Sharing another of my human interest stories

7/26/2010                               Rebecca Sadler                     Profile of  Mr. Ray Carstens

Long before the expression ‘being green’ became popular, Ray Carstens had been doing exactly that. Ray said, “ Sometimes I’ve had to make parts.” Wife, Marilyn, added: “He’s made tools even to help pull stuff out of wells.”

Working as a plumber, water-well pump installer, and as owner of the Graymont Hardware store Carstens has had plenty of opportunities to reduce, re-use, and recycle. “I started here as a worker back in 1957 and became owner in 1969,” said Ray. Marilyn indicated  that “his father was a blacksmith with a shop across the street.” 

Ray’s father was a great example. “My father made machetes out of leaf springs. He hammered them out in his shop. Local men used them overseas in World War II.”

For Ray his interest in tractors got started because what he did was farm-oriented. Ray and Marilyn live near Graymont in a farmhouse with lots of buildings perfect for storing his collectibles.

Carstens’ newest tractor creation was finished this past winter. Ray started describing: “it was patterned after a F20 IH-Farmall or McCormick-Deering.”

“It has an old 2-cycle Wisconsin engine that had 6 volts converted to 12 volts in order to have lights. There is a Cub Cadet rear-end with extensions to make it wider [50”]. It has a 3-speed transmission.”

“The steering wheel for this is a turning lathe. The front steering gears are from a JD 4400 combine. The front hubs are off a golf cart, but I’m not sure about where I got the front rims. Seat’s off a 4430 JD tractor. The back wheels are from a 755 JD utility tractor and the rims were originally yellow but I painted them silver.”

Because it’s an air-cooled motor, “the radiator is a dummy”, added Ray. He shared that the panel seen on the front end is “a section off a 1954 Buick and a lampshade provided the eagle ornament“. Ray fixed it so the tractor runs on LP gas.

More of Ray’s inventiveness is found in the mounted tool boxes. Ray commented, “I took Treflon Fre-Flo applicators with funnels [cut off the bottom]. I had four of them to begin with. Two were used for the boxes and the other two I used the lids for the bottoms [to cover the funnel openings].”

An umbrella is sometimes used. Ray stated that “it’s from a Weber Weeder--a bean walker.” “Those Weber Weeders were originally made in Colfax”, stated Marilyn.

An earlier creation of Ray’s “had a Wheel-Horse lawn tractor frame with a 1928 JD gas engine.”

Marilyn said her husband’s expanded into creating other things this past year. “He’s made what I call ‘buzzards’ from shovels and sickle sections. He’s also made crosses with old railroad spikes--even donated a few to our church fundraiser.”

Fellow First Baptist Church of Graymont member Deanna Albertson said about the Carstens: “You couldn’t ask for nicer friends. They are awesome. My son, Aaron, worked for Carstens  (hardware store) while he was in high school.”

Several years ago, Deanna experienced first-hand one of those ‘it’s a small world after all’ connections for Graymont Hardware store. “I was taking a class at ISU and one of my classmates told me that once he had come all the way out from Normal in order to get something he needed at Graymont Hardware.”

In this modern high-tech age, there are still situations that come when it is handy to know that Livingston County’s Graymont has a well-stocked hardware store owned by creatively resourceful Ray Carstens.