Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

Watkins first became interested in wrought iron after perusing house and home type magazines and finding illustrations of many beautiful pieces of furniture and household articles made of wrought iron. His wife, LaRue, was as delighted as he with this modern furniture, because it seemed to lend an air of sophistication and luxury to the homes in the illustrations. But Leo's and LaRue's taste was richer than their pocketbook, an affliction common to a lot of people, and these articles were definitely expensive.

Leo might have passed up wrought iron as just one of those things to be admired but not possessed if LaRue had not developed definite ideas upon the subject. She had considerable faith in her husband and felt that he could learn to make the wrought iron articles they mutually admired. Working on the theory that flattery could get her anywhere, she adroitly suggested to Leo that she bet he could make those things if he set his mind to it.

Like any good husband, Leo set about the business of demonstrating that "Yes, he could make those things" (if he set his mind to it). He began checking into the matter of equipment and necessary training for wrought iron working.

HE VISITED the various shops in Fort Worth that sold electrical welding equipment and talked over his plan with the proprietor. He found that while a course in welding would be helpful, anyone with average intelligence could learn to weld on his own.

A salesman at Gordon Salvage Co. demonstrated their equipment and allowed him to try the arc welder for himself. Fort Worth Welding Supply was very helpful and allowed him to try their equipment also. He watched a friend weld and talked over the problems involved in light welding with him before definitely deciding that he would invest in the necessary equipment.

Watkins was surprised to find that he could buy a good used arc welder for $85 and new helmet, heavy leather gloves, and electrodes for another $10 (a new welder costs a third to a half more). These are the basic tools needed, although he has found that a hacksaw, metal clamps, bolt cutter, vise, metal square, and spray gun are also useful. For a long time he used a paint brush instead of a spray gun for economy's sake.

One important item of equipment that must never be omitted is goggles or helmet with proper colored window for observing the welding in progress. The electric arc produces such intense white light that the eyes will be seriously damaged without the precaution of goggles or helmet.

The arc welder will operate on regular 110-volt house-current, although only light welding can be done with that voltage. The best results can be obtained with 220 volts because of the extra power for producing a hotter arc and allowing the hobbyist to work on larger gauge metal. Watkins uses 220 volts since his house was already wired to accommodate an electric range.

When Watkins finally got his equipment together and put his new helmet on to begin welding, he found himself in the dark. He couldn't see a thing through the dark glass window built in the helmet to protect his eyes. No light was emitted from the welder until the end of the electrode actually came in contact with metal. Every time he lowered the helmet after raising it to get set, in the dark he would lose the object to be welded. After considerable frustration and many wishes that he had played more blind man's buff when a child, he discovered that he could raise the helmet, get set, and then lower it with a forward nod without getting his hands out of position. The helmet is connected to the head band with pivots to permit this easy adjustment.

WELDING, like many other worthwhile accomplishments, presents certain problems. Professional looking welds are not usually made upon the first attempt. The beginner is afraid the welder will shock him, or that he might burn himself. When the electrode makes contact with the metal and the white hot sparks fly and sputter, he jumps. But he soon learns that, with proper precautions, his new hobby is safer than driving his own car or taking a bath. Then, he begins to feel at home with it, and his self-confidence begins to blossom.

Watkins recalls one sad time when he failed to use proper precautions, but he wised up fast. He was wearing low quarter shoes at the time when a gob of white-hot metal dripped down from the arc and splattered in his shoelacings where the shoe tongue had slipped to one side. "That was the time I created a new dance sensation," he recalls. "I guess you'd call it a sort of hybrid arrangement of the Blackbottom and the Jitterbug. I might make more money teaching that dance to the hep-cats than I can welding, but it takes a blob of molten metal to provide the proper impetus, and that's a decided drawback." Rather than give Arthur Murray too much competition, he has been wearing a pair of old combat boots while welding since his experience with the hotfoot.

