Mike Orr of rural South Haven, Minnesota, loves collecting old farm machinery acquired at auctions. He has set some up at the end of his half-mile driveway where many people often stop to take pictures, and kids exclaim, “Mommy, mommy, look at the Tyrannosaurus rex!”
That is, a Tyrannosaurus rex that Mike created out of old farm machinery parts: the head, the hood of an IH lawn mower, thighs of inverted milk cans, the tail of handsaw blades, and so on.
That is to say, one of 18 sculptures presently created for the end of his driveway.
The ears of his elephant family are old Farmall and Ford tractor fenders. “The snouts are dump rake parts, and the bodies are 50-gallon fuel tanks.”
His five bison have heads made from old stainless-steel Surge Milker buckets, conveyer chain, spade shovels, dump rake parts, and pieces of log chain, while the bodies are old shopping carts and tractor hoods. Lots of old farm equipment in them, just like all his sculptures.
Mike’s hundreds of sculptures made of pieces of old farm machinery grant him the artistic freedom to do what he wants.
In the Old Days
Mike’s first love was art. “When my parents, bless their hearts, knew I wanted to pursue art, they sat me down and said people in the arts never made any money. It wouldn’t work as a living. So, my dad put me in the Marine Corps,” Mike said, laughing.
In the Marine Corps, Mike learned the basis of his life’s work. “I picked up IT (information technology), which led to a very good career running the worldwide global infrastructure for General Mills. But I never got to feed my creative side with it, and life got in the way.” Marriage, children, and work being the primary aspects.
“After I retired, I was grateful and blessed that I still possessed this passion and love of art that I had as a kid and could come back to welding metal sculptures of giraffes, ostriches, a monkey, a horse, and many more.”
The Run-Up
After retiring, Mike decided to learn everything he could about welding. “So I pursued a two-year degree in welding because I wanted to learn how to understand welding technology and how to work with metal. I wanted a solid understanding so I’d do it right and not hurt myself or anybody else.
“That meant understanding the three main welding processes: Stick (shielded metal arc), MIG (metal inert gas), and TIG (gas tunsten arc), so I could use them to create my art. Each method allows welders to do different things.”
Stick is the oldest type of welding. “It’s the one most people are familiar with, and think of when they think of welding,” Mike said. “The welder holds a device and a stick — an electrode — where the smoke erupts as the metal is being welded. Electrodes melt while welding, so have to be replaced, and after welding, the slag has to be chipped away to reveal the welding beneath. Stick welding is traditionally used for large items with a lot of integrity and penetration into the base metal, such as pipelines and machinery. I fabricate larger pieces of metal with it. Smaller pieces are difficult to get the precision that TIG and MIG provide.”
In MIG, a large steel wire is pushed through the end of the welding gun so the arc penetrates and the metal is welded while being shielded with an inert gas. The gas shields the weld from oxygen to prevent imperfections and ensure good penetration with base metal and electrodes. MIG can be convenient, and easier to get into and out of with smaller pieces and tight spaces. Most items at the end of the driveway have been done with MIG.
One of the first pieces he ever did for competition in college was using MIG. “A more compact welder than the one at the end of the driveway, it won gold in the SkillsUSA Minnesota, and bronze nationally.”
“TIG produces a high-quality, clean smooth weld, and is the most versatile, though it requires a lot more practice. It takes time to master. A piece of tungsten is connected to a torch on the welder and you use a pedal to modulate the arc at the end of the tungsten, which is important because that creates the amount of heat applied to the base metal. It takes more time than stick or MIG. I use it for more precision welding, and I can weld anything from very small pieces of metal to heavy metal. So if I want to weld a smaller component in figurines, I will probably use TIG.
“After learning each of these processes, I started to use them to make art and all sorts of different things with the welding.”
At first, when he started artistic welding in 2018, he thought of creating sculptures as a business. “After a while, I realized it had become a job. I’m a blessed man. I don’t need to sell my artwork to keep the lights on. I do it for fun.”
His sculptures all used recycled materials. “Mostly old farm machinery pieces. I find old farm equipment or pieces at auctions, often buying items nobody else wants. I’ve bought entire flats of antique tools for $2 or $3. You have to have a truck or trailer as well as a strong back to be in this game,” he said, laughing. “I love attending farm auctions and getting tractor fenders and not knowing what I was going to do with them.”
Any green tractor part is too expensive. “But red, blue, yellow, and orange parts seem to be easier to buy. Alongside my barn, I’ve piled the results of all these auction forays, with tractor hoods, axles, old kids’ wagons, metal bed parts, anything made of metal. You name it, and I’ll probably use it in my artistic welding. I don’t always know what I’m going to make next. That might be triggered by looking at the parts beside the barn one day, or what’s in my many 5-gallon buckets full of wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers, and this or that, and think, ‘Oh, I could use that to make dogs or other small animals.’ Besides parts, I’ve purchased threshers, dump rakes, plows, disks, rotary hoes, drags, potato harvesters, wagons, hand tools, and so on, off which I can take parts. But I’ve never bought a complete tractor.”
