A Virtual Tour of the Indianapolis Woodworking Show

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  • A Virtual Tour of the Indianapolis Woodworking Show

    A Virtual Tour of the Indianapolis Woodworking Show

    This weekend, I made my annual trek to the Indianapolis woodworking show. I have been going every year for the past five years. This year, I was finally fortunate to have a bit of extra money and was able to attend one of the all day seminars.

    Below are some photos I took specifically for this site. I wanted to give those of you who are not able to attend the shows a glimpse of what they are all about. I struggled with the decision of which was more important, clear, large pictures, or loading time. I finally decided to compress the JPEGs down as far as I could without losing detail. These pictures will load slowly, and there are a lot of them. I encourage you to take your time and look at each picture, and wait for them to load. Without further ado, here is the tour. I have added comments beneath each picture.
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    Here is an outside shot of the Indiana State Fairgrounds where the show is held. Here we see the DeWalt truck entering the parking lot.


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    This is the entrance to the exhibits. I usually arrive a bit before the show starts, and have to wait in line. I would estimate that there are as many as 300 eager woodworkers waiting here when the show opens. The admission price is $9.00.


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    Here is a good shot of what the crowds are like. In the foreground at the right, as well as directly ahead, you will see some Amish men. There are a large number of Amish who attend the Indianapolis show


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    This is the Jointech booth. In the foreground, the man is demonstrating their SmartMiter.


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    Here is the Winner Woodworking Equipment booth. They represented Delta, Powermatic, Jet, Performax, and General.


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    DeWalt's booth was the most impressive. They had the big trailer in the background and it displayed all of their tools. I also found it interesting that they had young female reps. It was quite the popular place. :-)


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    Here is a wider shot of the DeWalt booth.


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    One final shot of the DeWalt booth. They had all of their tools plugged up and available for you to try them out.

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    The local woodturners' guild had members there turning and teaching. This guy was quite good. You can barely make it out, but leaning against the Plexiglas in front of the right leg of the lathe is a finial he had just completed. Its thinnest sections were less than 1/16" thick.

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    This is the first shot of the Woodcraft booth. Aren't you glad that the SMT on the BT3000 isn't purple!??!?


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    Here is another shot of the Woodcraft booth. I liked these Bench Dog feather boards and meant to pick one up, but I forgot.


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    Here is another vendor's booth. They were selling Powermatic and Jet,.


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    I took this picture and the next picture specifically for Rod. I'm sure he'd have some sort of "experience" if he could have visited this booth. :-)


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    Rod, do you feel like you need a cigarette?



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    Knobs, knobs, knobs! They also had a great selection of extruded aluminum T-slots and miter slots. This booth was called TWC or The Woodworker's Choice. It was probably the largest single booth. There are several shots of their booth.




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    Here are more items in The Woodworker's Choice booth.
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    Here are more items in The Woodworker's Choice booth.
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    The Woodworker's Choice was selling Oldham blades.


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    If you ever needed to find that one special router bit, this was the place to look.

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    Sandpaper anyone?


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    This guy really intrigued me. Unlike anyone else, rather than selling a product, he was selling his technique. His name is Ray Kinman and he calls himself The World's Most Humble Woodcarver. He claims that for the past 20 years he has been doing all of the architectural carving for the Disney theme parks. He sold a set of instructional videos bundled with a starter set of carving chisels. Quite impressive.

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    Here is a shot of his work
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    And another.


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    Here is a bandsaw fence being sold buy A&I Supply. It was nice, but not worth $150.00 in my opinion.





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    The Tool Dock booth intrigued me. I had seen the ads, but this was the first time to see it up close. I felt that the pieces were well built and well designed, but at an average of around $200.00 a piece, a bit too pricey for me.


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    Here is the Rockler booth. They were selling these bandsaw tables left and right at $149.00. The "show special" was that they threw in the resaw guide for free.





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    Bosch had a very nice booth and the reps were very knowledgable.





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    This was the Carter Products booth. They were selling the Carter Quick Release, bandsaw blades, and Tru-Grip 18" Back-to-back Clamp-N-Tool Guides for making bandsaw fences. I bought one of these guides and will post pictures as soon as I complete my bandsaw fence.


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    Here is the Legacy Ornamental Mill. A buddy of mine has one of these and they are nice machines. You have to mill a lot of table legs to pay for this thing however.


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    Here are the "3D Squares" that Keith mentioned in the Shop Talk Conference. They were neat, but not worth parting with any of my hard earned cash.


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    The local woodworking club had some of its members' work displayed.


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    Here is the Incra/Woodpecker Inc. booth. They had a large crowd gathered around them all the time.

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    Here is the Manny's Wood Books booth. Manny owns the one and only woodworking store in Lexington, Ky. where I work. I spend a lot of lunch breaks in Manny's store.
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    Laguna Tools. Man, what nice bandsaws!!!
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    Here is the Zyliss vice booth.


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    Everything wasn't strictly woodworking related. Here was some citrus based cleaner...


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    ...and here is some new miracle broom that is supposed to revolutionize the world of sweeping as we know it.

    That was about it for the show. There were more booths, but nothing else that seemed worthy of a photo. I wish I would have taken a picture of the "cafe" which was nothing more that the local roach coach. The food and drink prices were astronomical. They were charging $4.50 for a can of Coor's Light.

    On Saturday, I attended a class on fundamental woodworking taught by Marc Adams. Mr. Adams owns the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. I had always wanted to take one of the all day classes but had never found one that caused me to want to plop down $100.00. This year when I saw that Marc was going to be teaching this class I jumped on it. Guys, if you ever get a chance to attend one of his seminars or even better, go to his school, JUMP ON IT! Marc is one of the best teachers, on any subject, I have ever sat under. He was very knowledgeable and was able to impart his knowledge to everyone in the class. He was very personable and approachable and was eager to help on any subject.

    The class was a lecture, with no hands-on instruction. Marc did do a few demos and he really knocked my socks off. Below are some photos I snapped during the class.

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    I hope that this little virtual tour has given you an idea about what a woodworking show is like. I enjoy going every year and getting to "put my hands on" the things I can usually only look at in magazines. This year I walked home with a new Forrest Blade for my BT3000, a nice 8pc set of carbide router bits, an 18" Back-to-back Clamp-N-Tool guide that I intend on turning into a bandsaw fence, and thanks to Marc Adams, a better understanding of wood and how to work it.

    -- Sam
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