Since 1970, Oshkosh, Wisconsin has hosted EAA AirVenture, the world’s largest air show. Over 10,000 planes land at Wittman Field to make it the busiest airport in the world during the week of the show. Many of these planes are kit- or scratch- built, and some of the coolest events of the show are the seminars and workshops on welding, composite layup, metalworking and other pertinent topics. This year, 2012, marks Tormach's second year visiting the show after a four year break. Tormach demonstrated both PCNC 1100 and PCNC 770 Series 3 mills, as well as the ATC and several other accessories throughout the show. As always, we continue to be amazed at the enthusiasm of the kitplane and scratch builder communities for machine tool and CNC technology. We met visitors from as far away as South Africa, New Zealand, Ghana, and India. It was a special treat to meet in person many visitors that were already PCNC Mill Owners. Bob Miller, our Logistics Manager, met one of our customers who had to hire the ice road truckers to deliver his Tormach - we actually talked about this very delivery a couple of years ago on Milling Around. A great number of owners spent time in the booth meeting with each other and sharing information and pictures about their projects. Here's a fun video we made - take a look if your interested in seeing what the booth looked like or are curious to know what the airshow is about.
Visitors to the booth had a chance to enter to win a drawing for a CNC vise package, valued at over $600. The vise package consists of the items below:
- 5" CNC Vise
- Professional Vise Jaw Set
- Work Stop
And the lucky winner was: Howard Calk, from Baltimore, Maryland Howard writes, “Professionally, I work for Honeywell Technology Solutions Inc. as a contractor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. My expertise is the design and implementation of satellite control centers”. “For fun and as a hobby, I am a pilot and airplane builder (homebuilts). I currently co-own a flying Rutan Long EZ with a friend. This is the airplane we in which we came to Airventure. I am also building a Long EZ which I hope will be in the air next year”. “I own a small milling machine and lathe on which I make various parts for my Long EZ project. I have a friend that is a machinist by trade and has taught me quite a bit about metal working. The rest of my experience is self taught by reading and web research.” Congratulations Howard! Tormach hopes you have many years of use for the vise package and one day can place it on a Tormach! And thanks again to everybody who stopped by our booth to say "hi".
