By Wayne Price

    Clay Friis has always loved trucks, especially semi-trucks. You just have to look at the detail in one of his wood puzzles to understand how much he loves trucks and woodworking.
    He spends an average of 40 hours working on each puzzle in the workshop at his home located north of Oakland, Neb. His puzzles are made entirely with wood from around the world.
    “When I started getting into wood working, the guy I was working with was building cars,” Friis said. “So I started building trucks because that was my love. The majority of my work is semi-trucks.”
    He numbers every one he makes, along with his initials and the year it was built. He usually keeps the number one build for himself, ones he considers to be his prototypes.
    The majority of the wood he uses is Black Walnut, his favorite. Birch, Maple and Cherry would be the follow-up woods, he said. Friis buys some of the wood from wood importers because it comes from foreign countries like Africa and Central America.
    He finishes each puzzle with a clear oil and uses different colored woods for contrast. Hickory wood is a yellow wood and gives the look of chrome, he noted. Cardinal wood, which is red, is used for tail lights. Dowels are the only parts of the vehicles that he does not make himself. Dowels are used for axels, pipes, and headlights. Everything else he builds from scratch.
    “All my life, even as a little child, I admired people that worked with wood or metal,” he said. “I was a wood butcher. I couldn’t even make sawdust.”
    He remembers he sent pictures of his puzzles to his former shop teacher and he said, “I can’t believe you’re making those. I remember how bad you were in school shop.”
    Friis graduated from Wayne State Teachers College in 1969 as an English major, with a Music minor. He took a job teaching elementary music in Ralston, Neb. right after graduation.
    “I’ve had so many different jobs in my life it looks like I can’t hold a job,” he said. “When I was teaching school, I also played in a band on the weekends. And every summer I had off I worked for another company. I never wanted to work for one company for 40 years and retire and get a watch. I wanted to learn as much as I could about everything.”
    In 2017 Friis moved from his home in Omaha back to the land his family has owned since 1950.
    In addition to making semi-truck puzzles, he has made many different vehicles including airplanes, off-shore well digging units, antique cars, a Panzer tank, and a Flintstone car. He specializes in custom orders that he can build from brochures or pictures, projects that didn’t need plans.
    One of his semi-trucks sells for $1,000. When he started in the early 1980s they were a bit cheaper, around $350, he said.
    He’s currently working on an ambulance for the Lyons Volunteer Fire Department.
    “As long as I am able and capable and have my shop, I will keep working,” he said. “There will be a day when I can’t.”
    He also runs a bed and breakfast from his four-bedroom home, which includes a fishing pond.