Most people really enjoy his sculptures. “They stop and take pictures, or stop me while I’m mowing, or drive up to the house. They’ll ask how I decide what I’m going to make, or if it’s fun, if the work is for sale, questions like that. It’s something that I really enjoy. People seem to like the personality of some of the pieces.
“I don’t promote my sculptures. When I drag something new to the end of my driveway, people in town wink at me and say, ‘There’s something different out there now.’ I’m driven by the artistic, the creative thing. I’m happy that people like my work, and I enjoy that, but beyond that it’s the creativity. That’s all I really need.”
But some people are not so positive, like when Mike made the welding man sculpture. “Some of the old farmers were troubled when they discovered it was made entirely out of 500 or more old wrenches welded together. They wanted to know why I wasted so many wrenches. They said, ‘Those tools were used for people’s livelihoods for years, passed from hand to hand, and weren’t to be used for what you’re using them for.'”
Selling a Few, Donating a Few
Sometimes Mike sells some of his sculptures. “Small items, like skiers, golfers, dogs and other four-leggeds, which I sell because the wiring, gas, and welding equipment is quite expensive. I also fix things for people to help them out.”
Occasionally, he gets big offers, like the amount from a Kentucky sheriff. “He offered me $4,500 for the first sculpture that I made, which was the welding man because I’m a welder. I saw in myself the stance and using the equipment. The sheriff wanted it for his father, who was a welder.”
Mike also creates his metal sculptures to donate to organizations to help them raise money. “For example, the Tin Man. I made it for a large organization that supports youth, when their theme was The Wizard of Oz. Many people prefer the Scarecrow and Lion. The Tin Man was special, as he was the one that needed a heart, so I built a life-sized tin man with a lot of recognizable parts, like tractor gas tank for the body, fire extinguishers for legs, funnels for a cap.”
He said sometimes people think he just kind of glues things together. “I don’t glue pieces together, but craft and sculpt the metal. The face and head were entirely fabricated out of small pieces of metal. I wanted to help this organization out, because I believe in them and what they’re doing, so I bought him back via their auction. Plus he’s my favorite sculpture that I’ve made.”
Mike has also made sculptures for cancer organizations and others having fundraisers for people in need. “I’ve done nine at Maple Lake, Minnesota, every year, using milk cans, and some old tractor lights, and they can raise $500 to $800 at auction. The proceeds are donated to the Buffalo (Minnesota) Hospital Cancer ward to families in need of money.”
He has also done memorials. “I’ve done them for cemeteries, like my mom’s mother, a seamstress, and my brother who was a hairstylist. They both used scissors as a main tool, so I’ve done entire sculptures out of scissors to be plant holders.”
With some of the larger pieces, he put in 8-to-10-hour days in his workshop. “It’s just that I enjoy it so much. With some of those big pieces, it’s kind of like a quilt where you sew many small pieces together. I had to learn how to form the metal using heat, hammers, hydraulic rams, and clamps. Metal might not seem like it’s one of the most forgiving items, but it is. Provide heat and a little leverage and it will work. If it doesn’t, you can just cut it apart and re-weld, where fabric and wood are not that way. So as an artist, if I see something halfway through that isn’t going to work, I say, ‘Nope,’ and put it back together a different way.”
Mike also makes metal sculptures for people who ask for them. “Many elderly women ask about my making a peacock for their garden. But when I tell them how much time I’ll spend on it, they often back off and say I will probably want too much for it. I’ll work a week or 10 days on one, so I’m not going to sell it for a couple of hundred bucks. Still, people are interested, so they’ll ask for XYZ or this and that. I’ve done some of that work. But it’s different, because it’s their idea. There’s something gratifying when it’s your idea, your work, that somebody wants.
“I love welding in general because of the art I can make. The sculptures are usually a byproduct of whimsy. My grandkids love the elephants, the dinosaur, the camel, and the giraffe. Each has its own personality. Every time my grandchildren look, they smile and know they’re at grandpa’s house.”
Next for him will be a brontosaurus. “And that type of stuff to add to what’s at the end of the driveway. It’s a passion for me, not a moneymaker. I take something recognizable as junk, such as spade shovels and old tractor headlights, and make a camel’s head out of it, hacking it together and seeing what turns out.
“My joy is to get a smile when someone stops out at the end of the driveway, or giggle at a time when they needed to.”
Bill Vossler is a freelance writer and author of several books on antique farm tractors and toys.
Contact him at Box 372, 400 Caroline Ln., Rockville, MN 56369; email: wdvossler@outlook.com.
