May 23, 2007

Rob's dad was in an accident this morning! He came out of it ok, but his poor, new car didn't fare so well. Rob and I went with him to the towing yard to look it over and take a bunch of pictures. We're all thankful that Jeanie wasn't in the car with him!!

We spent most of the day finishing up the stage that we'll be using next week for Star Mule Days. (www.staridahochamber.com) We still have a lot more decks to build that we'll need later in the summer but we added 6 more to the 9 we already have. This has been a pretty low-cost, profitable asset for the business. To buy a stage of this size and quality, you'd have to pay big, big bucks. We don't have big, big bucks but we do have brains, brawn, a table saw, a chop saw, a welder, a rivot gun, some paint and really cheap labor:

A lot of work goes into buiding these stage decks. Rob and Dale have been prepping them for the last couple of weeks. Dale measured and cut all the metal, Rob welded the frames together, Dale and Rob both worked on the stage legs- more measuring, cutting and welding- and today we added the finishing touches.

First, the sheets of plywood have to be carried in to the table saw to be measured, cut, routed and sanded:

Second, the plywood is glued onto the metal frame, measurements are marked out for rivot placement and the rivots are shot into the wood and frame to hold everything in place.

Then we paint. . .

. . . and paint. . .

. . . and paint. . .

. . . and paint!!!

All of the stage legs have to be spray painted- a great job for the kids!

This stage pays for itself with about 3 rentals. Pretty sweet deal.