Sauk Rapids small business creates custom masterpieces

CW & Son Metal Fabrication & Woodworking represents tag team effort

BY TIM HENNAGIR | STAFF WRITER

Sandy Logrono is the next principal at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School.

Logrono was named for the position, pending school board approval March 27. As the current interim, Logrono will assume full responsibility for the high school July 1.

Following the resignation of Karl Nohner in spring 2022, the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District sought applications for the high school principal position from Jan. 6 through March 3.

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SRRHS principal Spring flooding forecast bears watching

National Weather Service briefs emergency directors

BY TIM HENNAGIR STAFF WRITER

The National Weather Service Twin Cities reports an increased risk of area-wide spring ooding.

The NWS has raised the threat of spring ooding to “above normal” in the watersheds of the Upper Mississippi River in recently issued outlooks.

According to the National Weather Service, the Mississippi River at St. Cloud currently has a 57% chance of reaching moderate ood stage.

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Carl Weisenbeck can quickly trace the genesis of his Sauk Rapids custom fabrication business.

It all started with a friendly conversation involving the concept of reverse-engineering.

A woodworking friend in Wisconsin knew Weisenbeck was an industrial welder.

“He asked me to build an industrial table base,” he said. “He showed me pictures of his design. It was plate steel.”

Weisenbeck transformed the raw material into what looked like a sand-cast base from the 1880s.

“It turned out better than I imagined,” he said. “That’s kind of what got the business started.”

Producing custom metal bases for other woodworkers and preparing custom furniture and outdoor products began to take more and more of Weisenbeck’s time.

Weisenbeck recalled his youth, when at age 12, he needed a desk at home. He built it himself.

“It was nothing fancy,” he said. “Honestly, I needed help. My son, James, was about age 10 when he started out as a sanding apprentice. He’s moved up, knows how to thread rod, weld and do everything.”

James, now 16, is a sophomore at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School. Like his father, James designed a hanging desk for his room at home.

“He’s also a really good chef,” Weisenbeck said. “One of his teachers thinks he also has a future in writing. So, who knows?” works full time as a signalman on the Canadian Paci c Railroad. He is gone four days and is home on the weekends.

That is when he lls orders for CW & Son Metal Fabrication & Woodworking.

“It’s not a hobby but a side job,” he said. “It’s a father and son deal. Sometimes, my wife, Michelle, comes out and helps.”

The only one who cannot help is daughter, Carley. She is busy with gymnastics.

Weisenbeck’s product designs come to fruition in his head. He also produces sketches for customers based on their ideas.

“Otherwise, people will just send me a photo of something they have drawn out on a napkin or a piece of paper,” he said. “I just get the dimensions I’m missing from that and ll it in from there.”

Weisenbeck’s preference is having a customer share their ideas and send pictures of what they like.

Brass and aluminum inlays are popular, along with industrial table bases and farmstyle tables.

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