Zuehlsdorf Woodworks LLC.

A cool visit with some awesome people today.

A successful and important delivery this morning. We have been busy with a lot of moving parts for Trinity Milwaukee. Stay tuned as we wrap up various projects. I will do detailed posts for each item as we complete them. For now, we have moved the Altar, Reredos, and Communion Rail back to their original home to acclimate in the space. Five of seven doors have been completely restored. The Wainscotting is off to an amazing start. Cabinets for the Sacristy and Vestry have been delivered, and the first of many Capitals is near complete and ready for installation. In a couple months after we wrap up some details in the chancel, we'll begin putting it all back together where it belongs. The congregation could still use help from all of us to get many projects complete. Prayerfully consider donating to be a part of getting this project wrapped up.

A big thank you to the City of West Allis for doing such a great job cleaning our streets.

Wow! Today was an amazing day! This clip is a very short blip of what happened today. So many folks that share a passion for this church, so many that have strong family memories, baptisms, confirmations, weddings. So many that share the passion of restoring a Milwaukee Landmark. Thank you so much to all of you!! Let's keep this going and help them get back in this sanctuary. Thank you all again!!

Trinity Lutheran Church fundraiser to help restoration effort It gave people the chance to see some of the intricate woodwork that will adorn the church.

We'll be on Fox Six Wake Up tomorrow morning between 7 and 9 to show a brief preview of the Open House/Fundraiser as well as the progress we've made on the Restoration for Trinity Milwaukee tomorrow morning. Tune in and then come to the shop to see it in person between 11 and 4. We'll be providing burgers, brats and beverages while they last. We'd love to see you there!!

Tomorrow is the big day folks! I hope to see you all here to help Trinity Milwaukee ! Pastor Doug Peters tells me there is a very generous donor willing to match dollar for dollar up to $10,000, so we have a goal to exceed. Please come and be a part of this historical restoration.

Thank you,
Ben

One week from today!!

Just received this great flyer for the event you don't want to miss!! A big thank you to Nathan from Sleepy Robot Design for doing the amazing artwork. Please RSVP for the event if you plan to attend. We'll be planning food for a simple lunch that day, and I don't want anybody to go hungry.

Alright everyone, I am probably way too excited for a Wednesday, but I just picked up the flyers for our open house and they look amazing! If you have a business, an organization or if you'd be interested in sharing at your church or school, I would love to drop some of these off. Shoot me an email if you're interested. [email protected]. Thank you all!! I hope to see you on the 2nd.

A Big Thank You to Jodi @ Signarama for doing a great job and quickly! Thank you again to Nathan for the design work. I appreciate it!!

Just received this great flyer for the event you don't want to miss!! A big thank you to Nathan from Sleepy Robot Design for doing the amazing artwork. Please RSVP for the event if you plan to attend. We'll be planning food for a simple lunch that day, and I don't want anybody to go hungry.

WOW!! I am beyond grateful for all the support and kind words that have been coming in from our last post of the Pulpit Canopy from Trinity Milwaukee! If I could be so bold to ask for a huge favor. Please consider being a part of this historic restoration. Visit Trinity's Website and contribute to the efforts or stop by our open house and fundraiser on December 2nd, right here at the shop.

Thank you again for everything!!
Ben

I've been looking forward to this! Here is an update on the Pulpit Canopy from Trinity Lutheran Church. There are a lot of pictures. Please read the captions while going through the timeline. This one was probably the most challenging part of this project to date. This piece sustained the most damage of the chancel furnishings due to its vulnerable location. Putting this puzzle together took a lot of investigation from shadow lines, nail holes and other markings. But mostly it was just a lot of examination of pictures at all stages. We were able to save a huge percentage of the original parts. Way more than I anticipated as they were getting sorted out of the plastic containers. This was an all-hands-on deck type of piece. This will be here at the shop for our open house on December 2nd. It's a cool piece to see up close. Once installed it will be over 20 feet in the air.

This project has me considering a name change to the business, or at the very least a new division. After the re-creation of the plaster parts on the Altar and the Pulpit canopy that we've completed over the last year and a half it seemed logical to offer an option to the original plaster capitals in the rest of the sanctuary. The benefits are the ability to create a stable and long-lasting product that could be built mostly on the shop floor and installed on site when convenient. Since Scott did such a great job with the pieces for the Altar, he was tasked with the blending, sanding and priming this piece. He pulled off another great piece.

We were blessed with the opportunity to take it on. I am so grateful to be able to take on the challenge and restore such an amazing part of Trinity's architecture.

It was great delivering this piece today. For years I've always felt pew construction was fascinating. Historic Trinity has pews that take it to the next level. Unfortunately, most of their pews were destroyed by falling debris when the fire was put out. We were able to repurpose a lot of that material in other pieces, such as the Undercroft Altar and Lectern as well as some crucifixes, however, they were not in any condition to restore. Fortunately, there are quite a few arm rests that have been saved, and we will do all we can to restore those and use them on the new pews when the funds are raised to build them. The rest of the pew pictured is all new but designed and built to replicate the original. It's really important to us to keep the same historic character that so many have enjoyed at Trinity over its 140 years. What an honor to re-create this.

The second delivery was in Pardeeville today. Kevin and Kari were gracious enough to send a project our way. I can't take any credit, Scott knocked this one out of the park. There is something pretty great about taking a piece of furniture that a family has cherished and bringing it back to its former glory!! So many beautiful species of wood that get to shine again!!

Daniel and Scott pulled off another beautiful restoration. This is the first of two family heirlooms I'm thankful to be delivering today. This was made by our customers grandfather and needed a restoration to last another 60 years. Made from Redwood. Each piece was taken apart, sanded and finished individually, then reassembled to receive several more coats of exterior finish. A new axle was needed, so went to the lathe and turned a new one to match the original. We focused on saving as much of the original material that we could, by glueing splits. Only two boards were replaced. Now to load up again and head Northwest.

State Fair is in full swing. We're 2 blocks from the gate. If you need a place to park we're selling parking spots and if time permits rides to Greenfield Ave. Message for availability.

There's something about bringing the original and the new together. There is still quite a bit of sanding and blending, but these are coming together nicely. Old world craftsmanship, new world technology.

Thank you Bobby for stopping by again!

As fifth anniversary of fire nears, Trinity continues to mend On May 15, it will be five years since fire ravaged the 1878 cream city brick Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1046 N. 9th St. While many feared for the future of the Frederick Velguth-designed Gothic Revival landmark, the church survived. Work to restore it continues.

Looking forward to tomorrow. Cutting out some of the last of the altar carvings. Scott is going to be busy.

We were asked about 3 weeks ago if we could have a custom wedding kneeler done in time for a wedding today. It's not always possible, but in this case we got it done. A fun project that will eventually find its home at Trinity Milwaukee. It was cool to visit Grace Lutheran where it will be used tomorrow for the first time. A big thank you to Pastor Peters for the project!! I'm so thankful to have these opportunities and thankful for the hard work that Dan and Scott put in to help me make this happen.