Home in Calgary

  It was a weird feeling as we drove past the "Welcome to Alberta!" sign.  I still have a hard time believing that Ian's time at Inside Passage has come and gone.  It was a fantastic 9 months, not just in terms of school, but also as far as a life experience for our family.  We met a lot of really great people and had a chance to see what it was like to live in a totally different community.  The Creek is a very quiet place and Mylene appreciated the time to bond with and enjoy little Rya.  It was amazing to see her grow, and somewhat of a measuring stick for our time there. Above all, it has given us a lot more perspective with which to decide what we want our lives to look like.

On the woodworking front I think my post IP hangover is beginning to wear off which is nice.  I'm working a construction job for the time being and it feels nice to be making some dough again.  It is an interesting thing, leaving school; or at least leaving this particular school.  I've been struggling with how to move on and really make the time I spent learning how to make beautiful things from wood mean something.  Unlike university which left me with next to nothing, I want this to be a part of my life for good.  It's really just a matter of figuring out what that looks like.

In terms of a post IP shop, the analogy I used with my friend who is a photographer, is that it's much like learning to take pictures with the best camera, lights and gear you can get and then suddenly not even having a camera.  You really want to take a picture but can't...simple as that.  Maye you have a little point and shoot from before you learned how to really take a photo but you know it just won't cut it anymore.

I've decided to hell with it though and am going to go for it.  The house we bought has a perfect space and I've been religious in my scouring of the used machine market.  I realize that the order in which I've acquired things so far is not what Robert suggested but I figure when a good deal is to be had, prioritizing goes out the window.

Here's what the shop looks like as of now:

Table saw : I'm going to stick with my General International 10" Hybrid until it proves to be unworthy.  I'm optimisitc however that with a sweet cross-cut sled, it will serve my well.

Shaper : I found a guy in High River who had a bunch of stuff sitting around from a cabinet shop that he had closed down when he decided to make pre-fab walls with his rack of 30 framing nailers that all fire in unison.  Anyways, long story short, he had a brand new Delta shaper just sitting around.  The motor had never even been put in.  I had been pondering the router table route but when this popped up and I felt the precision of the lift I was sold even if it cost a little more.  This was what I was talking about with the wacky priority, the best machine in your shop probably shouldn't be the shaper but you gotta start somewhere.

Jointer/ Shaper : Interestingly, the same guy who sold me the shaper (perhaps my woodworking guardian angel) also had a Mini-Max FS30 12" jointer/planer combination machine.  I debated for a couple weeks but finally we agreed on a price and I went and picked it up yesterday. Just like that I am ecstatic to have 12" jointing capacity.

Mortiser : Best of all, the combination machine also came with an x-y table that turns it into a slot-mortiser.  Needless to say, I was pretty pumped to welcome Max into the family.

Dust-collector : As part of the bargaining for the Mini-Max I got him to include a 1.5 hp Delta DC that he had sitting on a palette up in the rafters.  I'm excited to make it crazy-carpet cyclonic a la Ian Godfrey's shop.

Bandsaw : Still browsing but have my eye on a couple used ones.  The 3-phase power thing is getting me down a bit though.  Do I really need to go there or should I be patient and wait for something else to come along.
Workbench : 100 board feet of maple, a front vise and a tail vise, waiting patiently for the day that they will be transformed into a bench.  I found a sweet plan online based on the Ulmia bench.  It will guide me through what promises to be a challenging but rewarding project.  Don't you need a bench to make a bench?

Anyways, it's coming along.  More importantly I'm blogging again.