WA Woodwork Show (long)

[Robert WA]

I made it to a woodwork show at last.

Spent all day Saturday at the Perth show and met up with Derek and Col, and a non member, Peter, for lunch. Had the Winsome Wench with me so I didn't get to say much, as the others will attest.

I went with a list of things to see and touch and pretty much achieved my target. There were some bargains to be had, but not in my areas of interest so I didn't spend much.

Of note to me were:
The Jet range of machines at very competative prices. I was attracted to the rip fence on its latest model table saw and I will follow that up. It is a conventional Biesemeyer style T fence, locking at the front only and relying on its inherent rigidity to stay straight, but it has a small rubber wheel built into the front carriage that rides on the top of the rail and protrudes above the surface of the carriage. Minor adjustments can be made by simply revolving the wheel. Simple, but effective.
A good DeWalt display of its, relatively, expensive products including a very clever SCMS table.
Big Makita, Ryobi and GMC displays but, unfortunately, minus the new Ryobi table saw. I asked about that and was told it won't be released here until about March 04. Anyone in the market for a saw should go check the reviews of the latest Ryobi offering in the US magazines.
Some displays of drool machines from the professional ranges, with some very bored people manning the stalls.
Big crowds of people at the Triton display and trolly loads of Triton gear being carried out. The new dust mask was there and was the one item they had on display that attracted little interest.
A lot of interest in the craft products. The WW bought a ruler/cutter set for making the borders that surround pictures/ photos in frames. I am expecting a demand for frames in the very near future.
Some furniture and ornamental stuff on display, some of it let down by ordinary finishing. Where were you, U-Beaut?
A number of displays of old hand tools, pre, undergoing and after restoration, a lot of it for sale.
The WW was captivated by a neanderthal using a foot powered lathe. She checked out my lower regions with more interest than she has shown for some years, but decided I wasn't up to the task.

The lunch get together was well worth the effort. We did some bragging, recounted some stories of workshop disasters and, most importantly for me, came to realise that we all suffer the same problems.

The WW interupted the lunch time conversation at one point, with much glee, and announced. "It really has nothing to do with making things, it is all to do with collecting tools." I have just spent the 4.5 hour drive home reminding her of the 4 dressers in our house that contain nothing other than partly finished patchwork projects, but she is still laughing at me.

[alf t]

Could not catch up with the forum folks but just an observation.
Sorry to be critical BUT the standard of work in the general woodwork competition left a great deal to be desired. A few goodies but on the whole badly finished and totally lacking in design. (Some people are easily satisfied). THe Splinters Exhibition was quite good but in most cases the same old names. I think it's like the Aussie Cricket team ..... harder to get out of than get in.
There are a lot of good emerging woodworkers in the state but are being stifled by the lack of forward thinking by the powers that be!!!
Someone mentioned to me that if you want to see a good exhibition of woodcraft in WA you attend the Denmark Exhibition at Easter or The Fine Woodcraft Gallery at Pemberton at any time.

Alf

[stevepay]

I also went to the wood show on sat and was quite happy to see all the combination machine suppliers there in one place, it made the comparison easier.

It still didn't make them any cheaper! and at the end I had to face the fact that I cannot afford them no matter how I try and justify them to my better half.

In the end I had to settle( extremely happy with however) for a table saw, wich leads me to my main point about the sales teams there.

Overall they seemed to be incredibly pushy and quick to bag everyone else's gear as inferior to their own, this made me very annoyed by the end of the day as I wanted to learn about new products and gear that I didn't necesarily want to purchase just then. this met with some interesting comments from some sales people along the lines of " then why are you here if you havent come to buy " I think that this is quite sad as I think the show should be more than a big sales event. I for one went to buy a machine but also to see the seminars fom the hand tool society and look at what other woodies have made, also to look at what sort of training was available and to relax and dream alittle or drool depending on your point of view.

