Big score at the woodworking show today

[artfull dodger 394]

We went back down to the woodworking show in Indianapolis today as my friend Steve wanted to talk more with the rep for the CNC woodworking station. I always sign up for the give aways, but never win anything. That all changed today. I won the grand prize, a brand new Powermatic band saw, the black and gold aniversery model, valued at $1500! While I am that huge of a woodworker, a band saw of some kind has been on my wish list for awhile for my model train hobby and I would love to build a wood shop. My wife and I both learned to turn a pen at the booth selling supplies to make pens. I will post up some pics when I get it put together, gonna have to reorganize my garage shop to fit in it. Gonna be way to cold this week to do that. Guess I am gonna have to work on insulating my garage so I can work out there more often. I was proudly wearing my Wheel Horse hat when they took the picture of me with the company rep at the presentation. MIke

[octfst 378]

Congrats

[whc160 74]

Back when I was in high school we had alot of powermatic equipment in shop class. We rasied money selling fruit to buy equipment & go on trips. The one trip we went on we took a tour of the powermatic factory. It was cool. Wish I would have been more into back then. Would have tried to get my shop teacher to take us there for a tour.

[312Hydro 474]

That's a great bandsaw! I'm guessing that it's fully enclosed on the base. If they didn't include it there are some excellent mobile bases that will let you move it around easily. Congrats! :handgestures-thumbupright:

[artfull dodger 394]

Yepper, got the fully enclosed base and the 6" riser with it. My buddy told me it was a really good saw, he has a Delta thats the same size. I am watching for nice table top lathe to turn more pens. Seen a Jet that I really like, the Apprentice lathes the booth used were nice for pen turning as well. Mike

[KC9KAS 4,741]

Wife & I have attended that show a couple of times....Lots of nice/neat stuff.

Congratulations on the "Grand Prize"!

[artfull dodger 394]

Thanks, I was totaly supprised, we never win anything, maybe we should play the lottery this week!! Mike

[Jake Kuhn 1,554]

Yepper, got the fully enclosed base and the 6" riser with it. My buddy told me it was a really good saw, he has a Delta thats the same size. I am watching for nice table top lathe to turn more pens. Seen a Jet that I really like, the Apprentice lathes the booth used were nice for pen turning as well. Mike

Sounds like you had a great day! If you go for a little lathe for pens try for a jet. My brother got his jet 10" about 5 years ago and it has a couple hundreds hrs on it for sure. He has never had one issue with it. ~Jake

[artfull dodger 394]

I like the Jet mini lathe, but its be more than I want to spend right now. I really like the Unimat as they can do light metal working as well, which helps with my other hobbies of model trains and Live Steam in G gauge. The Apprentice lathes we used today are designed specificly for pen making and small wood projects. They said they have held up excellent since they are run all day for 3 days at every show. They attend all of these wood working shows, Columbus OH is next followed by Kansas City. I put a post up on CL to see if I can roust a used mini lathe for a keen price. Still need a small drill press as well. Mike

[312Hydro 474]

I haven't been to the Columbus show for years(25?). Always enjoyed the Wood Working shows.

[artfull dodger 394]

You should check it out, espicaly the CNC router system. The engraving it can do from a simple picture scanned into the computer is amazing!!! Talk about opening up a whole new relm of custom wood working. Still not cheap but getting down where some of the well heeled wood workers will buy them. Gonna set up my band saw later today or tomorrow after my morning class. MIke

[mowerman1193 32]

Congrats to the new band saw. I have a big older Delta one.

Those CNC machines are really cool but, to me that is not woodworking as it don't take much skill to push some buttons and have the machine do the work for you...Guess I am just old fashion and prefer to do my work my and use my skills. Kinda like paying people to restore a tractor for you, LOL..

I didn't realize we had some more woodworkers here. I always got the impression I was the only one on here doing woodworking..I would like to see some things you all are making..You can find some of my stuff down in my signature links

Kevin

Edited January 22, 2013 by mowerman1193

[wh500special 2,156]

That's a great saw! I have a Grizzly 14-incher and really like it. I looked at the PM, but didn't want to budget for it. It's a nice machine for sure.

The show is headed to St. Louis soon (actually, Collinsville, IL) and I plan to go again this year. For their schedule, I think the link is thewoodworkingshows.com

I'm not sure if he's touring the circuit this year, but perhaps you saw Alex Snodgrass demo the proper setup of a bandsaw. He uses the same PM unit you just won. Find his videos on Youtube and watch the way he sets the wheels and bearings...you'll be glad you did. He sets the blade on the wheel and adjusts the guides a little bit differently than most manuals describe, but it seems to work very reliably. Very little if any drift.

I got into the WW hobby just a few years ago and wish I would have discovered the craft sooner. Of course, I don't have much freetime anyway.

