Half-Scale Combine looks like a mini John Deere 45, BUT its a Lawn Mower! Gary Luthman’s half-scale combine looks like a mini John Deere 45, but works like a lawn mower. The 5-ft. header is fitted with three 21-in. reel mowers mounted side-by-side. “When I first decided to build a half-scale combine, my son Jeff suggested that it should ‘do something’, not just look nice,” recalls Luthman. “He figured we could make it mow grass.” Jeff had been the driving force to get Luthman involved, first in garden tractor pulling and then in restoring a John Deere L, the smallest Deere farm tractor. Initially Luthman planned to make a half-scale model of a Massey Harris 82 combine, which he recalled riding on in the 1950’s. But it didn’t match the components he had on hand. The John Deere 45 did. Plus a half-size 45 was big enough to ride, yet small enough to transport easily. “We started with a Simplicity lawn mower,” says Luthman. “Its 12 hp Briggs & Stratton moto
