We held our third Arizona Camp at Barry Boyd’s shop this weekend. It turned out to be a beautiful Spring desert day, and we had a pretty enthusiastic group attending this year’s edition.
As with everywhere else the economy was a hot topic and we covered a few ways people are trying to deal with the current business climate.
One encouraging note was a new Shopbotter who attended the Camp and pointed out that he took delivery of his Buddy in November, and as of this weekend has already earned enough to cover both the cost of his machine, and his yearly shop rent ! He has developed a technique to make thermoforming molds for people to use when creating cementacious fence sections, and his
ability to make changes “on the fly” landed him the contract !
Our host Barry Boyd showed us how he is incorporating some new cabinet building software into his shop to streamline his operation a bit, and we also went into the idea of adding another cutting head to his Alpha to eliminate almost all of the current tool changes he now encounters. We then went over some of the grounding issues which people in this part of the country have to deal with due to the excessive static developed because of their extremely low humidity.
Doug Berk brought in some of his Corian lithophanes to show how he’s been developing his technique over the last year, and the detail is pretty remarkable.
I also had a few craft/gift projects on hand to show which I built a few years ago for my Brother who lives in Arizona. (I wish I had a larger suitcase as he just cut down a large Mesquite tree in his yard and the wood looks like it will make some local wood turners very happy…).
A good group, and a good Camp !
OH, the little guy you see in the picture above is “stationed” strategically in Barry’s rest room to keep people on their toes….
Leave a Reply