M
McRabbet
Yesterday morning I left home at 5AM and drove to Atlanta for IWF. Wisely, I parked for free at an outlying MARTA station and bought a $4 round trip ticket. Walked into the show at 9:15. Here are some pictures and a report.
Welcome to the World Congress Center and IWF 2008!
Everyone was there -- Jet:
Delta (new Unisaw): 
General from Canada:
and Grizzly: 
(Their new 16" planer/jointer).
Powermatic had a world-class turner making Stetsons on one of their lathes
And speaking of lathes, all you pen turners will be jealous of this little Laguna lathe for that latest tree-sized creation of yours:
:rotflm:
Steel City had a nice booth showing off many of their products from "Stone Age" granite-topped saws and jointers to planers and a yet-to-be-introduced variable speed Drill Press with 6'' of quill travel. They also have a Biesemeyer clone fence on their tablesaws that is the smoothest one I've ever seen!
There were several CNC Router companies there suitable for smaller shops like TechnoCNC demoing a child's rocking chair from MDF.
And ShopBot with their "Buddy" series -- these are ideal for a smaller shop because the work piece moves on an X-axis table and the Y- and Z-axes are confined to a solid overhead 'gantry'. A well-equipped system is about $10K.
There was lots of big "arn", too -- one vendor showed a CNC machine that can produce 200 full-sized doors in a day (including the hinges and lock mortises) out of solid wood ... and monstrous dust collection systems handling dozens of automated machines from one vendor in multi-acre "booths"!
But aside from seeing several celebrities like our very own Junquecol and his lovely wife, plus Glenn Huey and Chris Schwartz of Popular Woodworking magazine fame, my favorite encounters of the day came in the late afternoon with a visit to the Splinter display in Building A and the Festool Booth in Building B where I watch Marc Spagnuolo (The Wood Whisperer) demonstrate the Kapex sliding compound miter saw.
I posted more pictures of the Splinter in this thread and thoroughly enjoyed the time with Marc -- he was very personable and we chatted for 15 minutes -- little did I realize his wife was webcasting his demonstration on their website -- I'll need to look for the re-runs!
I left at 6:00 PM and after the MARTA return trip, dinner en route and a mandatory gas stop in SC ($3.329/gallon), I dragged in at home at 11PM and crashed! A great day indeed, but I'll stay over for at least two days next time.
P.S. -- I didn't buy anything....:gar-Cr
Welcome to the World Congress Center and IWF 2008!
Everyone was there -- Jet:
Delta (new Unisaw): 
General from Canada:
and Grizzly: 
(Their new 16" planer/jointer).Powermatic had a world-class turner making Stetsons on one of their lathes
And speaking of lathes, all you pen turners will be jealous of this little Laguna lathe for that latest tree-sized creation of yours:
:rotflm:Steel City had a nice booth showing off many of their products from "Stone Age" granite-topped saws and jointers to planers and a yet-to-be-introduced variable speed Drill Press with 6'' of quill travel. They also have a Biesemeyer clone fence on their tablesaws that is the smoothest one I've ever seen!
There were several CNC Router companies there suitable for smaller shops like TechnoCNC demoing a child's rocking chair from MDF.
And ShopBot with their "Buddy" series -- these are ideal for a smaller shop because the work piece moves on an X-axis table and the Y- and Z-axes are confined to a solid overhead 'gantry'. A well-equipped system is about $10K.
There was lots of big "arn", too -- one vendor showed a CNC machine that can produce 200 full-sized doors in a day (including the hinges and lock mortises) out of solid wood ... and monstrous dust collection systems handling dozens of automated machines from one vendor in multi-acre "booths"!
But aside from seeing several celebrities like our very own Junquecol and his lovely wife, plus Glenn Huey and Chris Schwartz of Popular Woodworking magazine fame, my favorite encounters of the day came in the late afternoon with a visit to the Splinter display in Building A and the Festool Booth in Building B where I watch Marc Spagnuolo (The Wood Whisperer) demonstrate the Kapex sliding compound miter saw.
I posted more pictures of the Splinter in this thread and thoroughly enjoyed the time with Marc -- he was very personable and we chatted for 15 minutes -- little did I realize his wife was webcasting his demonstration on their website -- I'll need to look for the re-runs!
I left at 6:00 PM and after the MARTA return trip, dinner en route and a mandatory gas stop in SC ($3.329/gallon), I dragged in at home at 11PM and crashed! A great day indeed, but I'll stay over for at least two days next time.
P.S. -- I didn't buy anything....:gar-Cr
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. It was also nice to talk to the experts at each booth - got some good contacts.
