Steelies

ECN - How did all of this get started?

Luther - Do you mean these particular pieces here on the Web site or my constructing things in steel?

ECN - Both I guess. What started the desire to build steel things?

Luther - I grew up in the panhandle of Texas. A lot of oil and natural gas. I lived in a working class neighborhood and one of our neighbors always seemed to be a welder. At that time there were a lot of them that were independent contractors to the oil companies, construction companies. These guys were always taking scrap steel and building something for their own household. Their living was pipelines, oil derricks, refineries and scrap steel was everywhere.

I wasn't interested then. But these ideas were implanted.

ECN - So, when did you actually start these things?

Luther - In my head I probably started about 30 years ago. But my training didn't include welding and I couldn't afford it as a hobby until a few years ago.

My sisters and I have always been fascinated by the plains windmill. My oldest sister had bought one at a church sale in the mid nineties that someone had put together as a class welding project. I looked at it and somehow the proportions seemed wrong. I thought I could do better so I did.

ECN - What do you consider as your best work of art?

Luther - I don't really think of this as art. These are just some ideas I have had and that seed planted a lot of years ago comes to life when I am able to put some of this together. Most of the time I like all of the objects I have made. Occasionally, I have thrown something away it was so ugly. I like making these little windmills.

ECN - Do you look for scrap to match your ideas or do you see things in scrap metal? Found objects so to speak.

Luther - No found objects. I like to take a form and become my own teacher, repeating it several times. So, mostly I buy steel and cut it
into the pieces I need.

ECN - Tell me about the process. What tools do you use?

Luther - A lot of tools. My primary welding machine is a small Miller MIG welder. This is also know as a wire welder. The MIG stands for Metal Inert Gas. It is a variation on the older stick or arc welder. A thin steel wire is pumped continually to the weld through a gun with some kind of inert gas to prevent contamination of the weld where the arc is created. It is the easiest kind of welding to learn. I cut metal using several things. I use the flame from an oxy-acetylene torch. I have a metal cutting bandsaw. I have several hacksaws. I have a small "plasma" cutter. A plasma cutter cuts metal using compressed air superheated by an electrical arc.

I have some hammers. A small anvil. A work bench I built out of steel holds a couple of vises, a metal bender and ringroller. Clamps and magnets help me to hold things together while I weld them.

ECN - I like the things you have here. Why don't you just come up with the ideas and let someone else do all of this work?

Luther - That would defeat the whole purpose of this as personalized stuff. Not 100% hand made, you saw the list of tools, it sounds like a small factory. I like to think of the guys back there in the panhandle of Texas, making these unique things for themselves and their friends. That stuff will last forever and you will never find it in Wal-Mart.
If I were a blacksmith, artist, craftsman then I would charge equivalent prices. As it is I can make some neat durable unique things at a price anyone can afford. When I get tired of making something, then we will take it off the web site.

ECN - Are you telling me that everything you make will be a limited edition?

Luther - Not really. Some of them maybe when I get tired of making them. I don't think I will ever tire of making the little windmills. Every one of them is similar but I don't have a blueprint, they all have their own personality.

ECN - Well, good luck and I hope you make and sell a lot of stuff.

Luther - Thanks. Here, have a windmill.

1.The object ordered will be similar but not exactly what is pictured.

2.Nothing on the website is for children as the flame cut steel is left
rough on purpose to achieve the look we want.

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Site concept and design ECN