A Celebration of Machinery in Wood

I was recently contacted by John Murphy who was keen to show me his wonderful models of plant and machinery which he has crafted in wood, and I’m delighted to share some of the photos with you here on the Digger Man Blog.

John, who lives in a little town called Bunclody in Co. Wexford, in the South East of Ireland, has been creating these model masterpieces since 2013.

Photo Credit: John Murphy

John tells me that there are no metal parts involved, except for a bearing in the slew ring of the cranes and heavier excavator models. All of these models are fully functional which is even more amazing!

The preferred woods to work with includes iroko, maple and walnut, which as you can see are used to stunning effect with the various different colours and shades.

Photo Credit: John Murphy

John reports that an excavator on tracks can take anywhere from 100 to 150-man hours to build.

The JCB 3CX takes him just under 100 hours to make, however one of the crane models can take anything up to 350 hours.

Photo Credit: John Murphy

The attention to detail is quite simply phenomenal and the skill used to cut, carve and shape the wood is mind blowing.

Photo Credit: John Murphy

John doesn’t currently sell the models, its more of a hobby at the moment, but he is already pondering turning it into a business once the current Covid situation is sorted out.

The Digger Man Blog would like to thank John for sharing these great shots of his models shown within this post.