Kansas City in T Minus 10-9-8

Written on January 30, 2012 at 9:45 pm , by Jim Heavey

When the Woodworking Shows go to Kansas City each year, I know that I can expect a great weekend. This last weekend was no exception. I guess that I didn’t realize how interesting and fulfilling my time in KC would be. Read more

Not Your Indy 500

Written on January 23, 2012 at 6:30 pm , by Jim Heavey

 

This last Friday, January 20th, the Woodworking Shows opened its doors in Indianapolis, Indiana and I began my trek down there on Thursday. This is usually a pretty quick trip of about four hours. Not so this time. Mother nature and some “fearless” drivers would add another hour and a half to that trip. Read more

A New England Style Woodworking Show

Written on January 16, 2012 at 5:39 pm , by Jim Heavey

 The New England show was the next stop on the Woodworking Show circuit and I flew into Bradley International airport in Hartford on Thursday, January 12th. I had gotten an invitation from Tommy Mac to stop out at his shop and this was the perfect opportunity to see him. Read more

Baltimore and the Raven

Written on January 9, 2012 at 4:08 pm , by Jim Heavey

 

The holiday season, New Years and the bowl games are now just a memory as I begin the winter and spring road trip to the Woodworking Shows. For as long as I can remember, the first show of the year has always been in Baltimore. Even having traveled there many times, I still enjoy this city and the hundreds of years of history in it. Read more

My Kind of Town

Written on November 28, 2011 at 1:35 pm , by Jim Heavey

This last weekend the Woodworking Show came back to Chicago. Though I really enjoy visiting with woodworkers in venues around the country, I have to admit that it was nice to forgo the probing questions and hands of the TSA people for a 40 minute ride in my own car without having to take off my shoes before I getting in. Still had to stay buckled in and seated until the doors opened, however. Read more

A Denver Diary

Written on November 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm , by Jim Heavey

This last weekend’s flight on November 18-20, took me  a little more than a thousand miles west of my home in Huntley, Illinois to Denver, Colorado and to a change in both climate and altitude. The Woodworking Show would open its doors about a mile above sea level and to an arid 60 degree sunny weekend. Read more

A Weekend in Portland 2011

Written on November 15, 2011 at 7:53 am , by Jim Heavey

This last weekend the Woodworking Shows traveled to Portland, Oregon. This is still one of my favorite destinations on the tour as it blends some of the most beautiful scenery in the country with a talented eclectic group of wodworkers. Read more

Tracing Swiss-made tools and Bosch’s place in the global market

Written on November 14, 2011 at 2:32 pm , by Bob Hunter

My whirlwind tour of Bosch’s corporate offices and manufacturing facilities in Europe continued from Germany into Switzerland.

Like most large companies in the world, the Robert Bosch Company has grown not only through innovation and development of its own product lines, but also through acquisitions of existing companies. For example, in recent years Bosch has acquired Sia Abrasives, a Swiss-based company making sandpaper and other abrasives for many industries, and also Freud, the Italian business that makes cutting tools (saw blades, router bits, shaper cutters, etc.) and produces its own carbide.

My next stop was the former Scintilla company headquarters in Solothurn, Switzerland. Read more

Discovering about the man behind the Bosch tool company

Written on November 9, 2011 at 3:57 pm , by Bob Hunter

On my second day in Germany to learn about the Robert Bosch Company, I discovered a great deal more about the man who founded the company, as well as a little bit about his tools from the early days and in today’s market.

At the Bosch Archives (which is more like a Bosch museum, but they had already named it before I arrived) I enjoyed a guided tour through the facility from the curator. He told me about how Robert Bosch, born in 1861 in the area near Stuttgart, Germany, grew up with a desire to be a precision mechanic. He studied under a number of established practitioners in Germany and the U.S. (including Thomas Edison), and later found his calling making parts for internal combustion engines. His magneto, the part that generates the spark needed to burn the fuel in the engine cylinders, was his signature product, and his business grew well from that. That magneto is visible today as a cross section in the Bosch company logo. (Run out and grab a Bosch tool and study it, or just look at the photo here of one of the original magnetos, and you’ll see the logo in the cross-section of the armature.)

Read more

Woodworking in the Sac(k)

Written on November 8, 2011 at 12:05 pm , by Jim Heavey

This last weekend, the Woodworking Shows moved from the LA area to Sacramento and though we we’re still in California, the weather couldn’t have been more different. With temperatures hovering in the low 50’s and an on and off rain, it was downright nippy. Read more