But by the end of sat I was tired, annoyed and had a head ache from listening to sales pitches, I have also a lower opinion of carbetec as the service there was poor, to ilustrate my point I wanted to purchase a table saw after confirming the high prices of combination machines and knew that I wanted either Jet or Delta and would be happy with either, so I went to the Power tools and Machinery stand and talked to the people there who although they didn't have the model I wanted on display they were quite happy to discuss the machines and offered me a further discount and were very patient with my questions.

However when I went to the Carbatec stand they were pushy, couldn't( or wouldn't) answer my questions and when I mentioned a possible discount the sales person laughed and walked off, no guesses as to who has my money in their bank account.

So I am the proud owner of a new table saw and look forward to making lots of things on it and when it comes time to purchase further gear Carbetec will see none of my money.

So overall a very average show with some good bits, mainly the hand tool society stand and a mention of the Makita girl who smiled and handed me a brochure about something wich I can't remember.:confused:


:D

[stevepay]

I also went to the wood show on sat and was quite happy to see all the combination machine suppliers there in one place, it made the comparison easier.

It still didn't make them any cheaper! and at the end I had to face the fact that I cannot afford them no matter how I try and justify them to my better half.

In the end I had to settle( extremely happy with however) for a table saw, wich leads me to my main point about the sales teams there.

Overall they seemed to be incredibly pushy and quick to bag everyone else's gear as inferior to their own, this made me very annoyed by the end of the day as I wanted to learn about new products and gear that I didn't necesarily want to purchase just then. this met with some interesting comments from some sales people along the lines of " then why are you here if you havent come to buy " I think that this is quite sad as I think the show should be more than a big sales event. I for one went to buy a machine but also to see the seminars fom the hand tool society and look at what other woodies have made, also to look at what sort of training was available and to relax and dream alittle or drool depending on your point of view.

But by the end of sat I was tired, annoyed and had a head ache from listening to sales pitches, I have also a lower opinion of carbetec as the service there was poor, to ilustrate my point I wanted to purchase a table saw after confirming the high prices of combination machines and knew that I wanted either Jet or Delta and would be happy with either, so I went to the Power tools and Machinery stand and talked to the people there who although they didn't have the model I wanted on display they were quite happy to discuss the machines and offered me a further discount and were very patient with my questions.

However when I went to the Carbatec stand they were pushy, couldn't( or wouldn't) answer my questions and when I mentioned a possible discount the sales person laughed and walked off, no guesses as to who has my money in their bank account.

So I am the proud owner of a new table saw and look forward to making lots of things on it and when it comes time to purchase further gear Carbetec will see none of my money.

So overall a very average show with some good bits, mainly the hand tool society stand and a mention of the Makita girl who smiled and handed me a brochure about something wich I can't remember.:confused:


:D

[Darryn]

I went to the woodshow on Saturday too with my dad so I may have walked past some of you guys as well!!

My high points were:

The hand tool stand, I spoke to the guy there who had made planes for quite a while. For some reason I have this burning desire to make myself a small infill shoulder plane. I'm not interested in the classic infill smoothers but for some reason think the shoulder planes are cool???

I also spoke with Jim Currie for a while at his stand and got a lead some on some second hand machinery bits I was looking for.

I then visted the WMS stand and spoke to 'Stan the Man' who sold me a set of slot morticer cutters for $30 and promised to help me out with some old stock stuff too.

I managed to almost completely avoid the carbatec and timbecon stands for the second year in a row but I quite like Miks range of products.

I have come to the conclusion a while back that if you have the space then secondhand commercial gear is far better than brand new imitation stuff.

Like stevepay I too looked longingly at the combination machines but will have to make do with my old scheppach planer thicknesser for a good deal longer if I am to stay in a happy relationship!!! (How can you spend that on a machine before I get a new car!!!!)

Thats my view of the show, it seems to have changed its focus over the last few years to be more of just an easy way of seeing what everyone is selling without having to drive all over Perth than a real woodworking show. I remember a couple of years ago watching Richard Raffan turn for about an hour and a half which was brilliant. He didn't mind me asking questions and was actually happy to pass on his knowledge, I probably learnt more from watching him and asking him questions than I have from anyone.

Darryn