GWSB '10

Saturday saw the big event...the Great Wilton Summer Bash '10. I always worry a little bit as to a) whether anyone will turn up and b) will it go as planned?

In the event, it was successful on both counts...in fact a dozen friends turned out for the day, some having driven considerable (by UK standards) distances to attend (two arrived shortly after the pic was taken)

Having just done a lot of veneering recently, I decided to do short demo on making a simple 'lay-up' and the various subtleties of using the AirPress vacuum bag...

Paul Chapman (closest to camera, blue shirt) arrived late (his feeble excuse was the traffic) more than likely the motor was slowed down by the weight of cast iron in the boot, though to be fair, most of them were for PaulM (to his left, check shirt)

Bob Minchin delivered his ingenious 'Boblock' for my intended purchase later on of the Jet 260 planer/thicknesser. In case anyone's wondering, there's an issue with that piece of equipment in that there's no lock to keep the thicknessing table in place and after a short while it starts to wander. He also let me have a couple of lengths of 12mm birch ply to make a new router table fence, similar to Steve Maskery's ( Steve hoicked that down from Nottingham, so many thanks to both Steve and Bob)

Thanks also to Philly (blue T shirt, front) for the LN slide show presentation (but there weren't nearly enough shots of the delightful Robin) and my new LN leather key fob, which as I'm led to believe, is a rather exclusive little item. However, sadly, there were no pics of the 'bar' that he and others strayed into...

Matthew from Workshop Heaven arrived just in time to have a bite to eat after which he went back out to the car and brought in a box of goodies. I was particularly taken with the Carbur burnisher which gave an edge to a card scraper the likes of which I've never experienced. Impressive indeed! Many thanks also for the saw sharpening demo...I now possess a very nicely sharpened panel saw.

Final thanks must also go to Pam for again providing the most excellent and thoroughly yummy puds (a summer fruit pudding that contained a decent 'glug' of something from the drinks cabinet and a triple decker chocolate confection with strawberries and fresh cream)

All in all, an excellent day.