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Hi everyone. Happy New Year !

1/11/23       
BH Davis  Member

Website: http://www.bhdavis.net
 If Woodweb had an "off topic" forum, like the MGB forum that I regularly use, I would post this there. This though seems an okay place to say hi to all my old Woodweb compatriots.

It's been almost 7 year since I retired from making radius millwork and I can tell you that, other than the inconvenience of Covid-19, retirement has been great. My wife and I seem to have way more to do in the course of each and every day than the short number of hours allow.

It took 2 or 3 years after selling the company to get my act together to set up a home shop. I can tell you from first hand experience that if you do as I did you should try to hold onto at least some of your tools and equipment. Over the years I'd pretty much blended both personal and work related tools into the company side of things so pretty much everything of any major significance went with the business. This left me in my late 60's with the task of re-outfitting a woodshop nearly from scratch. No complaints though......it was fun to do.

I was in no rush (although given my age perhaps should have been) and patience paid off with deals on new or like new machines like my Sawstop cabinet saw, 8" Delta long bed jointer with a Byrd Shellix head, a nice old restored Powermatic 100 planer and the typical old Delta 14" band saw among many other finds. Probably the biggest deal though was a 4x8 Precix CNC that I took the time to rebuild with a new control. Precix developed a pretty bad reputation over the years and some of the design details of the machine supported this. The rebuild though corrected many shortcomings.

All this equipment went into a 2-car, 2-story garage on our property that was a good walk from the house. I'm in the process now though of putting a 28x40 addition on the back of the carriage shed by house and hope to move the machines into it in the spring. Having everything on one floor will be nice.

In the meantime I have a great winter project of finishing up the interior so it is ready for the shop. I hired a post and beam crew to put up the building shell but the rest I can still handle myself.

Beyond all this life has been pretty good. My wife and I continue to be physically active, in good health and able to avoid Covid.......at least so far. We are more careful than most of our friends which speaks to the fact that most of them have now had Covid, many of them in this last highly contagious round. Sadly I just found out about our first directly known acquaintance to pass away from it a few months ago. His brother told me he was a stubborn individual who had made up his mind not to get the shots.

But on a happier note I'd like to wish everyone here, both old friends and acquaintances as well as the new folks who've come along since I became an only occasional visitor, a healthy, happy and prosperous new year. The world is a crazy place right now so we all need to try and find the good that still surrounds us.

BH Davis

1/11/23       #2: Hi everyone. Happy New Year ! ...
Will Williamson  Member

Website: http://www.willmade.com

Happy New year to you BH I have followed your adventures for years, here on this forum and I wonder, what does BH stand for?

1/11/23       #3: Hi everyone. Happy New Year ! ...
BH Davis  Member

Website: http://www.bhdavis.net

Bernard Harold Davis. Chuckle. When I named the business BH Davis Co. a few people started calling me BH and it kind of stuck.

BH

1/12/23       #4: Hi everyone. Happy New Year ! ...
Gary

Bernard,
Thanks for the great post. You are missed in the industry but sounds like you are on a great adventure !
Gary G.

1/13/23       #5: Hi everyone. Happy New Year ! ...
David R Sochar Member

Website: http:/www.acornwoodworks.com

BH -Happy New Year to you and all the readers of Woodweb!

I retired April 1st of last year and have been busy with first, a hip replacement, then restocking my shop.

The “Small Shop…..” book is selling enough to keep me busy ordering from the printer, procuring mailers and shipping copies all over the US. About a half day a week.

I sold the business in April, but it continued running here on the Compound until the buyer (my #1 employee) found good lease space. So he did not move out until October. I was to keep my beloved bench, all hand tools, a few routers and sanded as well as my lathe and a Delta band saw. It was quite a shock to see a comparatively empty shop. It nearly brought me to tears. 30 years of packing wood, veneer, jigs, scraps, samples, tools large and small meant for days of digging, and lots of memories surfaced as well.

So I have been shopping, mostly for smaller equipment, to keep me working on smaller projects. I will not miss lugging around those 2-1/4” x 8’ doors, much less the frames to swing them. I plan on making a few small things for sale perhaps. Small, light weight and fun for me.

Curiously, I built my shop building in the late 80's as an eventual retirement shop. But, in 1990, it became professional as I hung my shingle. It is still my favorite place to be, as the view is good out most of the windows (when not dust coated) and I can keep an eye on the weather, the hawks and other birds.

Cheers!h


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1/15/23       #6: Hi everyone. Happy New Year ! ...
Geoff Wade

BH,
I hope we get enough snow at Sugarbush this year that they can open Castlerock,"Did we forget to mention rocks." See you on the slopes...Hopefully!

1/15/23       #7: Hi everyone. Happy New Year ! ...
BH Davis  Member

Website: http://www.bhdavis.net

David,

I had no idea that you had retired. Congratulations. It's nice to see someone else from Woodweb has successfully passed on their business and moved on into a new world.

Nice shop you have there as well.

BH Davis


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