After a break of 7 years, we went back to Ontario, Canada this time at the shop of Dave Skinner.
Apparently there had been people waiting a long time for this one as Dave had a crew of early Campers show up Friday evening to warm up for the main event on the following day…
Dave’s doing lots of custom closet work, and he showed us his shop, and described some of his “history” with a variety of cabinet making software packages. He also pointed out some of their strengths, and weaknesses in terms of how he does business. Bill Lumley was able to add to that discussion by showing us how the “E Cab link” works in both the setup and cutting stages for cabinet work.
Part of the morning was spent going over the “rotary machining” concept including how a few owners were building their own units to “test the waters”.
We got into a talk about the state of business, and how/why it’s becoming more and more important to have a presence on the web. In between sessions Dave also discussed his use of “Google ad words” to advertise his business. We spoke about some of the products locally available, and NOT available ( anyone know where to get Trupan in Eastern Canada? ), and how the “green” concept is becoming an important part of a business plan.
Over lunch we got into some things people were concerned about, and a number of owners spoke of future upgrades they’d like to see for their machines.
For Show and Tell we had everything from Paul Skinner’s cribbage boards, and yard art, to miniature viking ships which were carved by Guy Hilliard for a client who then set them aflame and launched them……
Sign making, and related coating materials were covered as a few guys were trying to come up with ways to make something different.
As people started to leave I was given a bag, and in it was a great Camp momento which Bill Price had carved for EVERYONE attending the Camp ( see above). EACH of these “tuits”was 12 inches in diameter! We’re also going to try to get a User group started in the area as well. Hopefully this will let everyone get to see a few more shops, setups, modifications, etc. as well as trade info on supplies, software, and machining techniques.
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