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Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 11:01 AM
Well, day one of the AWFS is over, day two begins in about an hour, and I'm having a ball. Had lots of spectators for my "turning demos" yesterday and may have even sold a couple of mini-lathes! Also demonstrated the Matchmaker and convinced at least one person to buy one! The show is being well-attended and new products are being introduced. I haven't made much of the rounds of the booths as yet--that will come later today.

But the highlight, so far, of the show for me has been meeting several Creekers. First thing yesterday morning I met Jason Beam from Sacramento and his mentor, Gary Foster (Gary's not a member yet, but we are working on him). Then I met Mitchell and Janel Garnett from Snohomish, Washington, and not long before closing Bob Michaels stopped by (his wife was resting up from all the walking).

About the Steel City granite-top machines: they are really good-looking. I don't know enough about the cast iron v. granite to comment on the viability of having a granite saw table in place of the cast iron, so I won't. I do now that the granite-table band saw had me fooled. I initially thought it was ceramic material. Seems that they would surely be stable, and rust won't be a problem.

Tonight is our Creeker party and we are looking forward to meeting more of our friends. I'll post some pictures.

Nancy

Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 7:57 PM
Day 2 of AWFS, and you would NOT believe the people, the displays, the equipment, the sheer magnitude of this show. This post will show some pictures of some of the huge dust collection systems that some of the exhibitors have set up. These people are mostly running CNC-type machines, and the ductwork is 20" in some places.

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The noise in this place is unbelievable.

Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 7:57 PM
Here are some pictures of the WWS booth, and one of the WWS employees turning on our #1 lathe--the BIG one. That log weighs about 200 or more pounds.

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Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 7:59 PM
I've seen Frank Kobilsek a couple of times since he got here, but today was the first time I had the camera with me. Here we are cuddling in front of his booth.
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We got to the Delta/PorterCable/DeWalt/B&D booth just in time to catch the beginning of David Marks' presentation:

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Norm Abrams will be in this booth tomorrow from 11 to 2, and I intend to be there to take pictures, etc. Tomorrow at 10, Delta will open the curtains to reveal their new stuff. I have no idea what's behind the curtain, but I intend to find out.

Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 8:12 PM
For you Festool lovers, here's a couple of pictures of their booth (it's more like a store--about 2500 square feet:

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Shop Fox also has a huge presence, and they have a line of machines called Steelex (you don't want me to tell you what Scott and Tom had to say about that!!)

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Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 8:15 PM
Here are some pictures of the new Steel City granite machines. They sure are pretty.

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This is Scott Box extolling the virtues of the new table saw.

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Nancy Laird
07-19-2007, 8:17 PM
Here are a couple of pictures of me with Tom Guertin and Scott Box (don't critique my picture - I HATE smiling for a camera).

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Tom gave us a bunch of Steel City bags to give out at the Creeker party tonight, and we are looking forward to a great time.

Eat your hearts out!!

Nancy

Ken Fitzgerald
07-19-2007, 8:48 PM
Well Nancy.....It looks like you're having a good time. Until you mentioned the Creeker get together and made that "eat your heart out" comment I was going to be nice.....



How come you don't smile in those photos Nancy?:eek: :rolleyes: :D

Ken Fitzgerald
07-19-2007, 8:49 PM
PS....I hate smiling for photos too! I have yet to see a photo of me that I like my smile!

Gary Keedwell
07-19-2007, 9:08 PM
Wow Nancy, nice pictures and thanks for sharing them with us. David Marks and Normie? Wish I was there!!!!:p

Gary K. PS. Is that big lathe a Woodtek? Are you with Woodworkers Supply? They had one in New Hampshire that I used to love. I still have a couple of Woodtek products that I'm happy with.

Gary K.

Karl Laustrup
07-20-2007, 5:17 AM
Great pics and story line Nancy.

You are letting us all live vicariously through you at the show. Can hardly wait for tomorrows installment.

Karl

Bruce Page
07-20-2007, 12:50 PM
Great post Nancy, keep 'em coming! I went to the `96 IMTS show in Chicago, the granddaddy of shows in the machine-shop manufacturing world. I was amazed at the tremendous amount of preparation & work that went into setting up the booths. They must sell a lot of product to make it worthwhile. Our group spent 3 days there and we still didn’t see everything!

Nancy Laird
07-20-2007, 10:19 PM
Actually, I don't have a lot of personal experience to report tonight, as I spent all day in the booth turning and greeting potential customers. I did have a couple of Creekers stop by the booth again; Jason Beam and Mitchell Garnett both stopped by before their departures from town. And Frank Kobilsek came by to check out what I was doing. I heard from a number of people that Norm Abrams made a big splash at the Delta/PC booth, but I wasn't able to get away to see him or the big announcement from them. I didn't get to eat lunch until nearly two!!!!

The belt-sander races started at about 4:30, right next to our booth. Traffic into the booth was very busy all day long, and we had a couple of surprise visitors, Scott Whiting of Scott's Sharpening Service in Glendale, AZ (and a Creeker) stopped by to say hi---he and David have done some business. We also met a long-time customer--an attorney from Texas who has outfitted his shop through the company and came by to see us.

