Part-time job brings full-time satisfaction

Fabricator Charlie Wolfe designed and built this custom clock to commemorate the retirement of an acquaintance and U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs counselor. The camouflage background pays tribute to all U.S. service members.

“I don’t want to do fabrication work full-time,” lamented Charlie Wolfe. He is well aware that his hobby could grow to 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week if he’s not careful. After a lifetime fabricating and welding, and building up a big network of friends and acquaintances along the way, Wolfe has become a go-to guy for many people, a reliable resource for all manner of projects and repairs. He doesn’t mind helping out, but now that he’s semiretired and working 25 hours a week as a welding lab technician at Rock Valley College, Rockford, Ill., he finds that he’s busier than he was when he worked 40-hour weeks.

Entrepreneur, Barter Specialist

An entrepreneur and go-getter from the start, Wolfe rounded up discarded soda bottles as a teenager, returning them to grocery stores for the 5-cent deposit that was customary before recycling bins became commonplace. He graduated to cutting lawns, raking in hundreds of dollars every summer, which was no small feat considering that a dollar at that time, the mid-1960s, had the buying power of $7.50 in today’s dollars.

A stint in the U.S. Army and training in generator maintenance taught him quite a bit about mechanical and electrical systems. He didn’t stop there, eventually cross-training to become a welder. He had never welded before the class, but he took to it so quickly that his instructor concluded that he was an experienced welder. Wolfe came to his own conclusion.

“I was born to weld.”

His 23 years in the military, a combination of active duty, Reserves, and National Guard, coupled with a career in manufacturing, has given him a great wealth of experience in welding and fabricating. He often builds projects without drawings or even sketches. He built a parts hopper for General Motors that was such a success that his employer shopped it around and Wolfe later built similar hoppers for Ford and Chrysler. Another noteworthy project was an engine block hoist that lifted, held, and rotated an 800-lb. block. Constructed from sheet, plate, tube, and a manual boat winch, the hoist was an idea that Wolfe never committed to paper. Not only did he get it done, but he got it done fast, about a week after he got the assignment. Although he’s humble about his abilities, he was surprised to find out what his ingenuity was worth when his employer sold the hoist to its customer for $10,000.

Wolfe is also a big-picture guy who has initiated a variety of strategic projects throughout his career. He started three fabrication shops for various employers over the years and recently revamped the fabrication shop at the community college where he works. He has occasionally dreamed up and built projects for the college that conceivably could be produced and marketed to other colleges and even to fabrication shops.

“I call the fabrication shop [at the community college] the million-dollar room, because that’s how much potential it has,” Wolfe said.

Wolfe doesn’t work in the school’s fabrication shop after hours. He tries to make sure the welding students see him working away on the fabrication equipment. It’s a subtle way to encourage today’s welding students to learn additional skills, which they’ll probably need later anyway.

Time Flies

A recent project, a clock he made for a Veterans Affairs counselor, sums up Wolfe. He has made a few friends among the staff at the local VA clinic over the years, and he decided to make a gift when he heard about a friend’s impending retirement.

Working only from an idea he had in his head and materials donated by his employer, Wolfe used the equipment in the community college’s fabrication center to cut, bend, and weld a stand for the clock. His initial attempt didn’t quite go the way he intended.

Fabricator Charlie Wolfe with the custom clock he built to commemorate the retirement of an acquaintance and U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs counselor.

“The base looked like a flower-pot holder,” Wolfe said.

He did a little disassembly and, salvaging the material, took another stab at it. The second try was just what he wanted: a streamlined design with just enough scrollwork to please the eye. It even has a pendulum, a reminder of the grandfather clocks of yesteryear.

The only drawback to his hobby is the constant encouragement to do more. After one glance at the clock, Wolfe’s daughter assured him that he could sell them as fast as he could make them. Happy with working 25 hours a week at the college and doing countless miscellaneous projects in his free time, the last thing this semiretiree wants is the unending responsibility of a fill-time gig.

But it’s nice to know the work is there if he wants it.