Photos from recent visits (Click on a photo to view a larger image.)

Club or Group

Two car clubs picked a perfect California day to meet up at the Craftsmanship Museum. A total of about 48 people arrived in 25 or so gorgeous Corvettes. At almost 80° it was a good day for top-down cruising. From our museum they were also scheduled to visit the NAMM Music Museum in Carlsbad.

Members line up for a group shot in front of their cars.

Just after the two Corvette clubs left, the Buicks began streaming into the parking lot. The cars spanned the decades, ranging in age from a first-year 1963 model to the retractable headlight model like Patrick Swayze drove in the movie Road House to more modern versions. All were classy when new and still look good today, as did their drivers.

1. Guests check in and pick up nametags. 2. The caterers put out a delicious spread including fine wines. 3. Background violin music provided an artful ambiance. 4. Members get a tour from Mike Sheehy (by yellow boat models) and Tom Boyer (yellow shirt in machine shop). 5 and 6. Foundation officers talk to the members out in the museum.

The museum was privileged to have the members of the Carlsbad Charitable Foundation hold their Fall get-together at our facility. Members contribute to a fund that supports arts and craftsmanship in Carlsbad through grants available to local non-profit organizations. The catered affair brought out about 80 generous members and guests, many of whom had not heard of the museum before this event. As the newest museum in Carlsbad, we are grateful for the attention of such a prestigious group.

Tom Boyer (left) waits for the meeting to get started with some of the museum exhibits we brought with us. Craig and Tom talked about the museum and reminded these expert woodworkers that our purpose is to display the work of outstanding craftsmen—including the best of those present.

This is kind of a "reverse visit" in that Tom Boyer and Craig Libuse attended a meeting at Ocean Hills Adult Community Center in Oceanside and gave a presentation to this large and active woodworking club. They were one of our first group visitors in 2008 (see last entry in this section), but now have many new members who weren't aware of our museum. They are scheduling another  bus trip to the museum soon.

Gene Streeter was Ferris Bueller for the day and organized a rally that brought 25 Miatas and a lot of people out on a beautiful top-down kind of Friday. In the fourth photo, founder Joe Martin (dark grey shirt) talks with a visitor.

In the movie, Ferris Bueller talks his friends into skipping school to enjoy a wild Friday of fun and adventure in Chicago A total of 25 Miata's graced the museum parking lot and over 40 members enjoyed a tour of the museum. Thanks to "Ferris" (alias Gene Streeter) for bringing the group by. (Hopefully no Ferraris were destroyed during this particular Southern California version...)

Pastel colored classics from the 50's graced the parking lot as their owners toured the museum.

Although it was bright and sunny in Carlsbad, some of the members from down south in San Diego and El Cajon were unable to drive up due to rainy conditions. As it was, the rest of the group did arrive for a weekday get-away and Craig, Mike and Joe Martin were there to host their tour of the museum. After the tour they were headed for custom built burgers at The Counter in Carlsbad.

These riders enjoy long distance touring in plenty of comfort and enjoy finding interesting places to visit along the way.

The parking lot was full of huge, mile-eating two-wheelers as about a dozen Honda Goldwings and a stray Yamaha Star and a Harley Road King stopped by for a museum tour. This is the second visit for the Goldwing club, having previously stopped at the old Vista location in December, 2009. Many of this group were members who missed the last tour, however, so it was all new to them. The return visitors also saw a lot of new items that have been recently added..

Tom warms up the green Rider-Ericsson engine for woodworking club visitors.

About 12-15 members showed up bright and early at 9 AM for a club outing. Though not strictly a woodworking museum, visitors still found plenty to be entertained and amazed with. Our staff thanks them for bringing their own coffee and donuts to share with everyone.

This is a second visit for the Palomar Model A's, but their first time at the new facility. As you can see they brought a large group of people and vintage Fords. Tom Demonstrated the running of the Rider-Ericsson Stirling engine and some of the internal combustion engines built in our own museum machine shop.

