Lifetime Staplehurst resident Stan Luebbe, 69, spends most of his time putting together detailed wooden projects in a shop about 30 yards from the home he built in the 1970s.
He creates fishing lures, signs, cigar box guitars, model trains, model airplanes, violins, model trucks, ukuleles, model tanks, model cars and more.
“It just keeps me busy all day long,” he said. “It seems I can work on a bad day and still have a smile on my face.”
Luebbe first got into woodworking as a teenager by helping his dad, who was a carpenter, build cabinets, cupboards and more. He said he got scars from using chisels before he was old enough.
After working with his dad, Luebbe was a drywaller for five years. He then became a welder at Tenneco for 41 years. After work, he would go to his shop and practice woodworking. Since retiring three years ago, he enjoys having even more time to spend on his projects.
“It’s not like a chore. I love doing it,” he said. “I figure that, at this age, I might as well keep doing it and someday I won’t be able to.”
Luebbe has been especially interested in cigar box guitars lately and is often working on five at a time. He said he has made more than 300 of them over the past 12 years, a few of which are on display at Seward’s Red Path Gallery.
He uses recycled wood for his projects, often by finding old tables, bunk beds or other items set out at garage sales, junk jaunts or on people’s curbs.
As soon as he finishes a piece, Luebbe typically sets it in his basement at home and starts a new one. He has also attended a few craft shows and sent pieces to some friends he has met on vacations.
“Once, when I was making these vehicles, my wife said, ‘We’re out of room.’ I figured that I could handle that, so I went out and made five shelves. Now, I’ve got a whole wall full of them,” he said.
One of his trains – complete with tracks, train cars, an engine and a coal car – is on display for customers to see at Buresh Meats in David City.
One of Luebbe’s favorite things about woodworking is getting a project finished and immediately starting on another one. He said his best days are the ones he is doing so many projects that he runs out of clamps.
“I still have all fingers – a lot of people ask me, because some of these pieces get pretty small,” he said.
Woodworking has become a bit of a family affair for Luebbe. Once in a while, his wife, Peggy, will come down to the shop and work on a project of her own. The couple likes to attend junk jaunts together and even worked together at Tenneco, where Peggy often made the parts her husband welded.
“We’ve worked together besides just being husband and wife,” he said.
Both of his daughters-in-law are good painters and will sometimes paint his creations for him, especially the fishing lures. His two sons are also interested in woodworking, and the three of them like to go fishing together and test out Leubbe’s handmade lures together.
Luebbe said he can’t wait to get out to the shop every morning and start on his pieces.
“Every day is like Christmas out here,” he said. “I’m just happy to be out here and making something.”
