Cabin Fever Expo is an annual event at the York Country Fairgrounds in York PA, each mid-January. It celebrates "model engineering" and is a venue for modelers, machinists, and vendors to show and sell in the middle of winter. Check the Expo's Web site for more info. These images to left and right are are just two rows of four in one room of stuff for exhibit or for sale. There were two other rooms of exhibits and for-sale's, including yet another room of stuff. (There is an auction as well, but that was after year 2001.)
There was also a steam train setup, here's two sections of that exhibit,
one section of train display and
another section of train display
There were many tables of for-sale items, such as these "bargains"
some lathe attachments; some
measuring instruments and cutters; and
more lathe parts for sale.
Clearly the lathe was the tool of choice at the show. Following are several lathes offered
for sale. Here is a small Craftsman lathe for sale; and
another lathe for sale; and
one of those little British lathes for sale, several hundred dollars
as I recall.
Here is A TOYO lathe for sale starting at $450: it did not sell
at even $375. This new lathe was for sale at $875. And
here is a new Pratzi lathe for sale by a dealer.
THere were other tools as well. This is a shaper I think?
at a good price, maybe, but I was not fond of the simple table feed.
A famous Philadelphia tools dealer was at the show, with several
tools including this mill-drill (?). Other dealers had new and used tools from small
to large.
There were fewer demonstrations than I would have liked, or maybe the ones there were
wheated my taste for more! Here is someon
tamping a mold for cast brass , and here are some of the
molds shown opened.. The furnace was just
outside, a gas and forced-air system.
Another demonstration was of scraping, the art of producing a flat surface with
hand tools. The person on the left is describing scraping
and showing his line of tools and a how-to video. Here he makes
measurements of the work on a flat stone. Here is
scraping in action with the hand tool.
An American engineer who works around MIT got to participate in the British version of the
Learning Channel's "Junkyard
Wars" with some friends of his. He came to the show to describe their
construction of a Junkyard Wars steam car and he
gave a talk and video of the program.
Copyright © 2005 Herb Johnson
