dave just takes me to that special place.... Thank you for your time & the video !!!!!
I know the "burning" of the wood actually helps to seal the wood but, without either tar or some other sealer added, that really doesn't do much. Or am I missing something in that particular process? Truly a master piece, always worth watching. Cheers :)
Brings back some memories when you had a halper in the past? It's kind of nice to have skilled help to boot ! I fairly sure this build show the mindset long prior to any actions to this project, figure it out mentally first then proceed. Thanks for recording !