Thank You, Steve Bace

[ccarrolladams]

Six of us had a marvelous education experience in Henderson, NV this week, on 14 and 15 November. Our host and instructor was Steve Bace.

 

[Neill]

Six of us had a marvelous education experience in Henderson, NV this week, on 14 and 15 November. Our host and instructor was Steve Bace.

On behalf of all of us who have not attended a Festool class, I am very envious.  Could you please let us know what the class was about and couple of the significant things you came away with.

Do you or any of your classmates have any pics to share?

Thanks.

Neill

 

[GPowers]

Yes please let us know, and some pictures would also help.

If Brian was not there it must have been a Solid Surface class?

 

[ccarrolladams]

Yes please let us know, and some pictures would also help.

If Brian was not there it must have been a Solid Surface class?

GP, because all five of the other participants were taking many pictures, I put my own camera away a few minutes after we started working in the project room.

Actually Brian "The Sedge" Sedgeley was a participant during the Solid Surface Fabrication class held on 17 and 18 February 2011. Unfortunately another Solid Surface class has not been scheduled. Of course I consider myself so fortunate to have been part of that Solid Surface class.

This time the participant who was my project partner has attended all of the classes except Solid Surface. There were jokes about changing the sign over the #4 work area in Henderson to include my name. This class completes my set. As far as I know there is no physical prize for having taken all the classes.

However, for me there is great satisfaction knowing that after all this expert coaching, if I cannot get the most from each and every Festool, it is my own darn fault.

The 14 and 15 November 2011 class in Henderson was "Introduction to Festool" My memory of the introductions is that only one of the participants had never previously attended an End Users class. One of the fellows had attended classes at the original Festool Training Center in Henderson.

Besides my desire to complete my set of classes and to spend more time at the Sunset Station Feast Buffet, I wanted to be reminded of features and functions of Festools I own but no longer use on a daily basis. While we were doing the class paperwork: authorizing the charge to our credit card; signing the waiver just in case any of us were injured; making our Monday lunch selection, Steve asked what each of us wanted to cover.

All of us wanted to see the most practical way to check the toe-in of our TS55 and TS75. When the leading edge of a TS saw is closer to the guide rail than the trailing edge, the quality of the cut is vastly improved. Nearly a year ago at the end of the first day of Cabinet class, Steve had used my oldest TS55 to show us how to check and adjust toe-in. When I got back to my shop I made sure all of our TS saws were correctly toed-in. But none of the other folks had even seen Steve Bace perform such an adjustment.

Once we were sure all the class TS55s were adjusted, we set up Parallel Guide sets with Extensions. With those we broke down sheets of material. After that we set up full MFT for accurate cross cutting. Finally we used Kapex in various ways. This was important to me. I own several Kapex and have used them since they became available, but since I opened my shop the talented cabinet makers working for me perform all the delicate and exotic work with the Kapex. I am very confident about making accurate 90 degree cuts and I tend to forget how to do other Kapex tasks.

After the Monday lunch break we brought out Dominoes. All those pieces of sheet material we had cut needed to be assembled with Dominoes in many fascinating ways. Again, for the past year when I do get a chance to use a Domino, it is at 90 degrees and almost always in 19mm material. So for me this was a chance to experiment with exotic joints, in company with folks who will not rat me out to my employees. Actually I only made one significant error in such a way what were intended to be conventional hidden Domino joints became through Domino joints. My team did replace the Beech Dominoes with Sipo Dominoes. After a few minutes with a hard pad on an RO90DX and going through the grits with Granat the final product is attractive. Who knows, maybe a client would like that look?

See, all the Festool classes are safe places where we can experiment without shame. My theory is I have learned more from mistakes or experiments with un-intended results. The lesson comes from figuring out what went wrong and doing the exercise again correctly.

Yes, GP, these were two exciting long days. I cannot wait to take another class, even if that means repeating one such as Advance Router.

 

[GPowers]

Hey C Carroll Congrads on getting all the classes under your belt.  I have only been able to got to two classes. sounds like this class was a great refresher. Disappointed not to see and pictures.