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172188 gmaze@s... 2007‑08‑06 Galootapalooza 12! or The Manhattan Project review
Looks like Mike Duchaj beat me to the punch, but he didn't have the 6-1/2
hour drive I had (thank you downtown Chicago traffic) and I am sure he had
a lot more sleep than me...

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and as always when I get involved
with one of Slav's schemes, I showed up way earlier than expected (stupid
Daylight Savings Time, we used to be the same time as Chicago in the
summer, now we're an hour ahead), so I am partly to blame for the
cleanliness of the shop...

The first wave arrived in the late morning and included Mike "The Rat"
Urness with the fixings for Sushi, Wes Groot, Mike Duchaj, Matt Mulka and a
cast of characters that I have since forgotten due to lack of sleep and a
bad memory, which is probably a welcome thing as not everyone may have
wanted to be identified due to outstanding warrants, unpaid traffic
tickets, terrorist profiling, etc.
While Mr. Urness created the sushi (AKA bait food, per Slav and Ralph
Brendler), I guarded the table from the very curious and apparently
ravenously hungry shop cats. While that was going on, there was lots of
talking, drooling over tools and wood, and the general unorganized chaos
and laughter that happens when a bunch of galoots get together.

About 5 PM the second shift arrived consisting of Ralph Brendler, Mark Van
Roojen and Russ Allen. They arrived with a Stickley rocking chair that Mark
had found at a flea market and would not let go of until Ralph had bought
it. There was quite a bit of visiting, show and tell, BS'ing and an
in-depth discussion of how to fix the loose tenon in Ralph's chair, and
what to do with the genuine original Stickley bailing wire holding the
bottom of said chair together. I always knew that guys were capable of
mentally undressing cute members of the opposite sex, but I had never met
guys that mentally disassembled chairs before.
The next day (after only 3-1/2 hours sleep) we loaded up and headed to
Garfield farms for tool pillaging. The day did not start very auspiciously,
since it was pouring down rain when I arrived. But after some more BS'ing,
visiting under the bottom porch of the main house and breakfast, the rain
finally broke and the field slowly opened.
For those of you who have never been to a sanctioned tool meet, be prepared
for some pretty serious sensory overload. I have been training myself to
listen carefully for the sound old iron makes when it is moved around at
garage sales, and I think my ears were seriously overloaded that day.
Because of the rain, the tools were slow to come out, so the crowd was
moving from one site to another all at the same time as each dealer set up
his stuff.

After about 2 hours of wandering around, Ralph, Wes, Russ and Mark were
kind enough to invite me to breakfast where we met up with Mike Lindgren,
and of course, more BSing, tool acquisition stories, etc went on.

At the meet, I ended up getting a #191 rabbet plane, complete with nicker
and depth stop to help my #192 feel less lonely, and a complete #71 to be a
friend to the #71-1/2 I already own, not that I am anthropomorphizing my
tools at all....

Highlights -

Some great Mike Urness sushi.

Relieving Ralph Brendler of his old lathe (unfortunately SWMBO and the
neighbor that usually helps unload heavy stuff are both out of town so the
lathe table is still riding around with me in the back of the van). Yes it
is electron powered, but I bought a couple of other hand tools to make up
for it.

Seeing Mark Van Roojens' very gizmonic automatic door morticing machine.

Seeing Russ Allen's 50 cent perfect condition Stanley 79 from a garage
sale.

Seeing Ralph ID a piece of chipboard from across the room as quilted maple
(evidently beer goggles make wood look better, too)

Getting a personal tour of Peter Ambrose the abstract woodcarvers studio
next door to Slavs (Thanks, Wes!)

Watching Mark Van Roojen order crepes with "way more powdered sugar than
you would ever expect anyone to use" (direct quote to the waitress) for
them and then use most of it.

Seeing Slav play his role as file and wood pusher, by leaving files and
beutiful chunks of wood everywhere.

Getting to meet in person many of the list denizens that I had only met
on-line.

I have a few pictures, but they are locked up in the camera right now,
hopefully I will get some time in the next few days to post them to Galoot
Central.

Gary Maze

Looking forward to next year already

------------------------------------------------------------------------

172205 Kirk Eppler <eppler.kirk@g...> 2007‑08‑07 Re: Galootapalooza 12! or The Manhattan Project review
Milliken, Gordon Spencer (Gordon) wrote:
> I'm also ashamed to say that LOML "dragged" me out to the meet
> ......In fact, in a dramatic effort to cure me of this sickness, SWMBO
> made an ATM run to get more funds - -
>
> I do want to publicly add my thanks and appreciation to the MWTCA for
> this wonderful event,
>
Ooooh, a KEEPER. Does she have a sister?

