Its been somewhat of a busy week. I got some 16x30 pans welded and polished. Met with Doug who drove up from Michigan to look at his finish pan that got burned last season. Looking forward to making a replacement for him. Its going to stretch my creative bending skills. Learning new things is always challenging but fun. My friend lended me a copy of autocad, and have been playing with that. Getting ready to make some drawings to have my arch fronts laser cut.  My wife came down with pneumonia and this morning (Saturday) I'm spending a little extra time inside with the boys so she can get some extra rest.  Then its out to the shop. 

Gearing up

Last weekend I delivered a stock order to Anderson's Maple Syrup, and enjoyed meeting Steve and getting the tour of his bottling operation and showroom. My TIG welder was broke down this week, and fixed yesterday. I have the 16x30 campstove pans made now and will be ready for sale starting Monday. I have a materials list together,and a rough drawing for our new Arch that we are shooting to be ready for sale by December.  Still getting fire brick prices so I can supply brick for it. The fronts will be laser cut. We are going back and forth on if it will be stainless or mild steel.

Labor day weekend

Well I took a half day of work on Friday and worked in the shop for a while. I cut 112 hydrometer cups, and buffed matching bases. Came down with the nastiest cold which is still lingering. So Saturday, and Sunday produced nothing. Monday I cut up all the edge protectors I estimated I will need for the season and did some organizational duties. My friend Mark is going to Israel in a month and is shooting a documentary there with the Steve Pettit and Stevie's Trek. So he wanted some custom camera equipment made out of aluminum. We did some experimental work seeing what I was capable of welding. That was fun. I'm looking forward to helping in this venture.

Today,Mark and I picked up the material that I had laser cut. I'm hoping that by the end of the week I will have the pieces formed and ready to weld. I feel much more prepared this year than last even though I am working full time, instead of being laid off every other week. I am getting an earlier start which feels good.

Laser time

Well as you can see, or probably pick up. Things have  been slow around Wegner Metal Works. Well it has been. After I returned from our missions trip to Romania, I really wanted to spend more time with my wife and two boys. So I took on minimal work and have had a great summer together with them.  Earlier in the year I planned on expanding the business and bringing on new products, but have since decided to maintain for now. Fall is around the corner, and things will be busy soon. So its time to synch the belt tight, and start getting some serious work done.

I have a few new things going on. I made a business contact with a laser shop, and will be getting all stock pans and pieces cnc laser cut to, most importantly, save time on my end, and ensure better quality products. This will allow me to possibly do some more intricate work in the future. Im hoping by this saving time, I will have more time to make custom pans once the season starts. All custom pieces will be mechanicaly sheared and hand formed as last year's were.

Gearing up

This week I started wrapping up a 2 x 6 divided pan and am almost done with that. Other than that, I'm working on stocking up inventory for the upcoming season.

made it to Romania

Our greeting on the plane tv screens that we all had.

We pulled into Munich, Germany as scheduled and had a great 2hr layover there. We tried some of the food,and was good. A little more expensive than I would have liked, but considering that the Euro is worth more than the dollar, and I was in an airport it was par for the course.

One of the cafe's in Munich

an old, looks like WWII era plane on Munichs airstrip

The day's special. 3 weibrats, pretzel and .5L of cocacola for $10 euro.

Ray had this awesome apples streuzel, and I thought I'd try another dessert they had on the menu. The Sachertorte. It was very good!!

The hotel we are staying in.

My Room, we each got our own room

Bathroom

Shower

Weird flushing toilet

 

They have a really nice garden behind the hotel, that has a ton of rose bushes.

romania trip

we arrived @ the airport @ 1 p.m. And landed in chicago @ 3:40. And are taxiing as we speak, or as I'm writing. We now have a six hr. Layover til our flight to munich. I will posts as I can. I hope we have internet access in munich or romania. Stay tuned....