Short story from 60's or before about building infinite energy source from rubbish pile

The part I remember is that, possibly after a UFO or similar sighting, a farm-hand/individual suddenly puts together a machine that is self powered from the resources of the rubbish pile (metals etc) (by a barn?).

This astonishes the army, generals etc; at the end he disassembles it before they find out how it works.

The phrase I think I remember is that at the end:

He quietly said "whee"!

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