--
Kirk Eppler in Half Moon Bay, CA, afraid I'm gonna miss the next PAST
meet again due to kids soccer. Maybe I can go Friday night. Ken? Process
Development Engineering Eppler.Kirk@g...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

172203 "Milliken, Gordon Spencer \(Gordon\)" <gsm2@a...> 2007‑08‑07 RE: Galootapalooza 12! or The Manhattan Project review
Gary, I'm a fairly recent lurker, and ashamed to say that while I
live in the neighborhood so could have easily made it to
Galootapalooza, didn't realize the fun to be had and new friends to
be made there - thanks to you and Mike for sharing, and Slav for
hosting what sounds like a great time. I am looking forward to
getting in on the fun next year!

I'm also ashamed to say that LOML "dragged" me out to the meet - whose
location is only a few miles from my house. As she described the affair,
I supposed I was going to see some farm implements, and might get lucky
to see some battered, run of the mill hand tools. WELL - - WOW - - my
heart is still racing!! I've never been to a "real" tool meet before,
and although I was told that this was a light turnout due to the
weather, I saw tools that I never thought I'd see in person, and
actually be able to paw over. I must have lost my senses for a bit,
'cause next thing I knew, I had a bag full of goodies, and an empty
wallet - - In fact, in a dramatic effort to cure me of this sickness,
SWMBO made an ATM run to get more funds - - see, it goes like this:
Remember the tale of a parent catching jr. smoking, and in a misguided
effort to thwart the emerging habit, forced him to smoke the whole pack
at once in order to get him sick, and hence never smoke again - - - -
well... I don't recommend this approach when it comes to galooting, but
am quite happy that she tried so valiantly.

I do want to publicly add my thanks and appreciation to the MWTCA for
this wonderful event, and any of you on the porch that added to some
enjoyable conversation and rust hunting - - I was the guy walking around
with glazed over eyes Gordon Rubbing hands in glee just west of Chicago

-----Original Message----- From: gmaze@s... [mailto:gmaze@s...]Sent:
Monday, August 06, 2007 12:30 PM To: oldtools@r... Subject: [OldTools]
Galootapalooza 12! or The Manhattan Project review

Looks like Mike Duchaj beat me to the punch, but he didn't have the 6-
1/2 hour drive I had (thank you downtown Chicago traffic) and I am sure
he had a lot more sleep than me...

Saturday morning dawned bright and early and as always when I get
involved with one of Slav's schemes, I showed up way earlier than
expected (stupid Daylight Savings Time, we used to be the same time as
Chicago in the summer, now we're an hour ahead), so I am partly to blame
for the cleanliness of the shop...

The first wave arrived in the late morning and included Mike "The Rat"
Urness with the fixings for Sushi, Wes Groot, Mike Duchaj, Matt Mulka
and a cast of characters that I have since forgotten due to lack of
sleep and a bad memory, which is probably a welcome thing as not
everyone may have wanted to be identified due to outstanding warrants,
unpaid traffic tickets, terrorist profiling, etc. While Mr. Urness
created the sushi (AKA bait food, per Slav and Ralph Brendler), I
guarded the table from the very curious and apparently ravenously hungry
shop cats. While that was going on, there was lots of talking, drooling
over tools and wood, and the general unorganized chaos and laughter that
happens when a bunch of galoots get together.

About 5 PM the second shift arrived consisting of Ralph Brendler, Mark
Van Roojen and Russ Allen. They arrived with a Stickley rocking chair
that Mark had found at a flea market and would not let go of until
Ralph had bought it. There was quite a bit of visiting, show and tell,
BS'ing and an in-depth discussion of how to fix the loose tenon in
Ralph's chair, and what to do with the genuine original Stickley
bailing wire holding the bottom of said chair together. I always knew
that guys were capable of mentally undressing cute members of the
opposite sex, but I had never met guys that mentally disassembled
chairs before. The next day (after only 3-1/2 hours sleep) we loaded up
and headed to Garfield farms for tool pillaging. The day did not start
very auspiciously, since it was pouring down rain when I arrived. But
after some more BS'ing, visiting under the bottom porch of the main
house and breakfast, the rain finally broke and the field slowly
opened. For those of you who have never been to a sanctioned tool meet,
be prepared for some pretty serious sensory overload. I have been
training myself to listen carefully for the sound old iron makes when
it is moved around at garage sales, and I think my ears were seriously
overloaded that day. Because of the rain, the tools were slow to come
out, so the crowd was moving from one site to another all at the same
time as each dealer set up his stuff.

After about 2 hours of wandering around, Ralph, Wes, Russ and Mark
were kind enough to invite me to breakfast where we met up with
Mike Lindgren, and of course, more BSing, tool acquisition stories,
etc went on.

At the meet, I ended up getting a #191 rabbet plane, complete with
nicker and depth stop to help my #192 feel less lonely, and a complete
#71 to be a friend to the #71-1/2 I already own, not that I am
anthropomorphizing my tools at all....

Highlights -

Some great Mike Urness sushi.

Relieving Ralph Brendler of his old lathe (unfortunately SWMBO and the
neighbor that usually helps unload heavy stuff are both out of town so
the lathe table is still riding around with me in the back of the van).
Yes it is electron powered, but I bought a couple of other hand tools to
make up for it.

