We need to design and build a small, tall display for our good friends at Precision Board. It is a tree with large Precision Board leaves to showcase their green product certification. There were of course plenty of ways we could have tackled this project. I decided to fabricate the tree of welded steel with a riveted base to match the display/storage table which is also part of the project. It seemed simple enough. I bent a couple of quarter-inch pencil rods to form the tree and then ran a welding bead between them. The process was then repeated endlessly around the trunk of the tree. As with many complex and lengthy projects, it seemed to go on and on and on. After two days of forming pencil rods and welding, I was less than halfway up the tree. I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into and as each team member walked by, they added their comments to ‘encourage’ me on my journey. Peter just laughed very loud each time he was within earshot. But The result was looking very fine in my mind and I wasn’t about to give up and do it an easier way. Today was day four of the build and the tree was complete at long last. This little trade show display is without a doubt the toughest we have ever built.
