This past Sunday, May 10th, Andy and I took a truck full of old futon frames and bicycle scrap metal to the awesome metal shop of Gil Crenshaw in Fern Creek, Kentucky.
The space is home to all manner of tools, gadgets, bicycles, cars, boats, assorted building materials and other odds and ends that GIl and his family have collected over the years.
And it is a great place to work on stuff. For example on an ambitious project like ours: building a mobile station (and additional bike trailer) for Falls City Community BikeWorks.
We spent most of the beginning hours cutting and grinding the metal components to the proper sizes according to the plans that Andy had drawn up.
A veritable firework display lit up the space with frequent steady streams of sparks shooting off away from various power tools which Gil, Andy and I operated.
Gil did most of the welding.
Andy did quite a lot too.
And I got some lessons in the craft of welding as well.
Gil’s beloved hound, Rivers, lives next to the shop and we went to give him a short visit and attempted a cuddle (but it’s hard to cuddle an animal that from a distance could be mistaken for a horse or a bear.) Still he was a sweet boy.
As projects like ours tend to do, progress was much slower than expected and we only got through about ½ of it.
And yet something did take shape in the end. Our creation is a source of pride for all involved and we look forward to continuing our plans some day soon.
Many thanks to the most generous, first-rate friend, sponsor, teacher a community bike shop every had: Gil Crenshaw! You’re the man, Gil! 🙂
posted by John Krueger