Thread: Whats at IMTS for me?

Im a prototype machinist. I use pretty much all manual equpiment. Thinking about possibly getting a CNC Bridgeport and or a FDM machine. Is it worth it for me to make a trip down to Chicagoland next month to check out IMTS? Do they have cool toys for handle turners?

There is more than you can imagine!
Walking as fast as you can, you will not see all that might interest you in a single day.
Cannot be done.

And I am limiting my comments to a handle spinner.
CNC machinery, and my response is more emphatic.

Vantastic! I was under the assumption that it was going to be 99% CNC.

Originally Posted by pende

Whats at IMTS for me?

Apparently a $30 fee?

I wonder tho if this is not really a bad thing?
Maybe help to limit the number of pointless attendies that are curious, but not really related?

On a slow yr those types at least help to keep the numbers looking good.
On such a busy yr as this in manufacturing, maybe not having to deal with riff raff may be in everyones interest?



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

Never had to pay before.
Ox

ABSOLUTELY!

I've considered IMTS a MUST for anyone in this business.
Sure you get to see all the cool CNC stuff, but there's also conventional machinery, tooling, software, measuring, hand tools, shop support, etc etc.

Plus, you'll be there with a few hundred thousand others like minded people.
Win-Win.

lots of free Pens!

The largest concentration of salesmen you will ever encounter.

If you don't make it to Chicago there is one in Milwaukee next year. A bit smaller but less expensive. I picked up free advance tickets on line. I think it was 5 bucks to park. Manual machines were few and I was surprised by some companies not there.
Dave

I like the swag.

Lord Byron

There is something for everyone in the trade at IMTS. I like to check out the small vendors area on the last day I'm there, lots of innovative stuff in there usually. As mentioned, you can't swing a stick without hitting a sales person, but that's the whole idea.

Originally Posted by aerodark

The largest concentration of salesmen you will ever encounter.

I was excited about it until you put it that way!

Sorry, man!

Originally Posted by aerodark

The largest concentration of salesmen you will ever encounter.

Youve never been to the S.H.O.T. show then!! lol

Forgive me, but I have never been to IMTS either! I ASSUMED that would be the case though.

WTF is SHOT?

I'm going, first time. Flying in, and probably using public transportation to get to McCormick from a relative's home.

The point of the trip is to see what our shop can buy to make stuff better/faster/cheaper. Sheet metal forming, mill tooling, waterjet accessories, welding equipment, environmental/personal safety gear, cad and cam software. Also to get an education on Additive Machining and see where it is in our future. A pretty long list, actually.

I'm planning to spend two full days touring as much of the exhibit area as possible, and to ignore the formal conference program and other activities. Are there any special attractions to not miss, besides all the commercial exhibits? Any educational or non-commercial/professional features that you can "drop in" to, unlike the programs?

Any practical words of wisdom on getting around? Should I bring a pack, or a luggage cart, and expect to haul 60 lb of paper back each day, or go light and get the card scanned everywhere?

Other folks have warned about giving out real name, phone etc. due to the resulting deluge of sales calls but getting information is the point. Will I regret it?

thanks

1. There will be plenty of shoulder / cloth shopping bags around at the vendors booths for literature and all the pens and stuff, just pick your favorite brand to carry with you.
2. Wear comfortable walking shoes, you will need them, you will do a lot of walking.
3. It's very difficult to see everything in 2 days.
4. Make a general list of what you need to see.
5. Take that list and the vendor layout of McCormick and then get specific on which booths you need to get to and plan a route.
6. Lay out an estimated time line and chart your course vs. time. You can kill a lot of time looking at things you really don't need and miss out on things you do need to see.
7. Allow at least a few hours on the last day to just walk around areas of interest with no specific agenda.
8. I've had no real issue with giving out real info, I'm just very selective in who I let scan my badge - Just those vendors I actually want info from.

The first time I went to IMTS, I was not careful about who scanned my badge.
Since I started out at home, that was the number listed as a fax number.

I was getting HUNDREDS of spam faxes... At ALL hours of the day, and Night.

NOTHING would make them stop. NOTHING could stop them until I had my home phone disconnected!
And, the days that the fax was not working?
The auto dialers would call, and call, and call all day long, all night long, over and over.....
Mnay faxes were spammed out at 4:00 AM.

Since we did not have caller ID available, you had to answer the phone, some customers got REAL cranky if you didn't.

Finally, with the Florida Vacations scam...
Every week it was a new number for the same scam with the exact same flyer.
The previous weeks number/business was no longer in business.
The number to get you removed only proved that you were a live fax number.
So trying to remove your number only made it much worse.

I finally just tried to send a fax to the reservation line every time I got another new spam fax in.
Since it was an operator answering the "fax" never went through. That poor operator!! Her ear must have ached.
Since it was a new number/business every week, I had to keep trying to send that fax out.. Over and Over.
Since It did not get "through" as a fax, I had to just keep re-sending it all day long.....
Well in a few days they SURE KNEW who I was.
They wouldn't answer the phone normally, they would scream obscenities into the phone whenever my fax tried to call them.

Even though it was a "new" company every week, and a "new" reservation line, they still seemed to know my number!

After a few months, they started to get smarter. They must have found a way to get my number out of their auto dialer list.
Well, for a while anyway. Then they would start Spam faxing me, and we would have to start the training sessions all over again.


So, it is not who scans your badge, but WHO they sell their list of live contacts to.

Be very selective as to who they are, and how reputable they may be.

I pulled the line out of the back of my fax as of July 1 this yr.

Most prints come through the e-mail these days anyway, and they are SO much better to read!

I was getting invoices from a few places over the fax, and those that aint set-up to send via e-mail now have to go back to Snail for a while. Now I will plug my cord in when I get a call telling me that they want to fax me a print or whatnot.

Bin figgering on losing the fax for a while....
Gunna be a long time before we can be without one alltogether, but we can sure use it a lot less...


BTW - I haven't carried a bag @ IMTS since the mid 90's. Only took me once or twice of dooing that when I realized that my shirt sleeves were all too short all of a sudden....


I only swipe the card at a few places that I don't think that I will remember.
Most of the places are simply new products (at least to me) from companies that I am already familier with.
Good grief, who has time to sort through all of that hand-out garbage?
Google is much quicker!



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

I am Ox and I approve this h'yah post!

After the first time I went, I made it a point to carry nothing....

Except on the last afternoon, maybe I need a new cap for the winter.

I went to southtec a few years ago. Cornered by several salesmen. Two of them held me upside down and shook to see if any money fell out. The third went through my pockets to make sure.

Just as it was getting ugly I spied some stranger dressed better then me. I yelled "thats my boss, he is the one with the cash". They dropped me like like a potatoe and beat feet for the unsuspecting soul.