Awfs

[Tom Walz]

It was O.K Friday. Really light attendance. Norm Abrams was in a booth signing autograpahs and really talking to folks. He took the time to have a real conversations. Pretty Cool.

Bought a Woodpecker T Square. Don't need it but, Boy, it is a beautiful tool. Woodpecker makes really good stuff. Had a Wolff scissors demo. Didn't know scissors came that good. Ask the guy for the demo where he keeps folding the cloth.

Senco has a great, little, really quiet compressor. Didn't buy it but it is on the list.

Some really cool lasers. Just fun to see what they can do.

Disappointed that not many machines were actually cutting but just going though the motions.

Darn but Vegas is expensive.

Sawstop hot dog demo every hour on the hour. Cool as always.

Tom

[Rich Engelhardt]

Hello,
Those little Senco's are sweet aren't they?

I had my eye on one a short while ago & decided to get something larger instead.(an IR hot Dog 4 gal/2HP)
As luck would have it, the job I had lined up for the IR pretty much fell through.
Oh well - on a positive note, at least I have a mid range compressor that should last the rest of my life.

Now, every time I fire up my uber-noisy tiny little 1 gal Coleman, I half wish it would die so I can run out and pick up one of those little Senco units.

[Byron Trantham]

I bought one and it is quiet (the reason I bought it) and light. The only complaint I have is it does not have much volume. Even an 18ga brad nailer can run it out of air pretty quickly then it recycles. I use my pinner for most trim work and it last a little longer. Would I buy it again? Yea, probably.:cool:

[Pat Germain]

I think they did a lousy job promoting the event this year. I can't help but wonder if that has a lot to do with the light attendence. Dewey and I had considered a trip to Las Vegas for AWFS. I went to the web site and couldn't really find anything. There was no mention of Norm, David Marks or The Wood Whisperer. All they listed were a bunch of spreadsheet lectures from people we never heard of.

Watching video snippets on TWW page revealed Norm, as well a many other fine woodworkers, would in fact be there. I know that's not the purpose of the show, but those folks are a big draw!

Las Vegas can be expensive, but there are some good deals to be had. My brother just spent the night a Harrah's for $40 and got a free ticket to the Mac King Comedy Magic Show to boot. He got a big discount on tickets to "Jersey Boys" at a ticket outlet. Then he tipped the usher and got those tickets upgraded! I had an amazing grilled Cuban sandwich at the Kahunaville restaurantl, at Treasure Island, just a few weeks ago. And the whole lunch was around $10. My folks recently gorged at the Rio buffet where Nevada residents get half-price on weekdays.

The Bellagio fountains, Mirage volcano, M&M 3D movie, Ceasars moving statues, Venetian street performers and the TI Pirate show are all still free! If you arrive early, you can grab a beer and enjoy an amazing dueling piano show at the New York, New York.

[Tom Walz]

They said it would do 15 or 16 18 ga. brads and then need a minute to recharge.

I think it was $85 or there abouts. It doesn't do everytihng I could want but it is really small, quiet and inexpensive. It doesn't do everything buy what it does it really does well and golly, is it quiet.

Decided to go three weeks ago. Caesar was about $120 for a room. meals and even bottled water were expensive. 105 - 100 heat was hard for a Tacoma boy. Lots and lots of beautiful women though.

Glad I went. Looking forward to Atlanta next year and the University Drive in (is that the right name?).

It was a light attendance but I sure learned a lot. The guy in the Forrest booth was a dud but Tru Cut, across the aisle, taught me more about saws than I could handle. Great guy. Really loves tools.

Tom

[Rick Fisher]

I am still in Vegas, flying home in the morning.. Attendance was really low but it made it easy to ask questiions of the guys in the booths..

It was a good show IMO..

Stayed at Treasure Island, $69.00 a night .. nice enough place..

Joe Jensen and I arranged to go to the show together.. great guy to hang out with.

[Wes Grass]

"All they listed were a bunch of spreadsheet lectures from people we never heard of."

You mean like 'Vacuum Pressing and Veneering" with Paul Schurch?

Good seminar and a great presenter. I was really tempted to take his joinery class too, but 8AM after getting back from a movie at 2:00 was a little difficult.

Hilton on the strip was $85 a night. And now that I know how things work, I won't pay for a shuttle to the hotel to drop my bag, and then a cab to the show. Free shuttle straight to the show from the airport, check my bag at Fedex/Kinkos for $3, and then free (+tip) shuttle to the hotel. And next time maybe I'll actually go and check out the pool and bar at the hotel. I must be getting old, all I thought about doing was going to my room and reading literature/watching TV.

Ordered an Oneida V-3000 and got some blades from Felder for dirt cheap. Fedex booth saved the trouble of trying to get them on the plane.

[John Harden]

This was my first time at the show, so I don't have a frame of reference to past shows. I went primarily to see the Felder booth as I just bought a couple tools from them. They were offering great prices on their saw blades and gave me a great deal on a new Forrest 8" Dado King bored for the Felder, so I can't complain.

Grizzly had a huge presence and in my opinion, their tool offerings just keep getting better and better. They offer so much that their sales people weren't very familiar with either the tools or prices.

