First a big thanks to the organisers and the exhibitors for once again creating this opportunity for us woodworkers. I know it is expensive for the exhibitors and also big commitment of time and hard work (having run my own displays for my own business in another industry), so I hope you all get a return on the effort.

I am almost 2 years into setting up a workshop, basically from scratch and have used the Brisbane and Maleny shows as a source of information etc to help make better decisions in getting the shop together. Hence I tend to save up purchases until I get to the shows and then can compare products in the flesh and get info from a walking talking human (or hobbling in Neil's case) rather than a computer. This is good for me and hopefully helps the companies who turn out for the show to get a sale that some one else may have gotten if the show did not exist. This year was an expensive one with a Leigh D4R dovetail jig and a Laguna 14SUV bandsaw. Then there was a sweet deal on a Bosch sander I could not walk past and also a Triton router to go with the new jig and a number of bits and bobs from various stands. It was very informative for the bandsaw in particular to look, touch and get the spiel on the various options.

I enjoyed the demo's and there could always be more of them (had been looking forward to a Leigh demo but instead the guy who did the demo last year spent 15 minutes giving me some good back ground). I tried to support each demo with a few purchases so U-beaut and Howards both filled bags after their attempts at forcing knowledge into this this skull. Had a laugh at Neil providing the commentary on behalf of who was doing the turning polish demo, it was Dad and Dave revisited.

Filling in the survey hints that the show as it stands today may be marginal, with the question about alternative venues. What about holding it on the school holidays at a tafe college or school, where they can fund raise from parking/catering as an incentive. Hopefully it will be in Brisbane in some form, by next year I might be able to justify a scroll saw and spindle sander or there are a bunch of planes and chisels aching to find a home on some newly built shelves..... After all the correct answer to the question "what is the right number of chisels for a wood turner" .... That would be, ONE MORE.