Photo's from my recent trip to Europe, *PICS*

Hello everyone,

I thought I would post some interesting woodworking photos from my recent
three week trip to Europe.

My girlfriend (aka shop helper) and I flew to Munich Germany, rented a car
and drove through Germany, Austria and Slovenia ending up in Croatia where
she is from.

One very unusual European combination machine which apparently is quite
popular in Europe is the ATV/Bandsaw, I think

Laguna is coming out with one of these soon,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/atvbandsaw1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/atvbandsaw2.jpg

People over there still burn lots of wood at home. Every house has a large
pile drying. As such, I was very surprised by the all the forests I saw.
Apparently you call this guy and he drives to your house to cut up your wood
for you.

I spent about a week in the small village of Podstrana just south of Split,
Croatia on the Adriatic Sea. On a day trip to Omis,

just a little further south I came upon this on the side of the road,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/boat1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/boat2.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/boat3.jpg

This boat is being built mostly by hand like they used to be built, to take
tourists out for day trips. It is made from a couple planks of Ash. If you
want to play where's Waldo, see if you can find Katarina in the last photo.

One of the neatest people I met over in Croatia was one of Katarina's
Uncles. I don't know if I should be talking about this, but he was a pilot
in the Luftwaffa during WWII. The politics of the former Yugoslavia are
quite strange so I won't go into hows and whys of why he was on the side of
the Germans, but he is a very nice old man who happens to be a woodworker.
He is 83 and up until recently was still puttering away in his shop building
things. All his wooden hand planes were bought new 50 years ago and have
been kept in great shape. Here is a very cluttered shot of his workbench and
maybe you can make out some planes on the bench and in his tool cabinet,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/uncleworkbench.jpg

At his age he isn't able to do much woodworking anymore but his eyes lit up
as his daughter in-law translated between us about his tools and the things
he had made.

Personally I don't know if I would ever have the kahunahs to ever use this,
but here is his table saw and the craftsman himself,

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/uncletablesaw.jpg

Yes folks, that is a wooden top table saw. It has a *real* 5hp (not Sears
5hp) motor on it and takes a 14" blade. I never did ask him about a rip
fence but you can see the groove in the top for the mitre gauge and the
mitre gauge to his right leaning against the wall on its fence.

Saw lots of beautiful scenery, ate some great food, had a little drink and
met wonderful people, I will leave the pictures of nude beaches full
vacationing healthy German women to your imagination.

If you have family in Europe directly or by marriage, go visit them, it is
another world across the Ocean,

David.