If it can be built, Phil Huber has built it. The guy knows his way around a shop. What can a guy like that say? Find out below.

Phil Huber on the job by the paint wall.

SBD – What brought you to Production Plus?  How long have you been here?

PH – I’ve been here for six years.  Before that I was in this industry running another shop.  I had a good relationship going with Production Plus as a competitor and also as a fellow vendor. My old shop would get what we call “overflow;” way too much work for our capacity.  We would send work over to Production Plus.  It would get built, then sent back to my shop.  Occasionally these two companies were vying for the same work, but we’d still use each other for overflow.  It was friendly competition. Well, my old shop closed down.  I freelanced for less than half a year.  Then I got a call to come over here to do some work, and I never left.  The running joke around the shop is that I came in to do a week’s worth of metal work six years ago.  (laughs) Production Plus needed someone with metalworking capabilities and a little more; someone who could read a drawing, who knew their way around the whole shop, who could walk in the door, say, “gimme the drawing and let me get it done.”  I had the theatrical construction skills that the shop needed.  It was a natural fit.

SBD –How did you get started in metalwork?

In my college scene shop.  My background is in technical theater.  I was exposed to all the elements of scenery building there, as well as lighting and sound. I went to University of Illinois, Champaign.  It was a good theater program.  A lot of the off-Loop theater boom started with people who were graduate students when I was an undergrad … Steppenwolf (Theater Company), those cats.  The program was very strong then.  As an undergrad and tech theater student it was a very rewarding program because they let you do things.  They didn’t keep you off the tools.  You start off your freshman year making scenery.  All of the things that I do in the shop now, all of it goes all the way back to then.

Metal work is part of what anyone who has been in a scene shop for a long time would end up learning.  I was never an industrial metal worker – a boilermaker or anything like that.  All my work has been strictly scenic; joining, bending, rolling, making internal structural elements or decorative pieces.  It’s called “rolling,” by the way, because that’s the machine the tube goes through when you want a curve: a roller bender.  This is not like a bender that electricians might use, that makes sharp corners; it’s much more gradual.  Shapely and wondrous.  (laughs)  Other things I do frequently are things like cutting aluminum or steel with shears, or a plasma cutter perhaps.  There are so many different processes.  Metalwork is effectively like carpentry: measure, cut, fasten.  It’s just a little slower and a little louder.

SBD –Is there anything you remember from college that you still find significant?  A shop rule, or some kind of maxim?

PH – There are a lot of fundamentals you get taught at that point in your life regarding functioning in a shop, but the thing that is a constant is using your head.  Safety comes from thinking about what you’re doing  Building it right the first time comes from thinking about what your doing.  You have to be smarter than the tool you’re using.  (laughs) I remember that from college.  There were some Southern guys that ran the shop down there, and they always had these great colloquial ways of saying things.  That was one of them. Really, they were talking about having a healthy respect for power tools.  Don’t be afraid–except maybe just a little bit. If you’re scared by what you’re doing, you’re probably going to get hurt.  If you’re completely complacent, you’re probably going to get hurt.  It’s like driving a car; if you’re doing 300 things at the same time you’re driving, you’re probably going to get into an accident.  If you’re scared to death, you’re also probably going to get in an accident.

SBD –Is there anything that still freaks you out, in the shop?  Maybe just a little?

PH – No.  Not freaked out to the point where I’m uncomfortable.  Certain things that, when I do it, my level of focus and caution is elevated: cutting aluminum sheet on the table saw, for instance.  You need to really pay attention to what you’re doing.  Running a sheet of plywood through the table saw is a lot more forgiving than a sheet of metal.  With a piece of wood you get more feedback; you can feel what’s going on, you can hear what’s going on, you get a little warning when you’re not cutting straight.  You don’t get much warning with a piece of aluminum.

SBD –Are there special preparations you need to make to cut aluminum on a table saw?

PH – Oh yes, definitely.  You use an special blade and a coolant spray to keep the blade cool.  Aluminum is actually a fairly soft metal.  It becomes waxy when cut, and will clog up the teeth of a sawblade if you don’t lubricate it properly.  So, you keep the blade cool, which will keep it sharp.  We have a special sprayer for the blade; it attaches to an airhose and sprays water on the blade while cutting.

SBD – What are the advantages of using steel or aluminum over wood?

