I mentioned at the end of my last  blog post that our neighbor and old friend, Werner got me to commit to help out on a project of his…

He had taken on the task of building a new stage for the Theater Club (Theatergruppe) in the village of Meckenhausen and today (Monday) was the day we were to meet and finish assembling the pieces along with the help of a few other volunteers he had gathered.

But first, we needed some more parts… so I walked over and met Werner at his house and we drove to a tool store in nearby Thalmässing.

Cool place… I guess I’d liken it to a Harbor-Freight™ store but with quality tools.  This place is called Dorner™ (←link here) and is just chock-full of manly ‘get-r-done’ type tools and equipment.  The only problem (for me) is that they’re all 220V.

How do you like these window displays?  Dewalt® power tools…

Stihl® chainsaws and related items…

and Bosch® power tools…

Inside the mega-tool store:

They even had mini-size toy chainsaws for the kids next to the Stihl® display 🙂

After purchasing some fastening hardware and then tearing ourselves away from the cool tool store… we drove back toward Meckenhausen.

We stopped briefly at a historical marker near the village of Mindorf:

The Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal; also called Main-Danube Canal, RMD Canal or Europa Canal, in Bavaria, Germany, connects the Main and the Danube rivers across the European Watershed, running from Bamberg via Nuremberg to Kelheim. The canal connects the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea, providing a navigable artery between the Rhine delta (at Rotterdam in the Netherlands), and the Danube Delta in south-eastern Romania and south-western Ukraine (or Constanța, through the Danube–Black Sea Canal). The present canal was completed in 1992 and is 171 kilometres (106 mi) long. (ref. Wikipedia®)

These bridge foundations (below) were laid by Polish POW’s during WWII when the Rhein-Main-Donau-Kanal was planned in 1938, for the so-called Mindorfer Linie south of Nuremberg.  As early as 1939 the first preparatory work began at Thalmässing in Landkreis Roth. However, after the war this route was dropped and the canal (where the river boats cruise) now runs just north of Meckenhausen.

We also passed by the Pyraser Bier Brewery (below).  My personal favorite German bier.

Here’s the administrative building (below) for the brewery and also the subject of the breweries’ logo (←link).

We finally made it back to Meckenhausen and met up with other volunteers at a Woodworking shop called Maget Schreinerei which is where we spent the rest of the day putting the stage platforms together.

These aluminum frames (below) were already pre-made to specifications and delivered to the shop.

The ingenious locking mechanism (below) is for the platform legs.  The intent is to have multiple (12) platforms than can be easily torn down and set back up again whenever the Theatergruppe needs them.

Stefan and Werner test fitted the platform legs.

These are the pressed board panels that we still have to mount to the frames.

But first, we had to cut the sheets to size.

The machine (above) cut off the smallest of slivers (below) with exact precision.

Then we pre-drilled the holes in each panel to fit each respective frame.

Then it was time to counter sink the holes and place bolts, nuts, and washers through the assembly to tighten.

Only 9 more to go…  Uggh.

After a while, we got a sort of assembly line going.  Here’s Alfons drilling the holes.

Michael sanded down the edges while Werner, Stefan, and I placed and tightened all the fastening hardware.

Michael, Werner, and Stefan admiring their handiwork.

We even built a platform with wheels to store and transport all the stage platforms on.  Here we are loading up the finished products to take over to the Sportheim.

We had to make two trips to get all the platforms over to the sport halle.

And then we had to take them up the stairs at the Meckenhausen Turn & Sport Verein (TSV).  This is the village sport hall.  Link HERE.  This building houses a club house with bar area, locker rooms, and showers.  It also accommodates tennis, fussball (soccer), gymnastics, aerobics, theater, etc.,

This is the theater groups room (below) where the platforms will all be set up and connected together to make a raised stage for performances.  Nice room, eh?

The downstairs bar area.

View onto the fussball (soccer) field.

The fussball (soccer) field.

We finally got all the platforms upstairs and placed them on the cart we made.

Unfortunately, the wheels didn’t stand up to the immense weight.

Guess we’ll have to go get some more heavy-duty wheels at that cool tool store 🙂

We ended up just stacking the platforms on the floor in the upstairs storage room.

Luckily, we had a couple more volunteers pitch in at the last moment to finish stacking the platforms in their final resting place.

Then it was ‘feirabend’ (closing time) finally 🙂  We got together at the local gasthaus ‘Stafros’ for liquid refreshments and food.  You may recall that this is the place we had our Christmas day dinner.

Pyraser bier goood 🙂

Currywurst mit pommes (with fries) goood 🙂

That’s all for now folks… I have to rest up now after all that work 😉