Although the novice welder soon loses his fear of welding, he still has other problems to solve. He finds that the electrode welds to the material, and he has to break it off and begin again. With a little practice, he learns to draw it about a quarter of an inch away from the work after the first contact is made, thus avoiding this trouble. When square cornered table tops are the goal of construction, the beginner may find that his product angles over toward the Joneses until he learns to clamp the pieces to a metal carpenter's square to hold them true while the weld is being made. Table legs may not all reach the floor at the same time until he learns either to measure more carefully or mount the ends of the legs in fishing corks which allows for slight adjustments.

After learning to weld, Watkins began making the articles he and LaRue had admired in the magazines—coffee tables, stands, fruit bowl centerpieces, candleholders, dressing tables, and numerous other articles for his own home.

One problem that he solved attractively with ironwork concerned making a long bedroom into two separate units without destroying the beauty of the larger one. It became necessary either to build another room on the house or make arrangements for separate sleeping quarters to accommodate the Watkins's three children, Leo, Jr., 14, Danny, 10, and Susan, 8 years old. By building a half-wall part way across the long room and extending ironwork to the ceiling he not only accomplished his purpose of providing an extra sleeping quarters for Susan, but made the entire room more attractive.

Having accomplished in the way of ironwork for his home what he had originally planned, Watkins turned his attention to building articles for others.

After a church social at which he had lent some of his wrought iron planter stands and flower pot holders, he sold several articles to people who saw him there and were pleased to find that they could buy them cheaper from him than elsewhere. Thereafter he made it a point to furnish wrought iron pieces for church and school functions. He was rendering worthwhile service and at the same time getting valuable advertising.

Leo, Jr. found that he could sell the foot scrapers his father made by peddling them from door to door. They were especially easy to sell in wet muddy weather. They were attractive looking, useful, and almost any homeowner felt that they were well worth the $1.25 that he asked for them. The elder Watkins soon turned over the foot scraper business to his older son and allowed him to make them as well as keep the $1.05 profit he made on each one he sold. It was good business training for the boy and kept him in spending money.

ONE OF THE MOST satisfactory merchandising methods that Watkins has found is through local hardware stores and ornamental iron dealers. He calls on these merchants personally and sells them wholesale lots of small items such as foot scrapers, fruit bowl centerpieces, and flowerpot holders. Since his wrought iron work is only a sideline business, he limits his calls to stores in his vicinity. About once a month he checks with these dealers to keep their supply replenished, or if the merchandise is not moving, he is glad to exchange it or remit the original purchase price. This policy, he finds, keeps his customers happy and very cooperative. This selling method furnishes a good steady outlet for his products and is his best source of business.

He has advertised in a local shopper's paper when he had a larger item for sale, but usually coffee tables, aquarium stands, breakfast tables, and large pieces of furniture are custom made to suit a specific customer. Many of these customers are sent to him by the hardware and iron dealers who handle his smaller products. Other customers come to him after having seen some of his work at public meetings.

Last summer during the vacation Bible school held at Watkins's church, he taught a class of small boys to weld. It provided handwork for them and also got a lot of mothers and fathers interested in ironwork. Watkins knows from experience that when people see beautiful pieces of ironwork, they want them in their homes.

IN ORDER to find out just how the "Watkins Iron Works" functions, it might be interesting to look in on a project under construction.

