After Action - SawMill Creek Swap Meet

[Ted Shrader]

All -

Thank you Keith and Jackie for hosting and all those attending for coming. The generous gifts by various sponsors were very well received and generated a good bit of discussion.

Dino Makropoulos demonstrated the Eurekazone (http://www.eurekazone.com/) EZ Smart Guide system. I read about the happy owners here. Now I understand why. What a great system! Many innovations and the improvements are still coming. Ken Salisbury demonstrated pen turning. Got my wife hooked. (Thanks, Ken! ;) :rolleyes: :)) Aaron and Keith demonstrated the CNC router and laser engraver. Earl Reid was honored for his contributions to the Freedom Pen Project. Keith presented him with a well deserved plaque for all of his fine efforts.

Great weather for the day. Outstanding conversations, discussions, and general kibitzing. All in all, an exceptional day! A fall event is tentatively planned. So, if you were not able to make this one, plan to attend this fall.

Ted

ps Many pictures were taken by Keith and Jackie's girls and others. I am sure they will be posted shortly.

[Carole Valentine]

I left the house at around 8:30 this morning with my cooler, a chair, money, a sample of Box Elder for Ed lang and a Jet Mini bed extension to trade or sell. Forty five minutes later I had not gotten 5 miles from my house! Route 13 south was closed due to multiple accidents, traffic was horrible (where ARE all those people going????) and some jerk in an SUV pulling a trailer of lumber lost it in front of me on the detour and I almost got rear ended. Then my "Check Engine" light came on. I figured "someone" was trying to tell me something, and that traffic was probably unbearable in Hampton Roads, so I turned around and came back home! I know you guys and gals had a great time! Really ticks me that I missed it. Maybe in October. Turns out the check engine light was the O2 sensor...not critical, but tough on gas mileage.

[Bill Sampson]

I would like to echo the comments by Ted Shrader. The demonstrations were all very well received and much was learned by watching them. It was great to see and personally meet many woodworkers that I admire on this forum. Keith and Jackie are to be commended for their hard work in making this get together a success!!
As I was driving home, reflecting on the day,the most impressive part for me was observing three young people interacting with an "older group" with grace and maturity. Jess, Kathy, and Aaron assumed several duties which allowed Keith and Jackie to talk and spend time with their guests. They were completely comfortable with the attendees, and involved with all activities. I know, Keith and Jackie, you are very proud of your "3" young people, but I want you to know that the wonderful spirit of these three did not go unoticed. Please convey my thoughts to them.
Bill Sampson, Richmond

[Jeff Sudmeier]

It was cold and rainy here all day!

Glad to hear that the swap meet was a good time!

[Keith Outten]

Thanks Ted and Bill for the nice comments, Jackie and I really enjoyed visiting with everyone today. I think it was about 9pm before we finally wrapped, we completed the engraved sign for Ralph Steffey and still had a couple of engraving jobs to do for Ken Salisbury before we shut down the shop.

We did take a large number of photos today, it will take us a couple of days to go through them and get them on the SwapMeet web site. Bill Sampson's reproduction Thomas Jefferson lap desk stole the show, it was just beautiful and I can't wait for everyone to see the pictures.

Below is a group picture that we had everyone sign...a few of our members are missing in the picture who had to leave early or were out to lunch. You can tell the weather was just perfect, with temperatures in the low 80's.

After we have had an opportunity to get some rest we will post the photos and more details. Thanks to everyone who participated, we really had a great time and are looking forward to the next SwapMeet.

[Philip Duffy]

Guess I should not compain after Carole's experience. Went to the Urbanna Art on the Half Shell, did my demo thing, stood around for hour after hour and watched people walk by all the booths and never reach for their wallet. I guess I was champ-sell in my are with 5 small items sold, including 2 to an Irish visitor. I did find one new canditate for a turning club I am starting up in June, somewhere in the W'burg, VA area and invite all interested to contact me by email or phone. We will be a roving location club until we settle on a shop that someone can host a meeting/demo. Any & all ideas welcomed. Philip

[Carole Valentine]

Philip, I used to live in Urbanna (1994-2000). Nice little town. Did you run into Barbara Gill? She and Dan have a shop just outside of town.

[Shirley James]

Thank you Keith and Jackie for hosting this gathering. Hubby and I had a wonderful and informative time. Guess I should add a profitable time too since I walked away with 10 beautiful Bethlehem Olive Wood blanks. I could probably roam on and on about the day but will just say ditto to everything Ted and Bill said :) We're looking forward to the fall gathering and I'll bet everyone that missed this one will want to be there after they hear all the great reports of the day.

[Keith Outten]

Thanks Shirley,

We hope you enjoy the olive wood pen blanks and will be able to attend our next Virginia SwapMeet. When we completed the drawings we had only two people who did not receive prizes so we gave each of them a Corian cutting board we made during our CNC Routing demonstration.

I am working on adding all of the pictures we took to the SwapMeet web site, I will let everyone know when they are posted.

[Frank Carpenter]

Thank you Kieth and Jackie. I had a great time. I would also like to thank all of the demonstrators. Dino, Ken, and Aaron. And to top it off we got to see all of the equipment I don't have. Very cool ShopBot and Laser.

