It has been said that the first law of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts. That is exactly what Cambridge sheddie, Murray Brown, has been doing since he was a nipper. Murray is a mechanical engineer, wood turner, and self-confessed hoarder. When I arrive to check out his growing fleet of home-built tractor models made from upcycled sewing machines, I somehow lose an hour just nosing around the first two sheds of his eight-shed property. Since retiring, Murray says he is happy just tinkering in his sheds, restoring his full-size tractors and making his tractor facsimiles — a pursuit he picked up about five years ago. He does not remember where he first saw the idea but he does remember thinking, “I could make one of those.”
How does that work?
Murray says that growing up, he was always pulling things apart to see how they worked.
“If it was new, I’d take the back off to see what was inside it. If it was knackered, I’d dismantle it and save all the
