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View Full Version : Woodstock Ontario Show?



Rod Sheridan
10-04-2009, 4:36 PM
Hi, did anyone go to the wood show in Woodstock this weekend?

I went and was very disappointed in the vendor displays.

In the machinery area there was only General and Saw Stop in the higher end stuff, no MiniMax/Felder/Hammer etc.

There didn't seem to be much in the juried furniture competition either.

Anybody else go and have any comments?

Regards, Rod.

Wayne Watling
10-04-2009, 9:11 PM
I went and like you found it less than inspiring, probably my last year unless we get a miracle. One thing I've been meaning to purchase was a Worksharp 3000 wide blade adaptor and low and behold they had one so all was not lost.
It took about 20 minutes to install and get familiar with it and it works very well with the larger plane blades, I'll probably use it for all my plane blades just because it feels somewhat easier to use working from the top of the wheel.

Actually one of the vendors had Minimax bandsaws but there were no combos.

Regards,
Wayne

Art Mulder
10-04-2009, 9:56 PM
Rod, you're on the wrong forum if you want to chat about Woodstock. ;)
There is almost never any talk here about it. You need to head over to canadianwoodworking.com and check out that forum. Lots of photos posted there also by one of the guys that went on Saturday.

And you'll get widely divergent opinions. Some people like to really complain about the $12 admission fee. (IMHO, that's less than the cost of a movie+popcorn and at least as much fun... :)) And sure, the show is shrinking, but I still enjoy it. It's a fun day out. I got to spend the day with my son, looking at woodworking tools, meeting a bunch of people I only rarely bump into, and so on. You can do lots of comparison shopping in one place.

I do think that the Woodstock show is more about the equipment -- and equipment for regular folk/hobbyists more than pros. The Toronto show (in march) has a lot more seminars/education happening, and so you can see a lot more technique and instruction. But even that show has been shrinking a bit.

There was some MiniMax there -- in the Arena I think, at the Federated Tools booth. At least, someone posted a photo of some MM bandsaws that I noticed. But you're right about Hammer/Felder. Hmm, I'm pretty sure that both Laguna and Felder were at the last show in Toronto, but I don't think I've ever seen them at Woodstock.

If you wanted to talk Minimax, you should have looked up Dave Eisen (he's a member here) at the Federated Tool booth. He's a busy guy, but if you were patient I'm sure he would have been happy to talk to you about those products. Too late now... :(

The juried competition is heavily weighted to carving, yeah. But I have no idea if that was intentional by the hosting group or by chance. It was still fun to browse. The Toronto woodshow hasn't had a competition the past few years, which is a shame.

Should have told me you were going and we could have tried to say hello. I did post a notice (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=121055) last week about the show...

Rod Sheridan
10-05-2009, 10:01 AM
Thanks Art, I did see the MM Bandsaws. and I did visit the Federated booth.

I had an interesting experience with Federated when I was looking at jointer/planer combo's. I visited Markham Industrial and obtained prices on the jointer/planer. I then phoned David who gave me higher prices on the same machine. I informed him that Markham had given me substantially better prices, and was informed that dealers weren't allowed to discount the prices.

A few months later I visited the Federated booth at the Toronto show, and was told that if I wanted to discuss price on the MM jointer/planer I would have to go to Federated in London, they weren't talking price at the show.

Felder was opposite them, so I walked across the aisle, and they were more than happy to give Diann and I a coffee, talk price, give me a show discount and take a cheque from me.

A year later I was in London, as my daughter was working there, so I dropped into Federated to say Hi. (My brother Mervyn is a repeat customer since he lives in Sarnia, and Federated came highly reccomended by him).

They had no explanation as to why I wasn't allowed to talk prices at the show, and their prices were still higher than the MiniMax dealer in Toronto so there wasn't much of an incentive to deal with a supplier so far from home.

Regards, Rod.