Dave Gertler
My first project was the Hamster Titanic – convinced my whole kindergarten class to collaborate and that it would float the class pet. It didn’t float long and fortunately the hamster was not aboard for the fitting maiden voyage. In grade school I loved going over to my friend’s house where his mom would give us old phones, vcrs, and blenders to deconstruct with no intention of reassembly. I still love tearing things apart for fun. Legos were another favorite – the peak of my lego career was a electric car with two speed on-the-fly shifting spur gear transmission in 5th grade. More common was the tendency of all my neatly designed lego sets to mix into the incoherent bottomless vat of a rubbermaid. I still enjoy the thrill of scrounging a useful bit of scrap or buried treasure.
In middle school my Dad sent me to a maintenance class at a local bikeshop – I later worked as a bike mechanic through high school and undergrad. Bicycles are a pivotal focus in my work and a wonderful creative medium. I have built and collaborated on dozens of bicycles and tricycles ranging from the typical to the ridiculous. Through highschool, college, and after I led a number of group projects which won grants, commission, and awards: Garfield HS Gambia Computer Project, WWU Drekar Human Powered Submarine, WWU Valkyrie Speedbike, UW Formula SAE rear chassis, Burning Man Honorarium project Hands, and most recently the Ultra Freeze Lounge 1957 Chevy at NIMBY.
I have a BS in Industrial Technology with a CAD/CAM specialization from WWU. Among other things, I have designed and built the following at 8 engineering companies since 2007: ultrasonic transducers, scanning fiber 1.6mm endoscopes, adventure touring motorcycle parts, consumer electronics and enclosures, humanoid robots, and currently arial wind turbines. Though I’m best at mechanical design and machining, I love most aspects of design, fab, project development, teaching, and learning from others.
Refuse to live vicariously
