Introducing the Rock Horse Team:
Joe Ryan (Rock Horse Inventor)
Joe has been doing remodeling and construction since the mid 1980s. Joe is a graduate of the New York State School of Agriculture at Cornell University. He then managed his family dairy farm for a number of years. During that time he had a desire to be innovative in the dairy farming business.
“One of my first innovations was to build a no till corn planter attachment. It worked very well and saved a great deal of time which is at a premium on a dairy farm.”
After Joe stopped farming he found himself in sales jobs but was always desiring to work with his hands and mind.
“There is a great deal of satisfaction to see what you have accomplished at the end of the day. Farming and remodeling give that same sense of satisfaction.”
Recently Joe had an idea for what is now known as the “Rock Horse”. After making a prototype Joe consulted with his nephew, Jim Stolo, a Manufacturing Engineer with a background as a machinist and tool maker. Jim gave recommendations for the current prototype of the Rock Horse. Utilizing Jim’s knowledge of manufacturing, Joe decided to take the leap and apply first for a Provisional Patent followed by the current application for a Utility Patent for the support stand he named “Rock Horse”.
“The name Rock Horse just seems to fit ,”says Joe. Originally the support stand was only to be used to stack sheets of sheet rock then with Jim, we designed the extension arms so the Rock Horse could be used as a sawhorse and/or a work bench.”
“The ideas for other uses really came as the answer to prayer. All I needed to do was to use a few accessory pieces to expand the capability of Rock Horse.”
So a total of 15 uses for the support stand became evident.
“I realized that the support stand was darn flexible and it seemed that my imagination would be the only limiting factor for its usefulness. Once it was patent pending then I could talk to other people and see what they thought of it’s flexibility. I wasn’t surprised to see all the positive feedback that I received from professionals and non-professionals. The Rock Horse just may be the future of support tools.
John Ryan (Rock Horse Contributor)
“My brother John is a problem solver, says Joe, when he sees something that needs to work more efficiently it is then that his creative juices start flowing.”
John has about 40 years of experience working with R/D, Engineering, Design/Build, Fabrication and hands on construction workers. John has been involved with the construction of Landfills, Pharmaceutical Plants, Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Plants and major Nano Tech installations. As a certified material supervisor by manufactures, around 40%of his time was spent with the installers in the field.
One day Joe sought John’s input when they were talking and Joe expressed his concern about the left and right stability of the Rock Horse supports stand. It was at this time John came up with the suggestion to use the cross foot more efficiently by sliding a 2x4x8′ through the two cross feet of a set of rock horses. “Of coarse Joe said, that would create the stability that was needed as well as align the Rock Horse into a square configuration.”
Sometimes it takes a set of experienced eyes to see the possibilities of a simple addition to create a new vision. “I believe I would have over thought the process of stabilizing the Rock Horse when the solution was in front of me all the time, said Joe.”
Jim Stolo (Rock Horse Contributor)
Jim is a Manufacturing Engineer and prior to that a machinist and tool maker. Jim has over 20 years specifically related to industrial equipment design and manufacture.
“I worked with Joe on his Rock Horse project initially to help convert its design from wood construction to tubular steel. By taking advantage of the structural properties of tubular steel, Joe was able to increase the strength, rigidity, portability and durability exponentially over the previous version. The “Rock Horse” concept uses a balanced cantilever design that capitalizes on the tremendous column strength of tubular steel,while remaining very light and portable”.
Jim also worked with Joe on the design of the extension arm.
Jim added a large dose of enthusiasm and encouragement that helped Joe to keep the vision moving forward. Thank you Jim.