An Amish tractor? Say what?

[dodge man]

There are Amish in my area and I'd say they wouldn't allow tractors and such. They have worked on my house and the guy in charge was not Amish. They would use power tools but didn't own them. My general opinion is the Amish did higher quality work than the guy in charge. He always had to pick them up and take them to lunch, that was part of the deal. I also had an Amish guy build some built in book shelves. Very high quality. I remember visiting his shop and it was late afternoon this time of year. I remember looking around for a light switch to turn on so I could see them better then I remember where I was. No lights! His tools were powered, but with belts and such.

They are really just normal people, they joke, there are always nice and friendly, but there beliefs will always seem strange to a lot of us. I've learned to just accept them as they are.

 

[sixdogs]

A few years ago I was in an old order Amish production woodshop. There were all the modern table saws and such but they were belt powered. The belts ran through slots in the floor and were hooked up to other pullies underneath. It was a little surprising since the machines ran about as fast as you would expect from electricity. Nice new building with lots of windows and 12V lights.

 

[mark02tj]

They are really just normal people, they joke, there are always nice and friendly, but there beliefs will always seem strange to a lot of us. I've learned to just accept them as they are.

8 or 9 years ago I had a contractor that used Amish reside and reroof a house after a major hail storm. Was a bit surprised that they had a radio blaring on the job site. What REALLY surprised me was their language - and I don't mean Dutch/German. These guys were swearing quite a bit. Wasn't expecting that. They were really nice and did decent work, but I had to make them go back and fix a couple of their "shortcuts".

They had a driver that brought them from Indiana to Ohio everyday. He would run errands if they needed something, but for the most part he hung out in a lawn chair most of the day.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I had Amish reroof my house. They missed a few nail spots, had a couple shingles come loose. Overall did as good as any crew and price was good.
I paid them for labor, I supplied material and dumpster.
They used a power buggy that would raise to roof level and they shoveled old roof into it, then they drove it to dumpster and dumped it.
They came from 2 hrs away each day with a driver.

 

[goeduck]

A few years ago I was in an old order Amish production woodshop. There were all the modern table saws and such but they were belt powered. The belts ran through slots in the floor and were hooked up to other pullies underneath. It was a little surprising since the machines ran about as fast as you would expect from electricity. Nice new building with lots of windows and 12V lights.

What was powering the belts?

 

[dodge man]

What was powering the belts?

I don’t know, but in other cases I have heard generators running at Amish places. There are certain times they have to do modern things, such as keep milk cold if they have a dairy.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Amish use gas engines, they just won’t ride on one. Aka, a tractor.

 

[lman]

Amish use gas engines, they just won’t ride on one. Aka, a tractor.

They drive tractors here, just can't drive cars.

 

[sixdogs]

What was powering the belts?

Stationary mounted engine and this was a large commercial shop. Now, I also saw some water power turning something but not sure what it was for. I doubt anything powerful so maybe it did 12V lights or charged batteries or whatever. I do not know.

Below are some pics I pulled off the internet that are similar to what I saw. They aren't my pics but are close enough so you can see what I mean. The shop was much bigger, immaculately clean and had lots of machines.


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[nybirdman]

We have lots of Amish saw-mills in the area,a couple cabinet makers and a machine shop;all run off stationary diesel motors.The ones that bale hay,bring the hay to the baler.NO moving motors allowed(Old Order Amish).