Ally Pally Show Thoughts...

[andycorleone]

This was my first woodworking show,Please Let me list my opinions about it
1) I was amazed about the Hammer combi machine C3 ( I'm thinking in take a 4 year loan for one :shock: £4000 is a lot of money but I thought it was mor espencive for a felder brother :wink: )
2) in hand planers if if buy one, I will go for the veritas (what a beutifull piece of art)
3) if I have £400 for a bandsaw I will buy a record (after seen SIP and Sheppach)
4)Incra stuft is nice ( I own an 1000es ) but I think I will buy a Leich for dove tails
5) I would love to have enough money to buy festools tools... ( but I'm happy with Dewalt at he moment and is 1/2 of price)
6) I would love to see more good prices I only bought a wet stone and a WS holder ( hooooooooooow and forgot a £1 good woodworking magazine )


Cheers
Andy

 

[Digit]

I wish there were some decent shows in Wales, we really are beyond the Pale here.

Roy.

 

[gwaithcoed]

I wish there were some decent shows in Wales, we really are beyond the Pale here.

here here

Alan.

 

[SquareCircle]

Fourth show I’ve attended during the last 7 years or so; seems like its getting smaller and smaller each year. Admittedly, I went there to play with specific products........but couldn’t seem to find a nail gun worth looking at.
Closing thoughts
Hurrah……someone is finally shipping cyclone dust extractors to the UK. Wish you all the best buddy. Hope that the venture is well supported so that the price can come down a bit……..
Seems to me that some of the Festool reps could try harder. Parting with hard earned cash for some very expensive kit. A bit more enthusiasm please and less take it or leave it. And I don’t care that it’s a Sunday afternoon.
NMA continue to be as helpful as ever. Should be able to fix bandsaw tomorrow night.
The Hammer stuff was pure class. Top notch engineering. But a second mortgage is not on the cards today.
On balance – doubt if I’ll be there next year. Feels like a long drive from south of the river and no real discounts on the big ticket items.

Already regretting not buying more Blessey Clamps.

 

[Gary S]

I went last year and I too thought there was less going on this year. Seemed less people and less stands - a bit disappointing and a bit of a rip off I think for £9.50. The guy on the Freud stand said the D&M Kempton show was better...and free to get in!

What summed it up to me was the 'car boot' style guy selling job lots of 'returns' tools - Wickes stuff mainly. Very poor showing for a woodworking show.

A few things that I'd like to see at an 'ideal' show... (feel free to add / challenge / delete from my list!!).

- At least one timber merchant with limited samples of various wood types. They would no doubt get business after the show with people ordering and SURELY it would be nice to have some wood at a woodworking show...! I am sure a lot of people haven't seen / touched many wood types.
- More specialist suppliers - Rutlands / Axminster for example (not always possible if they do their own 'days' I suppose)
- Bigger range of manufacturers.
- More "show" deals with reduced prices and special offers. There were some at Ally Pally but not as many as I was hoping for.

Maybe next year the organisers should choose a smaller, cheaper location - push down the price charged to the participants to have a stand and lower the entry price. It seems a crying shame to have all that wasted space at Ally Pally. Just a thought...

 

[Pecker]

I wish there were some decent shows in Wales, we really are beyond the Pale here.

Roy.

Woodworking shows? Here in Pembs the "Yankee" screwdriver is the latest cordless tool :lol: :lol:

It would be nice. Timberman in Carmarthen holds one once a year, but it's very small. 1hrs drive for 3mins of walking round... :shock:

Woody

 

[Digit]

Woodworking shows? Here in Pembs the "Yankee" screwdriver is the latest cordless tool

:lol: :lol:

Are you suggesting that Wales is behind the times? Tch! Tch! Tch!
I've been to the Timberman show as well, but as you say, it is very small.
One thing that puzzles me is how few people in this area seem to do woodwork, yet W H Smith's in Cardigan sells all sorts of woody mags.
I've even tried lurking near the rack to see if I could strike up an aquaintanceship but still I've never seen anybody buy.

Roy.

 

[Paul Chapman]

Here in Pembs the "Yankee" screwdriver is the latest cordless tool :lol: :lol:

And what's wrong with Yankees?

:lol: :lol:

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[DaveL]

I've even tried lurking near the rack to see if I could strike up an aquaintanceship but still I've never seen anybody buy.

This congers up a very odd scene in my minds eye, where you end up being arrested. :roll:

 

[Digit]

Funnily enough Dave you aren't to far short of the truth as after some rather unusual looks I found that I was standing in front of the, shall we say, top shelf!
Mind you, no chance of arrest, it was 11am and all our local coppers are at a cafe on the industrial estate!

Roy.

