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Texas 4 - The 2018 Advanced/Basic Scraping Class

swatkins

Titanium
Joined
Jul 24, 2011
Location
Navasota / Whitehall Texas
Richard has agreed to return to Texas ( will he never learn :D ) and teach another basic/advanced class. The dates for the class are February 16th through the 20th 2018.

The class will consist of the standard 3 day class and you have the option to stay for two extra days. Last year everyone stayed for all 5 days.

This is the Fourth class I have hosted here in my shop just northwest of Houston. A few members of the 2015 class and 2016 class also attended the 2017 class and we really had a great time.

We will probably have room for 10 to 12 students as I have been forced to expand the climate controlled area of my shop (having a big ass planer sure takes up a LOT of space) and there is just not enough room in the old space.

New this year is a AC/Heater unit for the main area of the shop. Even though last year's class was held in February Richard worked us so hard we were a little warm :) I can report the shop is nice and cool as I have been building a new Kitchen in the main shop and the AC is keeping me cool even with the 100 degree days!

Right now I am reserving 5 slots for returning students. If you are a student that attended the 2015, 2016 or 2017 class and want to attend this class please let me know soon!

This year Richard's son is taking care of the reservations so please PM or email me and I will give you his contact information.

Since I got the Planer (The Beast) running I've been planing straight edges and surface plates for Richard's customers. As a little bonus if you attend this year's class and buy a straight edge from Richard, I'll plane it for just a small donation to the shop. Last year everyone kept me busy planning all sorts of things from Bridgeport tables to 6" square surface plates.

I have all sorts of machines that Richard uses to demonstrate measuring and adjusting. All students spend the first day getting to know each other and learning the basics of scraping. The returning students usually spend the day brushing up on their scraping and figure out how they will attack the project they bring along.

This last year has seen some major changes to my tool inventory with the departure of the BOSS 5, B&S horizontal, Moore Jig Bore and a Heavy 10. The planner took up a lot of shop space and duplicates some of the functions that were performed by the other tools. Selling the machines freed up capital, and more importantly space, to bring in a more modern ( for me :) ) Bridgeport Torq Cut 22 CNC mill. So this year we will have Richard show us how to measure, test and repair a machine that is different from the others we have worked on in the past years. Even though this machine has a ton of electrical and electronic parts ( I can handle all of that Richard :) ) it still runs on precision parts and I'm sure we can all learn some valuable tricks.

I welcome you to my shop for a week of intensive learning, good fellowship and a lot of fun!

Steve Watkins
 
The shop and the planer are looking very good. When you mentioned that the orange color was kind of growing on you, it changed in my mind too. At first I realized I was just seeing it as a spot you hadn't got to yet, but when I thought about it, the orange and gray don't really clash and having a contrasting color on something that might be moving towards you isn't a bad idea.
 
Planer looks great Steve! As of right now I'm in for the class, I should be able to convince my boss that it would be good to let me go.


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Been a little busy here with the flood and all.... Need to kick this into high gear and get the class roster filled out if we are going to have one this year... I've been informed that only one person has contacted Richard's son and signed up for the class.. Not going to happen at this rate...

This year the class is really going to cost me a lot of money to hold.. The reason is people are begging me for help rebuilding their flooded out homes and offering better money than I have ever made. The cost of my time to hold this class is, well a ton of money now... That being said I really want to host the class :)

I love the week of learning new things and being with people that truly love to work with ultra precision tools. For a whole week I turn off the phone and concentrate on learning and having fun. I've meet a lot of very nice people and made some lifelong friends during the last three classes. I can't recommend the classes enough...

So come on guys, sign up soon and don't mess up my vacation! :D
 
I'm signed up for the class and really looking forward to a learning session with the master!
 
I'm signed up for the class and really looking forward to a learning session with the master!
Glad to have you aboard!

So far that make three signed up. We need to get more signed up so this class will happen...

Come on guys that have been here before, tell people how you liked it :)

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Glad to have you aboard!

So far that make three signed up. We need to get more signed up so this class will happen...

Come on guys that have been here before, tell people how you liked it :)

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I really loved the Danish class plus meeting Stefan & all the Scandinavian machinist was pretty great. One nice fellow was almost permanently drunk during his stay and shouted us all buffet dinner and beer, Richard did as well on more than one occasion.

To be honest taking the class really knocked the confidence out of me as a machinist and made me feel like a hack, I realized how much I didn't know but I feel it was for the better and I've since regained a lot of my confidence. It seemed expensive at the time as I had to fly all the way from aus to attend the class not to mention the loss of income as I'm a one man shop but in hindsight I've spent more than double the cost of the trip on my new plate and scraping kit since getting back. Hopefully I can con Richard into a "holiday" down under and get him to teach a class at my shop for the machine rebuilding club we're starting here.
 
Glad to have you aboard!

So far that make three signed up. We need to get more signed up so this class will happen...

Come on guys that have been here before, tell people how you liked it :)

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

How much does the class cost ?
 
Can you send me The contact information. I would love to attend. Lord knows I could use some proper education on the subject

I just sent you a PM with the class info letter... As I said the cost and the numbers of days have changed and I'm not exactly clear on how it is now. Richard's son Alex is taking care of payments and info so please contact him for the correct information on costs and days... His email address is in the letter I sent you...
 
I signed up today so hopefully there are enough people that join soon to make a class. Alex said the current roster was pretty thin.
 
Nice to have you... There are some former classmates that will probably return as some of us look upon this class as a vacation :)

I said the first year I hosted the class that Richard was really close to retiring. Well it's 4 years later and he is still going. I think anyone wanting to take a class like this should do it while Richard is still teaching....
 








 
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