Thanks Again,
Frank

[Mike Leonard]

Thank you Keith, Jackie and the Outten clan for hosting a good time. My wife and I enjoyed ourselves. It was nice to meet some fellow creekers. The demos were great. That CNC router operation is a real sweet setup. One of the highlights for me was sitting and talking with Ken Salisbury. For those of you who have met Ken you know what I mean.

A big thank you goes out to the sponsors as well. They donated some wonderful prizes and there were some smiling faces in the crowd when the drawings were done. I was fortunate to win a MicroJig. A very useful safety tool that will see much use. My digits thank you.

If this first Swapmeet is any indication of future events I can't wait for the next one. We are looking forward to it.

Thanks again,
Mike

[Ed Lang]

I sure did have a wonderful time! My 10 beautiful Bethlehem Olive Wood blanks will get drilled this week and I will post pictures later. As has already been said by others posting before me..... Thanks to our hosts, and the businesses that donated prizes as well as those who demoed equipment. I was a fun and interesting day to say the least. I never expected folks from as far as Florida to be there! I did miss you Carole, but I'll keep trying to find Box Elder to lay my eyes on. Glad the car is OK with just a O2 sensor problem. I rode with Bill Woodson who said on the way down that he never wins any drawings....... Guess what he won!??! Just down the lane from the meet lives a wonderful couple with a fantastic shop, sawmill, kiln....... (thank you for the wood and tour)

Just a great day with a fantastic bunch of folks!

Thanks so much and I look forward to the next one!

:)

[Ray Bersch]

Many, many thanks to Keith and family for a great day! And thanks to all who donated prizes - I won the latest issue of Woodcraft magazine and had most of it read before the night ended. I particularly enjoyed meeting and talking with all the other Creekers - what an enjoyable day.

[Bill Lewis]

Thanks to all Keith, Jackie and their two daughters. Aaron and Ken too. I had a great time. There was so much to take in at Keith's shop, what a great setup, and some very cool tools. I'm only disappointed I didn't take up Dale on her offer for Pizza, I didn't know I could've gotten another shop tour too. I guess that means I'm going to have to come back again! Hope you'll have me.:)

[Ken Salisbury]

The Swap Meet was a huge success (IMHO). The "Outten Clan" (including Aaron of course) were very gracious hosts. As Keith said everyone walked away with door prizes ranging from magazines to relatively expensive tools. It was humorous that I won a book on how to make segmented bowls :) :) . I was able swap it for a bowl blank (that is what "swap" meets are for. :)

I really enjoyed meeting and talking with all the folks.


One of the highlights for me was sitting and talking with Ken Salisbury. For those of you who have met Ken you know what I mean.It is hard to figure out whether this is a compliment or something else. :)


Ken Salisbury demonstrated pen turning. Got my wife hooked. (Thanks, Ken! ;) Now you can spend some of that moldy money on who deserves it :)


still had a couple of engraving jobs to do for Ken Salisbury before we shut down the shop.

Oh Yes ! Aaron and Keith did some great stuff for me while I was there. They engraved some "master" medallions on 1/8" thick corian I brought with me which I am going to use to make an 8 cavity mold to cast 2 different size signature medallions - pictures to follow when I get the mold done and cast some finished product.

They also engraved the lid on my cherry business card holder - pictures attached here.

I also retrieved my corian shop sign they made me about 6 years ago :) :D (inside joke) -- photos to come later after I mount along side of the shop door.

[Mike Leonard]

Ken,

Definitely a compliment, I thoroughly enjoyed talking with you and swapping war stories. Next time though I will have to bring more BL. :D My better half was impressed with you as well.

Glad you made it home safe. Looking forward to the next Swapmeet.

[Earl Reid]

I would like to add our thanks to Keith, Jackie, and the girls for hosting the swap meet. It was nice to meet everyone. I got some pointers from Ken on pen turning that should speed up production. Kens a great guy and I'm glad to meet him. I enjoyed the shop and the CNC router. Thanks to Aaron for demostrating the laser and making the name tag.
I want to thank Keith and Ken for the very nice plaque that was presented to me. I also won a scroll saw which was swapped for a pen lathe( we'll put a second shift on)
We're going to DC tommorow and heading for home next week. hope to come to more Sawmill events.
Earl :) :) :) :)

[Scott Rathburn]

Thanks to Keith and family for a great day, and thanks to , Ray Bersch for lunch. Also Dino sold me on the E-Z Smart guide system. I ordered one today.

Thanks again
Scott

[Ralph Steffey]

I would like to thank Keith and family for being wonderful hosts. I had a great time and it was well worth the 1000 mile drive to get there. I was lucky enough to win the best prize which was a custom sign made by Keith and arron for my shop I will try to post a picture of this since it is really nice. Thanks again for a good time guys.

[Bill Turpin]

We really enjoyed the swap meet, especially getting to know everyone. Thanks to the "Outen" kids, it was a pleasure to see young people being such a integral part of the group. We spent Saturday evening, all of Sunday, and most of Monday being tourists in the great state of Virginia. There is an amazing number of historical sites. The roads are much better than NC's. Thanks to the manufacturers that donated prizes. My wife is already enjoying her Penn State Improved pen press. We will write a review after we use it for a couple of weeks. :)

Bill and Nettie in WNC mountains