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.
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.
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