By Neil Mansfield

After seeing photos of Michael's Ulman's “one-of-a-kind,”  hand-made, metal bikes you will never drive by or look at another dumpster or trash can the same way again.  All of the parts on Michael's bikes are metal objects that were picked out of someone's trash can or found at the town dump.  If you look closely, you can see parts from old sewing machines, washing machines, lawn mowers, chain saws, home kitchen blenders, dish washers, bicycle parts, and even an old post office mailbox.  

Michael Ulman, a metal artist, welder, and metal fabricator, is the lead welder at Ledge Rock Welding & Metal Fabrication in Concord, Mass and he took the time out of his busy work schedule to share his passion of found metal objects with the Assabet metal fabrication students. What you see in the photos are just samples of many unique hand-made and welded motorcycles that Michael builds during his spare time when he is not welding and fabricating high end hand railings at Ledge Rock.

The scale of these bikes are 36 inches long and 18 inches tall  It takes two to four years to build one, as Michael waits to find the right part to fit into his design.  Assabet metal fabrication students were “blown away” by the quality, designs, welds, and overall uniqueness of these bikes that go from trash cans to high-end art.  To give you a better understanding in the quality of these bikes, Mr. Jay Leno from NBC network is considering purchasing one of Michael's creations at a price tag of $ 15,000 dollars.

Michael also shared with the students how he started his journey of metalworking when, as little boy at his father’s home metal shop, he would help his father hold the found metal objects to weld together for his Dad's art work.  He then went on to college at Northeastern University in Boston  and explored  "what not to do with his life!"  Computers did not seem to be the way for Michael to go in a career.  Instead, he tried mechanical engineering, but eventually he returned to his true passion of metalworking and went on to become a very talented metal artist and metal fabricator. 

Michael's visit has inspired and motivated our students to create and weld a unique class-wide project of found metal artwork.  As always, it has been a metal fabrication tradition for our students to create a very unique “thank you” gift made out of solid metal, with an iron gift presented to Michael from the students at Assabet Metal Fabrication Program.

We also express special thanks to Bob Caras (owner Ledge Rock Welding & Metal Fabrication) for allowing Michael to visit and spend time with the students as Assabet.

You can see more of Michael's metal art work at his web site www.michealulman.com

A graduate of Hobart Institute, Neil Mansfield is Assabet Valley Vocational High School’s Metal Fabrication teacher and a blacksmith/artist.