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Roger Strube MD / Roger H Strube MD |
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CORAL RIDGE COMMERCIAL CONDO ASSOCIATION 3151 Cooper Street, Punta Gorda, Florida |
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UNIT 17 |
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I am one of those men who never grew up. As a result I have a large collection of toys. I have built many or had a great deal of input on their design and construction. Most of my toys require a significant amount of maintenance, repair and/or reconstruction. I have finally realized that I enjoy the designing, problem solving and building of my toys almost as much and sometimes more than playing with them. I also love the tools I use to build things. I have been financially successful enough to afford a good-sized playground. My playground is my warehouse/workshop located about 5 minutes from our home in Punta Gorda. My wife (Saint Kathleen) refers to it as “Dr. Strube’s Museum of Unfinished Projects”. It is 1500 square feet of workbenches, tools and supplies where I can go to make noise and dust. I use one table to keep broken small things that need fixing. Following the completion of repairs needed after Hurricane Charlie, I added a “mezzanine” down both interior walls. This balcony is suspended from the roof girders at the inboard edge and a header attached to the interior walls at the outboard edge. The balcony floor is 1/2 inch plywood screwed into the headers and cross supports. These balconies not only strengthen the walls but also carry plastic shelving that provides storage for lighter stuff. I have a lot of “Good Stuff”. Temporary access is provided using ladders. |
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Looking into the playground at sunset. The red boat is “Wicked Wanda” prior to the extension/rebuild. Wanda’s Amas are suspended upper right. The fiberglass roll carriages on the gantry crain and the overhead “I Beam” 2 ton chain fall are seen above Wanda. |
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An iron “I” beam was added across the workshop with a trolley and 2 ton chain fall. This will be used to lift the engines into the motor sailer I hope to start building in the near future. This “I” beam is hung from the ridge beams of the unit and supported by the outboard edge of the balcony. Wooden 4” X 4” posts have been fitted to support the balcony edge/I beam when it is used for lifting. The inner header supports attached to the roof beams offered a solution to the problem of rolling out long runs of glass cloth when building parts (wings, hulls, etc.). I built a plywood “C” channel that runs the length of the shop on each side attached to the vertical balcony supports. This “C” channel is attached just below the horizontal tracks of the 12’ X 12’ overhead warehouse door and extends the full length of the warehouse. Standard garage door tracks were screwed to this “C” channel. A gantry/carrage was constructed to span the (approximately) 12’ distance between the tracks. This gantry rolls on standard garage door steel ball bearing garage door rollers. |
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The full width gantry rolls the entire length of the warehouse and carries two carriages that may be independently positioned from side to side for centering as fiberglass cloth is rolled out onto a long mold/jig. |
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At the end of the day, I can leave the tools where they are being used, blow the dust off my clothes and go home for a dip in the pool and/or shower. The noise and dust are far away from home. I may be found working at the warehouse most days unless we are off cruising. The warehouse is located in the Coral Ridge Commercial Condo Association complex at the south end of Cooper Street in Punta Gorda. A more complete description of CRCCA my be found on the following Web site: Additional photos of my playground may be viewed by clicking on the film strip below. |
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