 

[DaveL]

I went to the show on Friday, took the day off work. I took Dad, he is in his 80's and on Friday you can always park at the top of the hill, makes it more enjoyable for him.

Yes there where open spaces, not many hand tools and lots of cheap stalls that sell stuff more suited to boot fairs.
I know Chas was there but failed to spot him. I spent time talking with Andy King and the rest of the Good Woodworking chaps. Andy was sharpening plane irons using the new Tormek and his favourite diamond stone. I was intruded that one of Trend guys was getting Andy to fettle a plane iron for him.
Maybe we need to have a whip round for him as he only appears to have a pair of block planes to joint the edges of 4' long boards with, not sure he was doing it correctly as the shavings were floating away on the breeze from the air conditioning unit.
If you needed router cutters or saw blades then Freud was the stand to visit. They had boxed sets of cutters at under half price and where doing saw blades at 30% off. I picked up a 40 tooth one for the Wadkin, just needs a bush fitted, they didn't have any 5/8" bore. Cost me £24.
Stobart Davies had a good range of books with quite a few reduced, I got The Book Of Boxes by Andrew Crawford for £11.95.
I hope Terry Smart from Chestnut is feeling better as he was under the weather on Friday, I had a tin of wood wax 22 from that stand.
I spent some time talking to a number of turners, there were a lot there and while not being into spinney things I do find the demonstration of the skill fascinating.

It would have been good to meet up with the rest of the members who went but I am not sure my wallet could stand going round the show with Waka I have experienced his getting you a good deal that you cannot refuse before.

 

[CHJ]

Sorry we missed you Dave, seems impossible that we did with so few people around, yes Terry definitely off colour but he perked up a bit as we were leaving when he heard how much of his stuff had been purchased. :lol:
Overall the show left us with a warm feeling, not because of what was in the hall but the reinforcement as we sat down on the park slope surveying the metropolis whilst eating lunch, of just how lucky we were to live in the cotswolds.

 

[Joe]

Excuse me going off on a tangent, but did you make the driver bit adaptors for the Yankees yourself Paul?

Regards

Joel

 

[Big Fat Pig]

W H Smith's in Cardigan sells all sorts of woody mags.
I've even tried lurking near the rack to see if I could strike up an aquaintanceship but still I've never seen anybody buy.

I recently went to Cardigan and whilst there thought i would pop into WH Smith to see if they had any woody mags, as you do. However, i was put off by the appearance of a shifty looking lurker, hanging around furtively.

My mother warned me about shifty types when i was young.!!
And school caretakers leaving trails of smarties leading into the boiler room !!

 

[Digit]

Wasn't me then. I'm tall, dark, and handsome ducky! :lol:

Roy.

 

[Big Fat Pig]

hmmmmmmmmm, that description seems familiar.


By the way, i`m Piggy, not ducky.

Which reminds me of when i was young and the doorbell rang. So i answered the door, it was the window cleaner so i called to my mother and said, `theres a man at the door with a bill`, she said ` don`t be silly, it must be a duck with a hat on `.

Piggy.

 

[Digit]

don`t be silly, it must be a duck with a hat on `

:lol: :lol:

Roy.

 

[Paul Chapman]

did you make the driver bit adaptors for the Yankees yourself Paul?

Hi Joel,

No I didn't make them. One is a Stanley (quite old and no longer made)

It's very well made but holds the bit via some spring steel which makes it rather difficult to pull out the shorter bits - I usually pull the bits out with the pliers.

The Snappy one by Trend is only available to fit the largest Yankee

It's made to take the longer, Snappy style bits with a groove in them. To use the shorter bits you need another adaptor like this

The next one used to be available from CK but they have stopped importing them now

They are magnetic and are simple and very good. The same type is available from Dieter Schmid in Germany http://www.fine-tools.com/schr2.htm scroll down to the bottom of the page.

By far the best are the red ones which are the recently introduced Veritas adaptors http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx ... 43417&ap=1 At the moment they are only available from Lee Valley in Canada but hopefully they will be available over here some time.

Hope this helps.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Gordon T]

Hello all,

I did not go to the show, a bit too far from Yorkshire,,,,but I also have a Yankee, and have used it this week several times, a top piece of kit
( mind you, I have to use it since my green bosch 24 volts cordless died on me). Good arm exercise as well.

GT

 

[Jetset]

I went to the show on Sunday afternoon for the last 90 minutes or so. It was my first time at a show so I found it useful with all these things in the same place.

Got a good demonstration of a planer/thicknesser from some helpful chaps at Record Power and there was an interesting jig called the Chamar Scribe which is a jig to scribe skirtings and dado rails etc.

I bought a Kreg R3 jig for £35 including the clamp and some stuff from the 'car boot' style stalls too.