Machinery Makers
DIY Mining MachineryIn early decades of mining at Lightning Ridge the miners made and maintained their own equipment.
When many new miners arrived in the 1960s, the pool of technical knowledge and skills which could be drawn upon grew rapidly.
Dry puddlers were the first special-purpose powered machines to be made and used widely in the opal fields. To make these, miners learned to improvise and customise new ways of using available materials and drive systems.
Several miners who constructed machines for their own use were asked by other miners to make more for sale. These miners supplemented their income from opal mining by making and selling machines, usually just one kind of machine. Fritz Thurner, Drago Lipnik, Rex Boyes, Ernie McAllister, and many others became well known for their home-made mining machines. Machinery Fabrication BusinessesA few miners who began with small-scale machinery making and repair services, went on to establish successful engineering fabrication and repair businesses. The first was Bob Davidson who, when living at Brewarrina in the late 1950s, made dry puddlers to sell to miners. Bob then moved to Lightning Ridge to set up his business Rural Welding with hissons.
Knud Nexo, who had trained as a toolmaker in Denmark, arrived in Lightning Ridge in 1967.
Knud, working in his business Nexo Engineering, made crucial improvements to the designs of many machines: autohoists, wet puddlers, rumblers, blowers, diggers, man-hoists, and other equipment that was part of the revolution in opal mining which began in the 1960s. His distinctive blue-painted machines were made in large numbers and used in hundreds of mines in the opal fields around Lightning Ridge.
A few fabrication businesses outside Lightning Ridge became leading suppliers of specialised machines for opal mining. One of these was Almet Masters in Adelaide, who built nine-inch auger drill rigs (the Investigator series) for prospecting at Lightning Ridge and Coober Pedy, later also used in other opal fields. These drill rigs, designed for the demanding local conditions, soon replaced Calweld drills for prospecting.
DIY Machinery Repairs and ModificationsAs opal mining machinery became more complex and expensive, all miners have had to learn how to maintain and repair their machines, and comply with more stringent health and safety regulations. In recent years, as fuel prices escalated, it also became important for miners to measure and improve the efficiency of their mining machinery, to reduce fuel usage and other operating costs.
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