Back in the mid 80's I won a CB radio base station and antena in one of those store "fill in a form and win a ____". Haven't won anything since - until recently.
I did manage to walk under a 12KV power line - just before it snapped and fell were I'd just been walking - and melting some concrete, some asphalt and catching a tree on fire. But that was LUCK, not WINNING.
So last month I won a Jimmy Clewes "lidded chinese box" in a club raffle. Nice piece and having watched it being turned - at 3,000 rpms. If you want an adrenaline rush stand near a 10" x 4" x 2 1/2" "propeller" wind up to
3K.So Saturday a buddy and I went up to the SawDust Shop open house, mainly to see their Epilog Laser Engraver - a guy was going to show me how he laser engraves lidded boxes he turns on Sunday for an article for the club's website. They were going to have a drawing and I HAVE to enter drawings that involve woodworking stuff - it's an OCD thing. Didn't know what the prizes were and didn't care - getting the entry form filled in and put in the box was all I HAD TO do. And I bought two "safe drive centers" and two "live centers" as donations to a high school that has some kids interested in turning but only face plates as a way of holding the wood. School budgets being what they are, "shop class" stuff is at the very bottom of the priority list, especially for equiptment, and there are kids with an affinity for woodworking who don't get a chance to even try it.
The Sunday Epilog laser engraving session got postponed to Monday. That
2 hour session was really enlightening. Opens up a lot of possibilities- If you have access to a laser engraver - which I didn't foresee ever having. (I'll post the url to the page(s) on what I learned when it/they are done.)
So tonight I check my e-mail and see yet another "YOU"VE WON!" message. I get four or five of those things - a day. But I open it and read it before deleting it just to see how crafty these rip off artists are getting.
SURPRISE - it was for real - a Lifetime Membership to the SawDust Shop woodshop - with the Epilog Laser - AND - a ShopBot - along with the other stationary tools, benches, clamps etc.. This shop is LOADED. For space and budget constrained woodworkers, this place is a dream come true. If you're in the south San Francisco Bay Area the shop is in Sunnyvale a mile or two off US 101 and Lawrence Expressway.
charlie b