It has been along and tiring day, and we are bushed. But we have to eat, so....Red Lobster, here we come.

'Til tomorrow.

Pat Germain
07-20-2007, 10:55 PM
I had no idea DJM and Norm were going to be there. Are they guests every year? If so, I'll make a serious effort to attend next year's show. Forget Elton John and Cirque Du Soleil; I want to meet DJM and Norm! ;)

Many thanks for posting the pics, Nancy. :)

John Hain
07-20-2007, 11:30 PM
Just got back from Vegas, sorry I didn't have enough time to stop by Nancy.

A couple remarks and notes:

The show was great. Got to meet Dave Marks and Marc Spagnuolo. Both were very gracious with inviting personalities. Marc was working at the Festool booths demonstrating the tools and dust collection. The festool area was, by far, my favorite. The reps were really happy with letting you try out any tool and offered great tips and information.

First time for the hotdog demo at the SawStop booth for me. Very impressive.

Minimax and Felder had great setups. The Felder reps seemed a bit snobby though. Apparently the new carbide tipped bandsaw blades work very well in the 16" machines. Yes, a couple companies admitted the older blades were, indeed, susceptible to premature failure due to their brittle nature.

Oneida was very "careful" about discussing their competition (ClearVue and Grizzly) - I thought that was interesting.

The grizzly J/P combo looked pretty good. Their new hobbyist slider didn't look as beefy as MM or Felder.....not as pretty either.

I actually missed the SteelCity granite tops. I stopped by and checked out their drill press (with the big quill travel) and their big drum sander. Great looking machines.

And no,Wm. J. Redmond & Son, Inc did not have a booth. ;)

Jason Beam
07-22-2007, 12:10 AM
I'm home!!!

I haven't seen my wife in 5 days ... so she's getting all my attention, but I wanted to post and mention that Nancy made the coolest nametags for our get-together thursday night and she and david are the MOST friendly folks you ever did meet, honestly.

Mitchell - hope you had a safe trip back up to the seattle area, and I look forward to having further conversations with you. I felt like we connected pretty well.

Bob and Helene, I am glad to have met you two as well. Very friendly bunch of folks and if I'm ever in new york, i'm gonna stop by and give Bob some cheese, just to be a twirp :P

Okay, time for me to be married again!!! LOL

John A. Williams
07-22-2007, 9:36 AM
Any report about what was unvieled at the Delta booth? Wish we could have made it. Hope a good time was had by all.
John

Frank Kobilsek
07-25-2007, 11:42 AM
Nancy I just found this post. Back home and still recoverying. Trade shows are rough enough but add Vegas temptations and I may be getting too old.

I use my free time at shows like AWFS to find turners.

Nick Cook is always in the Jet Powermatic area. He does the best job of any demostrator I've seen of explaining the basics to visitors. I'd love to go take a class with Nick. Also on the Powermatic 3520B was Johannes Michelsen of woodhat.com fame. He makes those hats look easy. I had the opportunity to sit with Johannes and his friend Deb at the exhibitor party and greatly enjoyed our visit. She makes wood spoons that are maybe even more artistic than his hats. Joe Getty a Jet sales rep and pro-turner from Georgia was working also AWFS.

David Marks was in the Delta booth as Nancy said and I was inspired by his use of brass tubes in his hollowforms. I will try that in a hollowform very soon.

Stuart Batty was demo'ing on a Vicmarc lathe. Also in that booth was Anne from Jool Tool and Chris Wright from the Woodturners Resource was sharpening Stuart's tools with the Jool Tool. Stuart was turning Osage Orange which seems ambitous even for a pro in that type of demo.

Just walking by my booth I recognised and visited with J. Paul Finnell. He said he always attends that show looking for tools and ideas. Rumor had it that Jimmy Clewes was working the show but I did not find him.

That's my report on the turners at AWFS, Thanks Nancy for the picture.

Frank

Nancy Laird
07-29-2007, 8:11 PM
Wow Nancy, nice pictures and thanks for sharing them with us. David Marks and Normie? Wish I was there!!!!:p

Gary K. PS. Is that big lathe a Woodtek? Are you with Woodworkers Supply? They had one in New Hampshire that I used to love. I still have a couple of Woodtek products that I'm happy with.

Gary K.


Gary, I have to apologize. I saw this post last weekend, but we were on vacation and I didn't get a chance to respond.

Yes, that big lathe in the picture is the Woodtek #1 lathe. It's a 3hp motor, and it is a MONSTER. As it was configured at AWFS, it goes for about $6860, and weighs about 750#.

David, LOML, works in the Pro Sales Division at Woodworker's Supply, and I demonstrate the itty-bitty mini-lathe for them, along with the Matchmaker.

Yes, the store in New Hampshire closed several years ago; found they had too much competition to be profitable as a retail outlet. Woodtek products are good machines--reliable, well-built, and innovative in some instances (the Matchmaker is the only machine on the market that will do what it does).

Glad you liked the pictures--I just wish I could have seen Norm--I was too busy in the booth!!:(

Nancy