The Griz 1023 from the Twilight Zone...

[Knottscott]

This is a true a story that began last August. I'll try to stick to just the key elements to keep it short.

Last August (2007) my 17 year old son told me he passed a woodworking garage sale, and told me where to find it. "Cool" , I'll check it out. Dang if the guy doesn't have a 10 year old Grizzly 1023 with a Shop Fox Classic Fence, mobile base, and the motor cover added, all for $500, plus a beautiful shop-made Scandanavian workbench for sale. The saw is in nice shape and runs real well, and I'm tempted. I wasn't really looking for a saw and got cold feet, so I took his name and number to mull it over. After a few hours of agonizing over it, I decide the timing was wrong (we were leaving for a family vacation the next day), and I'd be giving up too many features that I really like in my current saw, just to get more power that I really don't need. I let the idea go and actually felt somewhat relieved...."not me, not now".

Fast forward to spring 2008. Yesterday I'm chatting online with a guy about 50 miles from me (don't know him) who's been browsing the same Craigslist posts as I've been looking at. We talked about what saws we're looking for, and I went on to explain about the Griz 1023 mentioned above that I'd passed on, yada, yada.... I also told him I'd keep him posted if I spotted anything interesting. My next move was to visit CL. A new listing for a Grizzly 1023 for $525 catches my attention....hhhhmmm, that saw looks familiar, 10 years old, SF Classic fence, mobile base....the next listing on CL was a beautiful Scandanavian workbench that also looked familiar....at this point I'm recognizing the shop and surroundings, and sure enough, it's the guy who had the "woodworking garage sale" and the same Grizzly 1023! How ironic that we just mentioned it in a PM a few minutes before seeing it on CL! I send another PM to the guy on WN, and he responds a few hours later saying his wife is gonna kill him b/c he's making arrangements to buy the 1023! (I can relate ). All good stuff though.

That's only half the story... Fast forward to later this evening... but first an important backtrack... My daughter and I had made a trip to the library earlier today, and I brought home a stack of woodworking books of all things! I hopped into bed tonight and pulled a book out of the pile to glance through, and within a few pages of the very first book, a picture of a nice Scandanavian workbench catches my attention....hhhhmmm, that workbench looks familiar, and so does that shop . Then I see a picture of the author....hey, he looks familiar too . A quick glance at the intro tells me the author is a 1979 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology (a local school). A glance at the cover tells me his name is "Anthony Guidice"....about then a lightbulb comes on, and I'm picturing a name and phone number scribbled on a piece of scrap paper..."Tony Guidice"! ...no way! Turns out that Anthony Guidice is a woodworking author living in Rochester. He built that workbench, and owns that same Grizzly 1023 that was mentioned earlier. He told me he was a writer, but I never knew he was a wwing writer, or that he has a bunch of good looking books on various wwing subjects! Too weird for words that all these events could take place within hours, after beginning unceremoniously more than 8 months ago....

...anyone hear Rod Serling's voice calling?

[cabinetman]

It's times like that a sign, like a burning bush (nothing religious intended) would appear. Like some comedian once said, "It's a small world until you try walking it". Really some coincidence.

My luck in tool hunting has become less impulsive. Back when I needed tools, I would ponder for a brief period and usually jump on what I thought was a killing of the century just so I wouldn't lose out on a deal. Just the thought of hesitating long enough or thinking that it'll be there tomorrow at times proved out wrong. I had to get more instinctive in my thinking, which meant that I had to get more familiar with what I was looking for and the "going rate".

I still prefer the one-on-one like a garage sale, or flea market, where the art of negotiating sometimes works.
.

[cgallery]

I think you were supposed to buy that saw!

Didn't Stephen King write a book about a table saw that had a mind of its own? The owner would leave the shop and overnight the table saw would cut and assemble all the wood in the shop into beautiful, period reproductions? And someone once tried to steal the saw and the saw cut them into human veneers that went on display (eventually) at the "Body Worlds" exhibit?

[ironhat]

All I have to say is "DOO-de-DOO-daa, DOO-de-DOO-da". That's supposed to be the opening music to "Twilight Zone" - yea, I live there.

[crokett]

And you passed on buying the tablesaw from an actual woodworking author???? You have way more self control than I do.

[Knottscott]

And you passed on buying the tablesaw from an actual woodworking author???? You have way more self control than I do.

Yeah.....Who knew? Sure seems to be haunting me though!

[gsmittle]

I think you were supposed to buy that saw!

Didn't Stephen King write a book about a table saw that had a mind of its own? The owner would leave the shop and overnight the table saw would cut and assemble all the wood in the shop into beautiful, period reproductions? And someone once tried to steal the saw and the saw cut them into human veneers that went on display (eventually) at the "Body Worlds" exhibit?

It's the sequel to "Christine" about the killer car. I think the title is "Christopher".

Gimme a break--I've been teaching a bunch of hormone-sloshed, spring-fevered teenagers all morning!

g.