Baker Stage Phase 1

Back in October we ran sound for a concert in Baker, OR. That show led to one of the biggest projects we have ever taken on. I have known for a very long time that Rob can build anything. During the last 22 years he has built a boat, a large custom oak conference table, about 1500 road cases, countless entertainment centers, bed frames and coffee tables, gorgeous custom doors, several sheds, a couple of houses, a few stages, an outhouse, a play house, a four wheeler and on and on and on. So, when he won the bid on this project, I completely trusted that he could do it but it seemed to me that it would be a huge challenge. I am going to try to explain the first phase of the project here because I have found the whole project to be fascinating. This is the before picture- it's blurry and hard to see because Rob took it with my old, broken camera, but it shows the orchestra pit below the stage that we have agreed to "fill" with a custom-built stage:

This is the view looking down from the stage. Phase 2 of the project will be to build a stage over the orchestra pit stage that will butt up against the existing stage, resulting in a huge stage that is closer to the audience seats.

First, Rob and Dale had to go to Baker and make templates of the area they are filling. The curve of the orchestra pit is bumpy and uneven so these had to be painstakingly cut so the final stages would fit into this area perfectly. The templates in the middle are about 10 feet long.

Poor, poor Rob. . . he had to buy several new "toys" in order to do this project right. Here is his lovely new welder:

The templates were carefully brought back to the shop and gingerly carried in to the back room:

Rob and Dale welded the custom steel frames in these strange shapes and sizes:

We all pitched in to help with the painting:

The next step in the project was to attach plywood to the templates in order to cut and rout them to the exact shape of the stage:

Obviously some of the pieces were too long for one sheet of plywood so these decks had to be carefully pieced together:

I think this part was pretty tricky, but Rob is great with a router:

Once the plywood is cut to the right shape and size, Rob secures it to the steel frames by drilling holes using a countersink bit with his drill. . .

. . . and then a rivet gun to "nail" it down:

All of the plywood had to be "filled" and sanded. This is an example of the bumpy, uneven edges that are necessary for an exact fit:

This is one of the 10 foot decks:

Here is the growing pile of almost-finished stage decks:

Rob and Dale had lots of help. . . (?) . . .

After the plywood was secured to the steel frame the hardwood flooring was attached. Zach was the sorter of the hardwood:

I think this was the most time-consuming part of the whole project. Pieces had to be sorted, measured and glued down. . .

. . . The ends that stuck out had to be carefully trimmed. . .
. . . and the hardwood had to be puttied and sanded.

The hardwood looked beautiful. . . too bad they have to paint it . . . black. . .

. . . And, of course, these bumpy, uneven edges had to remain intact:

By this stage in the project the decks were very heavy. Rob and Dale lifted and carried and lifted and carried. . .

When the hardwood on each deck was completed, it was loaded directly into the truck. Rob and Dale made a make-shift dolly just for this purpose. They lifted it off the table onto the dolly. . .

. . . they carefully strapped it on. . .

. . . loaded it into the truck. . .

. . . and carefully strapped it into the truck.

All 10 decks were completed and loaded into the truck on Wednesday night. Thursday morning the men headed to Baker to install the stage well before the Monday deadline. I wasn't there (thankfully!) for this part, so Rob took a few pictures with the old, broken camera. . . The supports that the stage is resting on are custom built wooden frames that work with the slight slope of the floor to support the heavy decks:

Each deck had to be slid into place and any part of the deck that was off in the slightest had to be carefully cut and sanded for a perfect fit:

The curve of the orchestra pit is quite wavy and uneven as you can see in this picture:

After the decks were installed, Dale and Rob used floor sanders to give the decks a beautiful finish. The final step was somewhat painful. . . using a paint sprayer, all of the gorgeous hardwood was painted. . . black. . .

The existing stage is black so this made sense even if it was less than desirable! It turned out beautiful, in spite of the paint.

Even the with best protective measures, the room was covered in sawdust when the project was finished so, after several hours of clean up, Rob and Dale were able to sit back for a moment and admire their work.

The install took two entire days and was physically and mentally exhausting. They finished the clean up at about 2 a.m., took a final look around and closed the locked door behind them. That was about the time Rob realized his cell phone was missing. . . and that subject will take up an entire post of it's own at a later date. . .