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Today we finish a major project in the woodshop and brought our new dust collector online. @ewei will be posting some more details about the state of things very soon. For now, I wanted to express my gratitude and my deep appreciation for the volunteers that ultimately made this the success that it was.
In three days time, we saw projects ranging from heavy and light metal working, fabrication, welding, and painting to construction, demolition, and deconstruction all the way to engineering, intense vacuuming and sweeping. All of them were equally important.
Groups of people who have never worked with each other had opportunities to use their known talents and find some new ones. More than one fell in love with the scissor lift.
We couldn’t have pulled this off without each person. That includes folks that could seemingly do it all, to the ones that arrived just at the right moment when help was needed, and particularly the folks who weren’t sure what to do but still hung out until they saw someone in need.
Some moments were fast, some were slow. In those slow moments I saw people chatting and getting to know one another; recognizing someone by the name they put on their work in the shop, bonding over shared interests… or shared suffering of sweeping that same spot and somehow there’s still dust! As soon as action was needed, folks jumped to it to find that drill, or screw, or part, or piece, or thing to push progress forward.
Corners were not cut! People were not willing to make shortcuts and sacrifice quality. We all knew we’d be looking at this for years to come.
There are still a few things to tidy up and make permanent, however the shop is open on schedule thanks to the hard work involved.
Don’t worry we’ll plug the sanding station back in…
I counted 45 names on the “name pipe”. All from volunteers and folks that came it to contribute to this project. Not everyone was a member! I know each of us has at least a few people in mind that they’d like to call out for thanks or appreciation. I encourage everyone to post a response with who made your day, or a story that you’d like to share.
I’ll start with a few people I want to call out specifically that had some behind the scenes work or otherwise heavily involved. This does not begin to cover the total hours, days, evenings, weekends, spent of volunteer efforts. I would like to thank everyone properly at a BBQ in the near future, stay tuned for details.
@sarahmartin our Facilities Coordinator (The only other person paid to be on-site), kept us fed and happy all 3 days. She was up early to ensure we had a hearty and healthy spread of food, snacks, and drinks. On top of that helped spur side projects like optimizing the lathe area. She made sure we didn’t have to wonder or worry about staying fueled for the long days (14+ hours for some!)
@atwatsoniii for saving us about $10,000 on pipes and ensuring we had a solid pipe plan in place. The numbers are still being tallied, but I can say we’d have been near $10k over budget if he didn’t step in. After purchasing plans from US Duct, he ensured they matched materials from a local Cen-Tex Sprial Pipe company. This was no small feat; plans had to be extremely precise to coincide with tool placements. On-site he was meticulous in ensuring our runs were great.
@morrism14 “I’m only going to be on-site to fix the CNC” and proceeds to run electrical wire, hang pipe, hang drywall, research our incoming Grit blast gate system, installed a new to be lower and accessible for the dust collector, helped coordinate volunteers, and so much more.
@ewei arrived on Friday and snapped into action quickly to inspect our pallet rack for the machine weld it together, add more supports, and more. From there he pleasantly jumped into chats about pipes, electrical, plumbing, and just about everything he was approached with.
@jamesfreeman was involved in planning for nearly the entire 10 months since this project first came to be. He offered guidance and support at key stages of the planning process. During the weekend he helped Michael Morris pull together the details for the switch and blast gates along with moving the big CNC to its new home.
A special mention to Terri who came in yesterday and today. She can tell her kids she’ll run ductwork for them now! After she finished helping with pipes and a little bit of metal work, she vacuumed the walls and windows of the small CNC corner. Did anyone know we had white walls and windows??
@sneezix, Jon, @pconklin2000 were on-site each day for long hours, teaching, listening, working with, and showing a great spirit of a volunteer collaborative environment.
@Glory2God was another key player helping in the planning process for this in trying to make sure the woodshop layout was optimal for the new Felder, along with being on-site 3 long days running around constantly.
@Allzman , safe driving with the T-Flux to Dallas on Monday! We’re trading it in for a discount on the Felder.
Jon W and @Duckie posting everyone’s name tag on the “name pipe”.
I had a blast and I hope you all did too. I can’t wait to be involved with more projects in the future with y’all.
There will be follow on information on volunteer hours, expenses and reimbursements, and a thank you BBQ. If you were involved and did not see or sign up and want to make sure you see information on those topics, please fill out the form. I know it’s a “Sign up to help” but just adding your name and email will help us.
