Columbus man makes mini-wooden tractors

Alan Milder has taken up a hobby of producing agricultural-themed art. Milder makes miniature wooden tractors, which serve not only as lawn ornaments but also as flowerpots. Milder had his tractors on display at the Farmers Market in Washington on Thursday.

Milder grew up on a farm near Conesville and later moved to Columbus Junction where he lives now. He worked at an office furniture company in Muscatine for 32 years but is now retired.

The tractors he had on display measure about three feet long, two feet wide and two feet tall. A tractor contains two flowerpot beds, one that runs along the rear axle and the other which runs along the front of the tractor. Milder got the idea just a few years ago at the Iowa State Fair. He was browsing 4-H exhibits when he came to one that was a miniature wooden tractor. He was so impressed with the young person?s work that he took a picture of the tractor.

Last year, Milder set his mind to making one of those tractors himself. The tractor at the state fair was very heavy, so heavy it could not be carried away. Milder sought a tractor that would be more mobile and still sturdy. Relying partly on the picture he took at the State Fair, and partly on his own ingenuity, Milder made a miniature tractor. He donated it to the Louisa County Relay for Life.

All of the wheels on Milder?s tractors are six-sided and are not meant to be rotated. They have steering wheels, smokestacks and even caps for the water and gasoline.

Milder has painted some of his tractors and left others unpainted. He builds some of them with thick landscaping timbers, while others are made with treated lumber. He doesn?t paint the tractors made with landscaping timbers because he said the paint doesn?t look smooth on them. He paints some of the other tractors green and others red. He refers to the green tractors as the John Deere tractors and to the red ones as the Farmalls.

?I?ve still got some farm blood in me,? said Milder.

Milder can manufacture an unpainted tractor in less than a day. The painted ones require more time. He said he does all the work in the wood shop by his house. He uses a table saw to cut most of the wood he uses to make his tractors. He also has a jigsaw in case he needs a rounded edge or any other fine cut.

Carpentry is not something Milder did as a boy. He became interested in it only after he got married. It has since become one of his favorite pastimes.

?People can bring me a picture of anything and I can build it,? he said.

Milder spends a lot of his spare time building decks. He has also built several swing sets, and now makes wooden wheelbarrows for holding flowers. He brought a few of his wheelbarrows to the Farmers Market to sell alongside his tractors.