As many of you know, this is my annual pilgrimage to Buffalo in conjunction with the Thanksgiving visit with my family in western PA.
This time, I spent three days helping Zootman Bob in the new shop as well as lusting over the most gorgeous woods in the world. In addition, I got to spend more time with Bob's family as well as with Anthony Z. and his lovely family who came for a visit. I always enjoy hearing AZ play guitar...very talented. But his wife and 2 daughters accompanied him this time and that was the real bonus.
Anyway, the shop is coming along just fine and will be a quantum leap over the formerly dis-jointed basemant, garage and shed operation. With 2 huge main rooms, Bob will have a much more efficient operation in the new shop. One room will contain the unfinished billets along with the Chop Saw, Planer, Laguna, Sander, etc. while the second room will house stickered material as well as the packaging and shipping area.
One room has been painted and 10 foot high billet racks installed along three walls. Hopefully there will be enough shelf space to accommodate his garage full of billets from all over the world. Each time we made the 5 minute trip from his home to the shop, we took a truck load of billets from the garage. It hardly made a dent in the garage!
We had fun making cardboard cutouts of the footprints of the various pieces of equipment and arranging them on the floor to maximize efficiency. What a luxury this will represent compared to the current situation! Next step is to make the new power runs to supply the machines and then actually move them in place.
The HVAC guys had just installed a state-of-the-art high efficiency furnace that included the largest system humidifier I've ever seen! We checked out the gauges and it kept a comfortable and consistent 45-47% for 2 days at various temperatures. The riggers had just lifted a huge AC unit onto the roof as I was departing yesterday. What impressed me the most is that Bob is doing everything right by using the best equipment and materials available...would we expect anything less!!!? I also got a chance to work shoulder to shoulder with Bob, Jr. who is a very dedicated son and most interested in helping out his Old Man in his post-retirement "hobby business"
. A chip off the old block for sure!
...and all along, Rosie had that smile on her face with the knowledge that once the move is completed, she can eliminate the daily dusting chores around the house and maybe even get her garage back before the snow flies!
Thanks, Bob, Rosie and family for making me feel like part of "la familia"! I'm already looking forward to next year.