They had their German made slider (G0674) at the show with a $9450 price tag on it and offered free shipping. However, if you pick up their summer flyer that they had right next to it, you see it is on sale through September 19th for $6995.

Regardless, its a heck of a saw for the money. I was very impressed with the castings, fit/finish, adjustability, etc. Now, if they offered more options for it and a single phase motor, it'd be a good contender to go up against the MM or Felder offerings.

We stayed at Mandalay Bay as the wife and young'uns came along. Very nice hotel and great midweek prices on suites, so I can't complain.

Of course it was 110F, so we pretty much stuck to the hotel and immediate surrounding area. The folks walking the strip who we drove by in the cab from/to the show looked like they were wilting badly from the heat.

Good show, but not the crowds I expected. Couple of people told me it was off about 40% from years past but those who showed up came to buy.

That's my .02

Regards,

John

[Joe Jensen]

I spent the better part of two days at the show with Rick Fisher. Somehow I missed the Grizzly and Felder booths, probably because I spent so much time looking for the ideal wide belt sander for my needs. After a good 5 hrs of wide belt shopping Rick and I are convinced the Houfek is the best deal. Basically the same features as an SCMI 1S, with 2X the weight, for $1000 more. Really nice machine. As soon as I get more space I'll have one.

I spent about 45 min with the main engineer (I think he may be the owner) of Oneida. I discussed my desire for a system that has around 1800 CFM, but 25 in of pressure instead of the typical 12-15 in and higher CFM. My rational is that with 6" or smaller ports, and only one machine running at a time, you don't need more than 1800 CFM. He agreed. He had a new small collector designed for machines with a 2.5" port. It had 90" of pressure and 300cfm. Most don't realize, but that machine will pull much more air through a 2.5" port than a 3000 CFM 12" pressure machine.

Found the ultimate collector for my serious hobby shop. Sold by Martin, it's Alko. A 5HP collector is 70db, and 1950 CFM, 25" of pressure, with a loaded filter. Too bad it's like $10K :eek:

I also window shopped the Martin booth hard.

Based on this show, it seems like within 5-10 years, most pro shops will be built around a CNC setup. In most booths it was clear that you could get setup with CNC for the same price as classic tooling for nearly any volume over 3 kitchens a week. CNC is the same capital, and less labor.

Fun show, and I had a great time meeting Rick and his business partner Tim. Rick even brought me a present, a 1960s Rockwell router.

[Scot Ferraro]

I enjoyed the show -- only spent Saturday there. Attendance was way down from years past and there were fewer vendors than in years past (no Altendorf, Bosch, etc... and Powermatic/Jet only had a couple of bandsaws on display and nothing running), but as others mentioned it gave me a lot of 1:1 time with the different vendors and there were some great deals to be had -- bought a bunch of Klingspor sandpaper for 35% discount -- should last me awhile. Spent a lot of time in the DeWalt booth playing with the track saws. Also spent time at Laguna, General, Felder, Fein and Festool. It was well worth the time and money IMHO.

Scot

[Tom Walz]

I had a couple experiences like Joe Jensen's. Talked to a couple guys who really knew there stuff then the name clicked and I realize that they were "the guy". Pretty cool.

[Dave Lehnert]

They said it would do 15 or 16 18 ga. brads and then need a minute to recharge.

I think it was $85 or there abouts. It doesn't do everytihng I could want but it is really small, quiet and inexpensive. It doesn't do everything buy what it does it really does well and golly, is it quiet.

Decided to go three weeks ago. Caesar was about $120 for a room. meals and even bottled water were expensive. 105 - 100 heat was hard for a Tacoma boy. Lots and lots of beautiful women though.

Glad I went. Looking forward to Atlanta next year and the University Drive in (is that the right name?).

It was a light attendance but I sure learned a lot. The guy in the Forrest booth was a dud but Tru Cut, across the aisle, taught me more about saws than I could handle. Great guy. Really loves tools.

Tom


I also own a small Senco compressor. Great for nail gun use in shop or on the go.
Got one for $35 a few years ago at a factory sale.

[Pat Germain]

"All they listed were a bunch of spreadsheet lectures from people we never heard of."

You mean like 'Vacuum Pressing and Veneering" with Paul Schurch?

That does sound like an interesting presentation. But I didn't see it listed on the web site.

Although attendance and participation was down this year, it sounds like it was still a worthwhile show. I'm sorry I didn't attend.

[Scott Whiting]

I had initially planned on a day and a half. Ended up not going back on Saturday. There were several folks I intended to see that were listed in the Black book but by show time had backed out. Those that I did get to see I was able to spend more time with. My agenda is a bit different than many of you folks as I go to see sharpening equipment and tooling vendors as first priority and woodworking equipment secondary. I did wander through Grizzly, Felder, Delta, Steel City and a couple of others. I noticed many similarities between my TP1300 and the Steel City lunchbox planer.

I have been to every one of the AWFS shows starting in 1991. While this show was sparse in attendance by both vendors and attendees it was still a good show.

[Ron Bott]

Senco has a great, little, really quiet compressor. Didn't buy it but it is on the list.
Tom

I'm a bit late to this thread, but does anyone have a model number or name for these compressors? I'm looking into getting a small compressor and pin nailer, but most of what I have read indicate the small oil-less compressors can be quite noisy. So the Senco is much quieter by comparison?