[artfull dodger 394]

I believe he was the gentleman I got my picture taken with after winning the saw. I didnt figure I would win, so I didnt sit thru any of the seminars. I WILL do that next year when my friend and I attend again. I set the saw up today, blade tracks real nice. Need to get a reducer to hook my shop vac to the saw when I use it. Took most of the afternoon to set it up, level the table ect. I want to get the castor base to make moving it around easier. I put it in the corner of my model train room as most of its work will be on wood buildings that I build for my smaller On30 logging layout and my G scale set up in my garden. There just isnt room in the garage right now. I hope to add a shop to the backside of my garage in the future where I can set up a small wood shop. I havent done much with wood since highschool, took all 3 wood shop classes. We are looking at a small Jet clone lathe to do more pen turning. I hear ya on the cost of the PM saw, I would have never spent that much of my own $$, thats for sure! I feel very fortunate to have won it.

[roscoemi 245]

mowerman, here's what I did with two slabs of bookmatched black walnut.

Nothing is screwed together in the pics. Just sitting static in the photo room for pics for the owner..

[mowerman1193 32]

Wow! that is beautiful. great workmanship. I have always wanted to get into making bigger furniture type stuff, but my shop used to be very limited space. Now I just built a new 24 x 32 with 16 x 32 loft. I have the room but no money left, LOL

Kevin

[roscoemi 245]

That damn top and base was going to be the death of me! 20 hours to flatten each side of each slab. About 125 hrs total in the unit, it was made to the customers specs. She wanted live edge and he wanted straight so they comprimised with a live edge in the middle with a 1/4" reveal between them and not attached together.

Don't knock the cnc too hard, I spent about 20 years at the helm of them with a bed as big as 5' x 12'. As in the manual world, you better know your math, feed speed, chipload, cutter charactoristics and everything else before you hit the go button. Nothing like hitting go on a piece of one off material with no do overs and 20 people waiting on the outcome for their 3 million dollar home. Talk about pressure!

[mowerman1193 32]

I know the CNC's have their place and I shouldn't probably downplay them like I do. They get a bad rap from me and a lot of other people doing handmade work due to the people at craft events and the online handmade selling sites selling their laser and CNC cut stuff as handmade products. These machines spit pieces out faster than we can get our stuff prepped for sawing so they can afford to sell their piece a lot cheaper..I just don't think they should be allowed to sell their items in the handmade sections of craft shows and online sites. The crafting world is really cracking down on this type of stuff now days but there are still several getting away with it.

I would have a CNC if I could afford it, but I would still do a large amount of Handmade too as that is where my passion is.

Here is a piece I made for my wife a couple years ago.. I have a timer on my saw that keeps track of my sawing time but doesn't count for my time threading the blade through another pilot hole etc..it's only the time that the saw is running. I had 8 hours cutting time on this piece. probably at least another hour drilling the 500+ pilot holes with the drill press. My advantage was I taped 5 boards together and made 5 at one time.

Made out of 1/8" thick Oak x 11" x 14"

[mowerman1193 32]

Images came out to small to see, LOL Try it this way

[artfull dodger 394]

Beautifull work guys!!! We put my wife's nice Schwinn bicycle up on CL, she cant ride anymore due to a knee injury. Once it sells we will have enough to get a small mini lathe to play with. Got the bandsaw set up in my model train layout room on the opposite side as the layout. Garage it to much of a unheated mess to put that nice saw in right now. My buddy ordered one of the Legacy CNC's yesterday. Cost for it was $12,600. Not sure if he will make stuff to sell, but we are going to redo our kitchen cabnet doors with his help and probably do his kitchen as well. He has the $$ and you can take either with you when its your time, so might as well enjoy it!! He has one of the older non CNC Legacy set ups that is now for sale to make room for the CNC. Delivery will be in late May after he attends the training class out in Utah. I am just a newbie to wood working. The pen turning was the first time I have run a lathe since high school, and I will be 40 in a few weeks. I cant wait to get some more tools then put a little shop on the back of our garage. Mike

[312Hydro 474]

I took a look at the Legacy online. Very interesting machine that does some impressive work judging by the demo videos. Was that price for the machine with the tilting lathe bed and auto tool change? I liked those 3D cabinet doors.

[artfull dodger 394]

His price was $12,600 for the machine with all the options. Thats delivered to his door. Mike

[roscoemi 245]

Mowerman, that is some fantastic work! I agree that most cnc work is not handmade. On the other hand, if the same piece you made was programmed by hand at the controller of a cnc and not with AutoCad or other modeling program, it would probably take much more time to make one than by hand and give you a serious headache in the process! Been there and done that. Following pieces would be a breeze tho.