Every two years, in late August, the entire pantheon of woodworking toolmakers, woodworkers and affiliated hangers-on assemble in Atlanta, Georgia, at the IWF show. The International Woodworking Machinery and Furniture Supply Fair – USA® addresses the needs of everyone — from humongously large corporate woodworking factories to Amish mom and pop producers. The three major display halls are a woodworker’s candy store of table saws, band saws, glue, wood, sheet stock, power feeders, planers, push sticks, clamps, router bits, routers, router tables, saw blades of every description, jigs and fixtures, woodworking schools, CNC routers … and much, much, MUCH more.
As you can imagine, this sort of bait attracts woodworkers of every stripe, including the Woodworker’s Journal staff, to Atlanta, where we feast on new tool offerings and wonderful Southern hospitality (chicken-fried steakand buttery grits– you can’t beat it!). Along with the hundreds of booths featuring the new tools and products, there is a student design contest and various press conferences where those new tools are explained to woodworking editors — whose brains are already flashing overload warnings.
This year’s well-attended show served up plenty of tasty new tools. Bosch introduced new drill drivers that will suit both consumers and professionals, as well as a slick new cordless jigsaw. Makita, not to be outdone, showed off two new trim routers, a revamped palm sander and a new line of drill drivers. Of course, even this start at listing new products is a vain undertaking, as there were literally thousands of them unveiled in Atlanta. We will, however, persevere, and in the next few issues of the Woodworker’s Journal eZine, we’ll do our best to let you see the most significant of these new tools. So keep your electronic eyes open.
