Mr. Wilhelm Huxhold

By Craig Libuse

The third person to receive the Joe Martin Foundation's award is Canadian machinist Wilhelm Huxhold of West Hill, Ontario. Mr. Huxhold has been a contestant in the Sherline Machinist's Challenge for the past four years. After finishing second in 1996 with a last-minute entry, he constructed projects especially for each following contest and has been the winner in 1997, -98 and -99. When he takes on a project, no result except prize-winning quality is acceptable. Following are some photos of Bill and his work as well as a bit of history as to how he learned his trade and how he goes about taking on a new project.

It is worth pointing out that of the three winners of the foundation's award, only Jerry Kieffer is a regular user of Sherline tools. Bill Huxhold and last year's winner, Alan Ingersol are both life-long machinists who have kept the best of their previous full size shop equipment and use it to make smaller and smaller parts. Though Joe Martin is president and owner of Sherline Products, the foundation's award is not connected in any way with that company, and those selected are chosen solely by the quality of their work, regardless of the equipment used to produce it.

Finishing in second place in the 1996 Sherline Challenge contest did not sit well with Wilhelm Huxhold of Ontario, Canada. His entry had been a last minute decision, but for the next year's contest, he had plenty of time to get ready. He says he wanted "to show we can do a few things up here (in Canada) too." After looking for a project that offered sufficient challenge, he decided on the triple expansion engine and obtained a set of plans. He then scaled down each part by a factor of 2.5 to reduce the overall size to fit within the contest maximum size limits of 64 cubic inches. He devoted four months to building the project and ended up with a museum quality model worthy of the winning votes awarded by the spectators at the N.A.M.E.S. show in Wyandotte, Michigan. In 1998 he spent even more time on a Corliss steam engine. His entry for 1999 took over seven months to build. He now plans to retire from the contest so he has the time to complete other projects he has wanted to work on.

Born in Germany, he was always interested in building things. The first time he saw a lathe in school, he knew he would have to build a model of one. (He had to wait a long time but finally completed that goal a few years ago.) Since he showed an aptitude for this type of work, he followed in his father's footsteps and entered an apprenticeship program in 1945 as a machine fitter. (Similar to a tool & die maker in the USA.) Upon completion of a 3-year apprenticeship, he went to work at a glass factory where his skills as a machinist were used to keep production equipment running. Here he learned to make parts not only accurately, but quickly. A broken machine had to be brought back "on line" fast or production fell behind. In 1953, he, his wife and new baby followed his brother in immigrating to Canada in hopes of finding work in his trade. Speaking little English, he ended up taking a "temporary" job in construction that lasted for the next thirteen years. Finally, he secured a job with the Canadian government developing and realigning meteorological instruments that took advantage of his machining skills. About seven years later he foresaw government cutbacks in in-house jobs and began his own business in the same field. Soon the government was his biggest customer. Five years ago he retired, keeping the best of his shop equipment to outfit his roomy 15' x 36' home shop.

"Retired" is a curious word to use for a man who still spends six to ten hours a day, seven days a week in his shop. The difference is, now he is doing only what he wants and building the small and intricate models he never had time for before. His years of work, however, provided him with a pattern for how to take a project from start to finish.

He starts by watching TV. Actually, though sitting in front of a TV, his mind is really at work going through each step that will be required to build every piece of the model. Every setup and cut is thought out in advance, and, though he commits little to paper, before the first chip flies, he knows exactly what each step will be. He trusts nothing to "trial and error" as years of machining parts for a living taught him that method could get expensive. Now it's not money, but time that concerns him. Like many hobbyists, he has enough projects on his list to fill several lifetimes, so he still needs to make his shop time as productive as possible. Working smaller and in greater detail is taking his work to new levels of achievement. He says, "Anything small becomes a challenge. Now days I only do things which are a challenge to me."

After seeing some of the other projects at the N.A.M.E.S. show built by people like George Luhrs and Klaus Bouillon, he picked up a few more tips to add to his wealth of knowledge. But for those who think it might take Bill's experience and well-outfitted shop to produce good models he points out the work done by Jerry Kieffer, the winner of the Martin Foundation's "Craftsman of the Year" award in 1997. Jerry has no formal training as a machinist, only eight years experience as a hobbyist and a full time job which limits his "fun" time. It is desire, not experience or expensive tools that makes the difference. Bill says, "If you have the 'like' for doing things, it doesn't make any difference what you want to do. If you have the urge and the 'like' for what you want to do, you will be surprised at how much you can achieve."

Congratulations from Sherline to Mr. Huxhold for winning the 1999 Martin Foundation award. We hope his work helps inspire others to "think small". Projects like the ones shown here can be built with only a few dollars worth of materials and small but versatile miniature machine tools. All you need is the "like"!