Ken Leshner
11-05-2004, 11:55 PM
My wife and I went to the Woodworks show in Ft. Washington, PA today. There were loads of exhibitors and some pretty good deals, but every time I saw something I liked I looked at SWMBO who was just shaking her head - NO!!
West Penn Hardwoods had lots of fabulous turning blocks, and Hearne Hardwoods had some gorgeous slabs including a sapele slab they were using as a desk. It had to be 4 feet by 12 feet - amazing.
I met a couple of creekers including Dino Makropoulos who sold me one of his EZ Smart Guide systems. He's also working on a new clamp that can handle very thin stock. He demo'd it by trimming just the face veneer off a strip of birch ply. Very impressive. He also talked a lot about his "Dead Wood Concept" by which he means that you don't hold the piece of wood you're cutting - it's dead. All cutting operations should be done by moving the tool over the wood, instead of the other way around. He claimed this would make woodworking much safer. I don't know about that since the only time I was injured was when I sliced off a piece of my pinky while cutting some plywood with a circular saw.
I also ran into Jim Becker who was manning the MiniMax booth and had a real nice talk with him.
I've included pictures of myself with both of them. If any of you have a chance, the show is on through Sunday.
West Penn Hardwoods had lots of fabulous turning blocks, and Hearne Hardwoods had some gorgeous slabs including a sapele slab they were using as a desk. It had to be 4 feet by 12 feet - amazing.
I met a couple of creekers including Dino Makropoulos who sold me one of his EZ Smart Guide systems. He's also working on a new clamp that can handle very thin stock. He demo'd it by trimming just the face veneer off a strip of birch ply. Very impressive. He also talked a lot about his "Dead Wood Concept" by which he means that you don't hold the piece of wood you're cutting - it's dead. All cutting operations should be done by moving the tool over the wood, instead of the other way around. He claimed this would make woodworking much safer. I don't know about that since the only time I was injured was when I sliced off a piece of my pinky while cutting some plywood with a circular saw.
I also ran into Jim Becker who was manning the MiniMax booth and had a real nice talk with him.
I've included pictures of myself with both of them. If any of you have a chance, the show is on through Sunday.