This year we moved our Troy,VA Camp “across the road” from Ed Lang’s shop, to Jay Wyant’s larger barn facility. Good thing we did too, as the timing of this Camp coincided with the arrival of tropical storm “Hannah”, and Jay’s facility was large enough for all of us to wander around in comfortably.
Luckily we didn’t get much of the wind people were worried about, but we DID get a bit of rain…! Enough rain on the roads to force a few people to re-arrange their travel plans in fact, and therefore we had a slightly smaller turnout than expected, but all who came DID have a good time ! Rodney Brown decided to skip all of the “adventure”of driving in the storm, and took the train up from Atlanta in fact!
Jay has “modified”his machine somewhat, and it gave people a chance to see what could be done with some thought, and ingenuity. His vacuum system, and shop built indexer in particular were pretty interesting.
Throughout the day we covered a bunch of topics which pertain to most Shopbotters, (i.e. vacuum hold downs, sign making, materials, etc), but we also had a couple of good “Show and Tell”examples, as well as some “guest speakers”who create products to be used in conjunction with the Shopbot.
Richard Coates brought in some of his carved plaques that showed how cleanly he was able to create small text in a variety of woods.
Jack Jarvis brought in some of his intricate, and convoluted, turnings done on the indexer.
Ed Lang had a few of his solid surface, and wooden cutting boards and carvings too.
Then Fred of Centurion tools got up and spoke about some of the different factors involved in getting the right router bit for a job, as well as keeping it sharp longer. Fred has been working with a lot of Shopbotters over this last year, and he donated some of his latest products as door prizes; 5mm compression bits !
Russ Todd of Widgetworks brought in an entire table of “after market”accessories which can be used on a Shopbot. He has knives/blades, etc, for cutting paper, and fabric. A marking pen attachment that turns a Shopbot into a large “plotter”. And a “drag knife”that can etch glass, and granite !. He also brought in vacuum pods, a vacuum table for Buddy bench top machines, and a vacuum forming tool. These can all expand the use of our machinery.
Jay also showed off his culinary skills with a shop smoked barbecue lunch for everyone!
We had a large group of new comers who had many questions about the possibilities of the machine, and just about everyone there pitched in to help solve some logistical, or technique issues. There was a LOT of one on one discussion going on, and I think everyone felt that it was worth the drive through the rain to attend. In fact by the time we finished the afternoon sessions the sun had broken through, and we had blue skies to drive home in…..
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