The truck is loaded and we pull out this morning. Nine hundred miles west to the Palmer Event Center in Austin, three days at the Texas Woodworking Festival, Booth 48.
These are the best days of our year. A room full of people who build things, a bench to set our work up on and put it in their hands, and three days of talking to the people we actually make it for. We would drive it for that alone.
This time we are bringing something very few people outside the shop have had their hands on.
What we have been building
Two threads ran through the year. One is the shop floor. The other is everything around it.
On the shop floor it has been the FORG3D Edition kits, refined and released one after another, and the products behind them. Some launch now. Some land in 2027. The rest of the year went into production itself: better workflows, less wasted motion, and the part that actually shows up on your end, which is a shorter wait between placing an order and opening the box.
The site and The Foundry both kept going after Maine. Built For is the piece we most wanted: every product tells you what it fits, so the compatibility math stops happening in your head at the checkout page. The Knowledge Base went up alongside it, so the answer to a setup question sits on the page instead of in a reply to an email.
What is riding with us
Cardo and Corso are a reference and workholding system built around the hole grid already sitting in your bench. Corso is the bench dog platform. Cardo is the square and the reference bars that register against it. They were designed as one system and they arrive as one.
We own a few sets and all of them are in the truck. The full story lands Saturday, along with preorders. This week they are simply out on the bench for anyone who wants to pick them up, because you cannot feel a sliding fit in a photograph, and on these two the fit is most of the product.
What else is in the booth
Near enough the whole catalog comes with us, and there is a reason we haul all of it instead of a highlight reel. The individual pieces make sense on a product page. The system only makes sense when a Systainer stack, a bench surface and a set of pods are sitting in front of you doing one job together.
So it comes set up and running, on a Dash-Board Portable Workshop we already build pods for. Pull a dog and move it. Clamp a panel. Square something up, break the setup down, put it back. SYS-GRP, Cardo, Corso and the rest of it, on one bench, doing the work.
SYS-RLZ S 76 goes up as a wall with the S 76 rack. It is the only honest way to show what a full range of S 76 organization looks like in a footprint that fits a real shop rather than a showroom.
Every FORG3D Edition kit we make comes with us, including the two that debuted at Maine in August. Manus is our FS Rail pod, reproportioned to hold with a full-size pod's force in a body that nests in a Systainer S 76. Akros is the BenchGrip kit built for narrow stock and face frames, the work a versatile pod or a max-hold set fights to grip.
We are sharing the corner with the Systainer Store again, so the Systainers and the things we build for them are all in one place.
The giveaway
Four setups go to people who sign up at the booth, drawn on the main stage at the end of the day. The AnchorPod Magnus Kit with its 50 ml pump sits at the top of the ladder, and under it a SYS-SRF Metris Foundation with the Extrusion Kit and an AnchorPod Foundation, a Systainer³ M 89 with bins, and a SYS-FIT setup.
Register at the booth to enter.
The road there
Nine hundred miles, and a few slices of Americana along the way. No shop visits this trip, just the roadside things worth pulling over for. We have not picked them yet, so if you know something between north Georgia and Austin that earns the detour, tag us on Instagram and tell us where to stop.
One truck, one driver. Steve I Designs is meeting us in Austin.
That is part of why we drive instead of ship. Nine hundred miles is a long time to think about the work, there is a country out the window while you do it, and at the end of it there is a room full of people who do what you do. None of that happens from the office.
Come find us
Palmer Event Center, Austin. September 25 through 27, Booth 48.
Come ask about the new pieces, sign up for the drawing, and tell us what you would build if the system had one more part. We will have driven nine hundred miles to be there. The least we can do is make it worth your walk over.
Your Workflow. Without Limits.
FAQ
Where and when is FORG3D at the Texas Woodworking Festival?
Palmer Event Center, Austin, September 25 through 27. We are at Booth 48.
What is new that I can see at the booth?
Cardo and Corso, a reference and workholding system we have been building all year, shown in public for the first time. Alongside them: SYS-RLZ S 76 with the S 76 rack, and every FORG3D Edition kit we make, including Manus and Akros. It is all set up and running on a Dash-Board Portable Workshop rather than laid out for display.
Can I buy Cardo and Corso at the show?
Preorders open Saturday, September 26, at the booth and online. The full details land the same day.
How do I enter the giveaway?
Sign up at the FORG3D booth. Four setups are in the drawing, pulled on the main stage at the end of the day.