Seeing Mark Van Roojens' very gizmonic automatic door morticing machine.

Seeing Russ Allen's 50 cent perfect condition Stanley 79 from a
garage sale.

Seeing Ralph ID a piece of chipboard from across the room as quilted
maple (evidently beer goggles make wood look better, too)

Getting a personal tour of Peter Ambrose the abstract woodcarvers studio
next door to Slavs (Thanks, Wes!)

Watching Mark Van Roojen order crepes with "way more powdered sugar than
you would ever expect anyone to use" (direct quote to the waitress) for
them and then use most of it.

Seeing Slav play his role as file and wood pusher, by leaving files and
beutiful chunks of wood everywhere.

Getting to meet in person many of the list denizens that I had only
met on-line.

I have a few pictures, but they are locked up in the camera right now,
hopefully I will get some time in the next few days to post them to
Galoot Central.

Gary Maze

Looking forward to next year already

------------------------------------------------------------------------

172206 gmaze@s... 2007‑08‑07 Re: Galootapalooza 12! or The Manhattan Project review
Gordon,

You know there may be a reason she went, she probably wanted to limit the
damage and not let you consider tapping the savings, 401K, applying for a
second mortgage. My wife would probably do the same thing, only tell me she
could only get $25 from the machine when she came back.

A tool meet like that can be a bit overwhelming for the 1st timer, but I
have been told that the MTCA national meets are even bigger and more
spectacular, alas I haven't been able to get to one yet. Now if I could
just get SWMBO and the 9 year old daughter interested....

Gary Maze

With the lathe stand from Galootapalooza still in the back of the van
waiting for strong neighbors

                                                                           
             Kirk Eppler                                                   
                                                                   To 
             Sent by:                                                      
             oldtools-bounces@                                          cc 
             ruckus.law.cornel         oldtools@r...     
             l.edu                                                 Subject 
                                       Re: [OldTools] Galootapalooza 12!   
                                       or The Manhattan Project review     
             08/07/2007 12:57                                              
             PM                                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
             Please respond to                                             
             eppler.kirk@g...                                             
                    com                                                    
                                                                           
                                                                           

Milliken, Gordon Spencer (Gordon) wrote:
> I'm also ashamed to say that LOML "dragged" me out to the meet ......In
fact, in a dramatic effort to cure me of this sickness,
> SWMBO made an ATM run to get more funds - -
>
> I do want to publicly add my thanks and appreciation to the MWTCA for
this wonderful event,
>
Ooooh, a KEEPER.  Does she have a sister?

-- 
Kirk Eppler in Half Moon Bay, CA, afraid I'm gonna miss the next PAST meet
again due to kids soccer.  Maybe I can go Friday night.  Ken?
Process Development Engineering
Eppler.Kirk@g...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

172321 Ralph Brendler <rebrendler@g...> 2007‑08‑11 Re: Galootapalooza 12! or The Manhattan Project review
It's a week late, but I wanted to wait until I had some pictures
to show...

Russ Allen, Mark VanRoojen and I took a slightly different approach to
Galootapalooza this year. Rather than heading straight to Slavs, we
started out at the Kane County Flea market, which used to be the
official mosh pit of galootapalooza. I had not been in several years, so
we had a great time. The flea was a little smaller than in the past, but
there was a lot better stuff at it, and dealers were... well, dealing.

When we got there, we all bolted straight for the back field where all
of the new stuff is. Well, it appears that the back field of the Kane
Country fairgrounds is now a strip mall (just what Geneva needs--
ANOTHER strip mall!). That was the bad news, but the good news is we
were in the far corner of the market before just about anyone else, so
we started cruising. About the third dealer in, all three of us saw
the same thing-- a really nice Stickley-style rocker. Mark put his
hand on it claim ownership while we looked it over. We concluded it
was legit, and priced fairly, so a quick call to SWMBO later and it
had my name on it.

http://galootcentral.com/portal/index.php?option=com_copperminevis&Item-
id=2&place=thumbnails&album It had several old attempts at repairs, but
luckily nobody had done anything non-reversible. Should be a piece of
cake to fix up and restore.

After a couple of hours at the flea, we had a nice lunch and headed
downtown to Slav's. Most of the others had just left, but I did get to
meet Gary Maze. There was lots of great food, plenty of adult beverages,
and the usual great galoot camaraderie. There's nothing like a galoot
get-together...

Bright and early the next morning was the MWTCA meet. I got there about
45 minutes late, but nothing had really gotten rolling yet because of a
thunderstorm blowing through. About 1 minutes after I arrived folks
started opening up, and the show turned out to be great. I didn't buy
anything, but managed to sell a couple of things (including my nice old
1950's PowerKraft lathe to Gary Maze).

After everyone was sated with tools we went for a late breakfast,
highlighted by Mark VanRoojen's "Powdered Sugar Incident" as described
elsewhere.

By the time I got home on Sunday afternoon, I was exhausted but
happy. Another Galootapalooza come and gone, and I'm already waiting
for next year...

------------------------------------------------------------------------


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