Forging - The Way it is Done in Laos

In Laos, forging is still popular in some areas. In contrast to a fan or bellows, they use a pump-style air blower made of a large bamboo "pipe" with a piston made from chicken feathers. (This one uses a PVC pipe instead of bamboo.) One fellow pumps the air, another does the forging. Some factories have 100 guys pumping air and hammering steel. The anvil is a sledge hammer head, embedded in a stump.

What is IMTS?

Right now, the Machinist School is thinking IMTS.
The big thing going on right now in machining is IMTS:
The International Machine Tool Show is held in Chicago. The event occurs every two years (for the past 100 years). IMTS is September 8 - 13, 2008
Imagine a football field filled with machine tools from around the world ..... that would be about the size of the first floor of the first building.
Check their website for more info.
http://www.imts.com/
If you are into machining, this is the place to be!