A guy with an idea
I’m thrilled to see that one of the first tool manufacturers I wrote about while at Woodshop News is doing better than ever.
I’m thrilled to see that one of the first tool manufacturers I wrote about while at Woodshop News is doing better than ever.
In his “Taking Stock” column in the current issue of Woodshop News, Tod Riggio talks about the (sometimes overwhelming) excitement and bustle of IWF, one of the largest woodworking trade shows in the country. There are other shows, too, both large and small, and going to these shows was a highlight for me back in the day.
It’s interesting, then, that a few pages later in the same issue I saw Jennifer Hicks’ new tool article on the latest offering from SandMan Products, a company in Osceola, Ind., that makes downdraft sanding tables and booths. They have a full line now, but once upon a time they had a single product.
I encountered the SandMan booth at one of the first trades show I went to while at the magazine, in 1997 or 1998. My memory is sketchy on which show it was (I went to a lot of shows in my seven years with the magazine), but I think it might have been the Carolina show.
Lloyd Troyer was manning the booth, showing off his new downdraft table, the first offering from his equally new start-up. Here was a guy with an idea who used it to create his own company (actually, he was the company), and he was at the show to promote it himself. Unlike the huge, flashy booths from the well-known manufacturers, this was a small booth, one person, one product, and that intrigued me.
I was further intrigued by the fact that he was from Indiana, less than two hours from Kokomo, Ind., where I was born. We chatted for a good while about Indiana, his company, and the downdraft table – which he was pretty much making one at a time back then. I took some photos of the table and got all the info I needed to write an article about it when I got back to the magazine.
Haven’t thought about that much since then, although I’ve seen the occasional SandMan Products ad over the years. But seeing Jennifer’s story on their newest table brought back a lot of memories. In checking out the SandMan website, it was good to see that Troyer’s product line has boomed and the company is doing well. That pleased me to no end.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
