Creative Woodworks & crafts 2001-04, страница 60

MEET MODEL BUILDER, SCOTT GEHRKE

WmmmmmmmmB

Using detemiination unci paticncc and an eye for detail Amery, Wisconsin model builder; Scott Gehrke, excels/ In Ihe charming lake-country community of Amery, in northwestern Wisconsin, Scott Gehrkc arises at 4 a.m. most days and heads for the pleasantly aromaLic confines of his basement woodworking shop.

With a fresh cup of coffee nearby and the stereo tuned lo a classical music station, Scott picks up where he left off the previous day, crafting superb rcplicas of some of the world's biggest surface mining machines.

On the walls of his workshop are large photographs showing blast hole drills as high as a seven-story building, 1,600-ton electric mining shovels, and 6,000-Lon walking draglines with booms longer than a football field.

The mining machines were designed and built by P&H Mining Equipment, a Milwaukee-based supplier of equipment and support services to the world mining industry. Nine out of ten surface mines around the world utilize P&H shovels, drills and draglines, and a growing number of those mines arc putting Scott Gehrke's models on display in their lobbies and conference rooms.

"Scott's models are a terrific way for us to say 'thank you' to our customers," notes P&H Mining Equipment marketing communication manager, Mark Dietz. "We are proud of the equipment we supply to our customers, and for their part, our customers are proud of the investment they've made in our equipment. So when one of our sales managers arrives with a model from Scott, they gladly accept it and put it on public display."

Indeed, since late 1999 when Gehrke began supplying his models to P&H, the pieces have reached the distant ends of the Western Hemisphere — from the oil sands mines of northern Alberta, Canada lo the copper mines ol' Chile, South America. In between, the models have gone to gold mines in Nevada, copper mines in Arizona and New Mexico, coal mines in Wyoming, and iron ore mines in Minnesota and Upper Michigan.

"Serendipity — old-fashioned good luck — caused our path to cross with Scott's," Dietz says. "Scott called us out of the blue one day in June 1999. He explained that

P&H Mining Equipment president and chief executive officer Bob Hale (left) thanks Scott Gehrke for the models he is crafting for their customers. In the foreground are models of a P&H electric shovel and a P&H electric blast hole drill.

he enjoyed building models of airplanes and cars and trucks out of wood. He asked if he could have a photograph or two of our equipment so as to create something new. We said sure and sent him some pictures.

"A month later we got some phonographs of a beautiful replica of one |of our shovels that Scott created from |the photo and dead-reckoning. We iitold him to come and see us anytime |he was in Milwaukee and we'd show £him our plant. When Scott said 'how I'about next week?' we said fine, and ahe rest, as they say, is history. I "We equipped Scott with more photographs and drawings so he icould creaLe more models, and over the next few months, he fine-tuned §his models and his model-crafting process. Today, we're going to Scott flo re-supply our inventory every |olher month or so."

What makes Scott Gehrke's success story remarkable is not so much Ithe very high regard with which his '"work is held at P&H and with the firm's customers. Instead, it is the seemingly fierce determination that Scott applies to his model building craft.

About three years ago, Scott was ..badly injured in an auto accident. |Massive head injuries puL him in a gcoma for several days. There was gsome brain damage and memory loss. ^Several months later, Scott had |cmbarked on a slow road to recovery. $His recovery speed picked up a lot isoon after making his out-of-the-blue Icall to P&Ii.

Scott is pretty much his feisty old pself now," says one of his many friends |in Amery, a community of about 3,000, ^well-known to Minneapolis-St. Paul

residents for its excellent fishing, boat-Scott's model. Meticulous attention to detail is _{inq and go}ifing attractions. "With

a hallmark of Scott's work. something so intellectually challenging

and positive and fun facing him every day, Scott is functioning at a high level."

And it's not just P&H Mining ^Equipment who likes Scott Gehrke's |work. Many others have taken notice |as well. This year and last, Scott ^earned blue first place and purple fbest of show ribbons at the Polk ICounty Fair in nearby St. Croix Falls, ^Wisconsin.

A fair official noted that "Scott's models get a lot of attention from admirers both young and old. In fact, |his models are so beautiful and detailed that we decided to keep them under protective glass. People are so amazed by his models that they instinctively wanL to touch them."

The real thing. In a copper mine in Mexico, a P&H 4100XPB electric shovel loads a 320-ton haul truck.

Creative Woodworks & Crafts