A woman who saw some of his work at a local P.-T.A. meeting wants him to build a coffee table like one she has seen in a magazine. She has torn out the picture and left it with LaRue Watkins along with the dimensions she desires. Mrs. Watkins has quoted her a price which amounts to about one-half the price of the nationally advertised article pictured in the magazine. When Leo comes in from his regular job in the postal transportation service, he takes the picture of the table and the dimensions to his garage which he uses for a workshop. He cuts ½-inch angle iron to the proper dimensions with a hacksaw, clamps two pieces at a time to a metal square and welds the corner with the lip of the angle turned inward. With one corner welded, he loosens the clamps and secures another section of the angle iron to the square for another weld. He repeats this procedure until he has formed an oblong which will later support a ¼-inch-thick plate glass top. He cuts ⁵/8-inch round rod into lengths for legs and welds them into place in the corners and braces these by welding scroll work to the legs and the top frame. He has made these by securing ¼-inch rods in a vise and bending them by hand to the desired shape, one at a time. (Modernistic pieces use braces made of straight rods.) This particular table is somewhat ornate, so Watkins forms a pattern of pressed steel moulded leaves by welding them one at a time to the scroll work. (Leaves are purchased ready made.) Now he knocks the flux and rough places off the welds with a file and sprays the table with black metal paint. When it is dry, he shoves the legs into holes bored to fit the rods in fishing corks. (If corks are not used washers are often welded to the bottom of each leg.). The use of corks permits slight adjustments if the legs are not exactly the same length. He sticks one-inch pieces of sponge rubber stripping to the inside lip of the top frame. The strips are placed two or three inches from the corners and form a cushion for the plate glass top as well as building up the frame to allow the glass to come flush with the top rim. The last step in the construction of the table is simply placing the glass, which has been cut to size by the local glass company from which he purchased it, in the frame. Formica or other materials may be substituted for glass; however, Watkins finds that glass makes the most popular top.

WATKINS suggests that one taking up wrought iron working should make arrangements with a steel company to get the metal wholesale. He buys his iron at wholesale prices from the Maxwell Steel Company in Fort Worth which supplies him with an inventory sheet each month giving the size and quantity of all the metal in their stock. Watkins has found that it is not necessary to buy iron in large quantities in order to get it wholesale.

The hobbyist can save considerable money by buying electrodes in large quantities. When Watkins first started working with iron, he bought them in five- and ten-pound lots at ten to fifteen cents a pound. Now he buys them in fifty-pound lots and gets them for five cents a pound.

The ornamental leaves that Watkins uses on many of his pieces are not excessively expensive considering that only a few are used on most articles. When he first placed an order for a lot of them, however, he was somewhat surprised and a little embarrassed.

Since he had got only the address of an ornamental company with no price list, he decided to order 200 pressed steel moulded leaves C.O.D. He left $8 at home with LaRue to pay the postman for the package. When it finally came, he got an S.O.S. by telephone from his wife. The bill was $28 instead of the $8 he had figured would be adequate.

Watkins orders his ornamental leaves from Julius Blum and Company, Inc., Carlstadt, New Jersey. They cost from thirteen and a half cents to twenty and a half cents each depending upon the design required. Ornaments other than leaves are also obtainable. This company will send a catalogue with price list upon request.

JUST ABOUT the whole Watkins family has something to do with this hobby.

LaRue takes orders from people who stop at the house or telephone during the day when Leo is at his regular job. Besides this, she checks popular magazines for new and interesting ironwork designs and keeps posted on costs in order to quote prices to customers intelligently. Probably her most important contribution to the hobby is in her role as critic. She inspects all her husband's work, offers suggestions and sometimes rejections. If she is not satisfied with a piece of work, she usually looks it over, nods, and says, "You know that looks pretty good, but ..." When this happens, Leo gets ready to do some more work. It must please her before he is satisfied that it is the best work he can do. After making the suggested changes he sometimes wonders why he did not think of them himself.

Leo, Jr. makes foot scrapers, as has already been pointed out, and also helps his dad with painting, cutting metal, and grinding rough welds. He has got considerable business experience by buying the metal, turning it into a finished product, and peddling it for a profit.

Although Danny is only ten years old, he also has a part in the hobby. He smoothes rough welds with a file or grinder to get them ready for painting. He is especially useful when his father is working on a large order that must be completed in a limited time.

Profit in ironworking runs rather high, but varies from item to item. The fruit bowl centerpiece which Watkins makes from six-gauge iron wire costs fifty cents to build and sells for $2.50. He estimates that the foot scraper made of ¹/8-inch-by-1-inch flatstrap iron with a base of ⁵/8-inch round rod and ¼-inch round rod scroll, costs only twenty cents to make and sells for $1.25.