Welcome to www.oilyhands.co.uk

Thanks to Bob for this picture of an old hi lift truck in Rekjavik. It's an International Harvester truck with Simon Snorkel lift which is is still used for access to the masts on fishing boats.

Len is restoring this 1965 Hymac 580 BT. It had previously worked in a scrap yard so he had to find a bucket ram and linkage for it from another machine that was being scrapped.

What Len says about his JCB, "Once all the hydraulics were repaired the JCB was in regular use and fine on hard surfaces.  I had to be very careful in the field to stay on firm soil but as you can see mistakes did happen!  I thought it would have to come out in pieces but fortunately the local farmer has a good sense of humour and a very big 4x4 John Deere.  It was this experience that made me look for something with tracks".

Manitowoc 4600 crane photographed by Mervyn. He says, "it was taken in 1977 on the construction of a new harbour in the Arabian Gulf. It is sat on four columns of hollow concrete 'bricks' stacked ten high, 14 metres above the sea bed. They were loose placed. It was quite interesting to see them sway when there was a swell running. The crane placed/stacked the last eight smaller blocks in front of it with divers and moved forward onto them. It was on the blocks for two and a half years and did about one and a half kilometres of quay wall".

Here is Nick's JCB 2DII, restored/re-sprayed in 2002. He is using it for excavating a cellar for his new build house. The machine is piped for a breaker which is essential for removing the big stones in the Costa Blanca area where he is building.