PH – those materials are usually chosen for one of two reasons: their look as a scenic element, or their structure.  Standard lengths of steel are longer than standard lengths of lumber.  So if we were building 20 foot tall walls, it would be really tedious and not necessarily structurally sound to build it out of lumber.  But steel comes in 20 foot lengths, aluminum comes 21 feet long, over the length it’s a little more rigid and stronger.  And, it could be a wash in terms of expense.  Aluminum is very expensive and has gone up significantly of late; steel is still pretty attainable at a reasonable price.  Long lengths of clear lumber that aren’t going to snap over 16 feet are hard to come by.  You’re going to pay a premium for it.  We’ve done a number of sets, too, where the steel is part of the look.  Another advantage: curves are much easier to do in metal, really hard to accomplish in wood, and structurally weak.

Phil puts the finishing bead on a piece of work.

SBD –Any new shop gadgets out there that you’d like to get your hands on?

PH – We’ve got a pretty complete shop back there.  But there are these computer controlled benders, now, that can do multiple radius bends, that sort of thing.  But we don’t do that kind of thing very often.  If we did, we’d probably have it.  But here’s the thing: any scene shop is essentially a prototype shop.  The design comes through; it’s not the same look, the same thing we built last week.  You could buy every tool ever made and put it to use in a scene shop, because you’re never working on the same thing twice.  One day it’s wood, the next it’s metal, then it’s plastic.  There’s a tool out there for everything.  But that doesn’t mean we should get them all.  It means you make do with what you’ve got.  You improvise, think on your feet, and build that prototype.

SBD –Is that what is fun about this job for you?  The fact that it is a “prototype shop,” as you say, every day?  Always something new?

PH – Absolutely.  It’s non-stop problem solving.  I might get involved with anything in any given area of the shop: metal, of course, but woodworking too, or even painting.  There may be some kind of structural problem to solve: build a turntable that can hold a semi-truck, for example.  That’s the kind of challenge that keeps the job fresh.  Some of the best days are when you conquer a problem–and some of the worst days are getting there!  But if you enjoy a job where you’re not merely working from the neck down, then this is it.  I prefer to use my head, solve problems, think on my feet.

SBD –What are some of the challenges you’ve come across lately? 

PH – Some of the challenges are driven by time, budget, etc.  If every project could be approached with a blank check the solutions wouldn’t necessarily be that challenging. Having to take a motorcycle and a snowmobile, stand them up at a sixty degree angle, and make them spin around is not something you do every day.  There’s no boilerplate answer for that.  And having to do it on a budget and a schedule … there’s no easy solution.  You end up relying on what you know works.  But there are always little differences, little tweaks, that make every job new and exciting.

SBD –How frequently is it that a design will come in that is just a request and nothing more?  For example, “I have a snowmobile and I want it to spin around, and I have no idea how to do it?”

PH – All the time.  It’s the job of this collective to figure out a way … well, a good way … to do stuff like that.  There always is a way.  (laughs)  Whether it’s a good way is what we have to figure out.  It’s rare that we have to go back to a client and ask them to adjust their concept.  If it does come down to that, it’s usually a safety issue, or a budget issue. The concept sometimes outweighs the budget.  But that’s the only time that we’ll really have to ask someone to change what they’re thinking about.

SBD –What do you get from your colleagues here at Production Plus that perhaps you might not get elsewhere?

PH – There are a lot of people here from a lot of different backgrounds.  But when we come together in a collective, if you will, we gel together into a terrific problem solving team.  You have John Archer, who’s been a scenic artist for a very long time.  You have Len Davis, one of the owners of the company, in the shop every day getting dirty with the rest of us.  Greg Kieta is the gizmo guy; he brings a lot to the table as far as mechanical knowledge.  He can get more out of a CNC router than anyone I’ve ever seen.  Plenty of other folks have innumerable other skills and backgrounds and they all contribute in different ways, with different techniques and ideas.

SBD –Do you still feel like you’re learning stuff?

PH – Every day.  One of my axioms that have stuck with me is, “any day that I learn something new is a good day.”  And I get a lot of them!  There’s always something out there to learn, especially with how fast technology changes.  If you look–and it’s right there, if you look­–you'll see something you haven't seen before that can help you solve one of those problems we were talking about earlier.

14 – Is that mix of minds and learning the strength of Production Plus?

PH – In a word, yes.  But that extends beyond the shop.  Go through this company and ask anybody here “where did you come from?  What did you do before you came here?”  you’ll find it’s a very diverse group all tuned to achieving the same goal.  You’ll find that “no” is a very uncommon word around this place.  The answer is inevitably, “yes, and here’s how.”  If this group of people can’t come up with a solution to a client’s request, then I sincerely doubt that anyone else could.