Carving memories, machines

RAYMOND, Minn. — Aaron Zenner grew up on his parents’ dairy farm and often tinkered with wood to make toy farm machinery. Today, he has turned his hobby into a full-time career.

Zenner operates Wooden Wheels LLC out of his garage at his Raymond home, where he creates life-like 1/16-scale tractors, farm implements and semi-trucks, all from wood. To date, he has created 390 models that have been shipped to more than 30 states, Canada and several European countries.

“My customers are farmers and truckers; they are my kind of people,” Zenner said. “It’s really fun to see their reaction the first time they see it. A lot of times it was their dad’s first tractor or the truck that they drove for 30 years or something that means a lot to them.”

Zenner built his first model nine years ago: a Peterbilt semi with a cattle trailer. That summer, he built another one. Then a friend asked Zenner to build a model of one of his trucks, and he became Zenner’s first customer. From there, Zenner got more orders, and in 2018, he created a Facebook page for his business.

“(The orders) just exploded since I created a Facebook page and I haven’t slowed down since then,” Zenner said. “I started out working for a farmer in the area and doing this on nights and weekends, then I got burnt out trying to do both.”

In 2022, Zenner stopped working at the farm to focus on his business. He still helps a local farmer out with spring planting and harvest each year.

“I spend about five weeks a year traveling delivering my pieces,” Zenner said. “It is safer and easier to deliver them in person versus shipping them and I really enjoy seeing the country.”

About half of Zenner’s orders are for tractors and farm implements and the balance are semis. With the hundreds of models Zenner has created, he keeps a spreadsheet of what he has made, how long it took and where it went. On average, it takes him 32 hours to make a model. Some of the simpler, older model tractors take nine hours and combines take around 70 hours.

“I really enjoy the challenge of drawing up plans and figuring out how to build a new piece,” Zenner said. “My mind is always spinning, thinking of new ideas on how to do things. It can be frustrating at times but I really enjoy it because when each model is finished, it is all worth it.”

For the farm machinery pieces, Zenner purchases a toy model of the piece and uses that to get measurements. For some unique pieces, Zenner will take measurements in person and then scale them down.

“A couple of years ago, I drove down to Texas to measure a cotton harvester and took a lot of pictures, then came back here and drew it on graph paper,” Zenner said.

Once Zenner has the individual pieces drawn on paper, he selects the types of wood for each piece and starts cutting. Zenner primarily uses oak, maple and walnut for his models, but has 15 types of wood he purchases from all over the world to bring his models to life. Each model has hundreds of individual pieces of wood. Some have over 1,000 individual pieces.

“I try not to stain any of the wood because I like to see the natural color show through,” Zenner said. “I can do purple, red, orange and yellow naturally. The only time I will dye something is if it is blue or green simply because wood does not come in those colors.”

Generally, Zenner’s models are fixed and do not move, as some of the small pieces of wood can be fragile. However, the augers on his combines swing out, the spouts on his self-propelled choppers swing out and some parts on the semis extend.

“I have to balance out accuracy versus strength of the wood,” Zenner said. “There are times I can’t get it to do everything I want it to do, but I am getting better all the time, and it is neat to see my models get better each year.”

Zenner’s work is getting noticed by people from around the world. Every time he makes a Facebook post of a recent build, he receives more orders.

“The number of requests can get overwhelming,” Zenner said. “It’s so unique and every aspect is a challenge, but I enjoy it, so it is worth it. The hardest part is saying no to some requests. I would love to say yes to every order that comes in, but I am only one person.”

Zenner has even been contacted by CLAAS and other manufacturers and asked to make models for them to display. Over the years, Zenner has met farmers and truckers from all over and many of them have become repeat customers.

“I consider many of my customers as friends,” Zenner said. “I have gotten to know them so well during the process of building their model.”

When Zenner is not driving a tractor or building one, he serves as an emergency medical technician and a volunteer firefighter.

“Like a lot of small towns, there’s not always many people who can respond to emergencies during the day,” Zenner said. “I feel fortunate to be able to drop what I’m doing and respond.”