February 23, 201412 yr comment_4817  IT was pretty poor. None of the major manufacturers were there.  Lee Valley had a nice little booth but was not openly offering show discounts. The Festertool guy had some poor sodding bugger on the ground and was hammering away at his head with a thousand dollar router for daring to inquire about show discounts.Even the instructional seminars were pretty poor.I couldn't even get the SawStop guy to do a demo. I love watching them try and fail to cut a vienna sausage in half. But he wasn't having any of it. One would think that the manufacturers of a saw so nice as the Saw Stop would be able to cut a hot dog in half, but for whatever reason those guys can't seem to get the knack.Maybe they should just buy a knife.The so called show discounts that One expects were shallow shallow shallow. The guy at the carter guides booth wanted to sell me a set of guides for my band saw for oh gee it had to have been $220 and that was down by a lousy ten dollars off MSRPMind you, when my factory guides go I ain't buying carters at $230.00. I can fab up a set every bit as nice from aluminum, some cheap bearings, and shoulder-bolts.hockey sticks, I could produce guides and get them to retail for less than half of what Carter sells them for.The Bessy discounts were pretty good - an exception from the rest of the show. You could get their 40" Revo for $55 which is less than half but for my money anyone who buys those clamps has rocks in their head (sorry bessy fans) or a heck of a lot of disposable income.  I'd buy 'em if I won powerball.I tried to buy a makita mini circular saw but the guy wouldn't negotiate and I wasn't handing over $160 for a battery powered saw with no battery.Pursuing the tables in the back I came away with a flexible shaft hand grinder for pretty cheap and a couple other things. Report
February 24, 201412 yr comment_4819 Cliff, who was the major sponsor of the show? It must have been a minor show.Ron DudelstonSite AdministratorAbove and Beyond WoodWorks Report
February 24, 201412 yr comment_4818 What! no free samples!! At least computer shows have every booth giving away free stuff. Lew Kauffman-Wood Turners Forum HostTime Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins! Report
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