Club members get an engine demo by Tom Boyer and Pam Weiss.

With the big GoodGuys car show in Del Mar this weekend, a tour of hotrods driving down from the Pleasanton/Danville area in Central California made the museum their last stop on a two-day run. They had stopped at several other museums and places of interest for hot rodders and the hot weather had made for a long ride. We certainly appreciate those who stopped in for a tour including editor-in-chief of the GoodGuys Gazette magazine. We hope the photos he shot of our exhibits make it into their fine publication.

Engineers from JPL, Flex Partners and other area companies came by to see the examples of miniature engineering on display in our museum. Joe Martin was on hand to share his experiences in manufacturing.

A large group of historic American cars arrived with about 40 drivers, passengers and friends about 11 AM. Though rain was in the forecast, the weather held which was a particular relief to those in convertible models. Our parking lot sported some interesting cars from Model T's to Packards, Hudsons, Buicks and Cadillacs.

(L) Tom runs the engines in the new shop. (R) Club members inspect the exhibits.

The first visitors to our new facility held a monthly club meeting after hours in our shop area, serving pizza and sodas. Approximately 25 members enjoyed seeing Tom and Pam run the engines we built in our machine shop and then took an extended tour of the new display area. They plan to make it a daytime destination for a club tour soon.

Specializing in hotrod pickup trucks, members from several chapters of  Pickups Limited arrived with an impressive lineup of beautiful rods, mostly of 1950's Ford vintage. Thanks to Glenn for bringing the group and for supplying the photos of the trucks and the outdoor group shot. The large photo shows the group watching as Tom fires up the little Seal and Howell 4-cylinder engine in the museum's machine shop.

In the top middle photo Tom Boyer explains our two museum shop engine projects to the club members after running the Seal inline four and Howell V4.

25 Corvettes—That's the biggest collection of cubic dollars ever parked in our lot at any one time!

Our largest club visit to date, 50 people in 25 Corvettes arrived for a special Sunday opening, and no one but leader Bill Moore knew their destination until they got here. We put Lee Root's 1/4 scale 327 Corvette engine and Paul Knapp's supercharged Conley V8 out on special display in honor of the event. It goes without saying that Corvette owners appreciate fine craftsmanship, so hopefully everyone was pleased with what they found on display. They arrived together and on time and headed off a little after noon to gather for lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was a beautiful day to be riding around in a Corvette—but then what day isn't?

Thirty-three members of the Temecula Chapter of the  Early Ford V8 Club made the Craftsmanship Museum a part of their tour for the day. From here they were headed to Famous Daves Bar-BQ for lunch.  Sounds like a fun way to spend a Wednesday.

Sherline's lead toolmaker, Pam Weiss helped host the Saturday tour for the "Jack's Garage" group. Pam's .22 cal. Gatling gun, Offenhauser 270 and Snow engine are on display in the museum.

They say they are not an official club, just people who get together at a friend's garage, but they are mostly gearheads and salt lake speed racers affiliated with the Southern California Timing Association. More than a dozen came down for a special Saturday tour.

This is the most horsepower to grace our parking lot in quite a while—thanks for the car show!

Photo 2—Joe, Scooter, Robert, Pam Weiss and Tom discuss Pam's Offenhauser 270 engine project in progress.

These gentlemen flew out from Florida as Scooter Patrick was one of the former F-5000 race car drivers being honored at this weekend's "Legends of Riverside" event at the nearby Riverside Raceway Museum. While out here they wanted to see the miniature engines at the Craftsmanship Museum.

March 13, 2010

Insisting they are "not a club," just a group of friends who get together for breakfast and then go somewhere interesting on Saturdays in their motorhome, they reserved a day and spent about three hours touring the museum and the Sherline tool factory. Nice folks!

February 27, 2010

Sorry, we didn't get any photos. If a member of the club took one, please forward it to craig@craftsmanshipmuseum.com.

February 15, 2010

Sixteen or so big Honda Gold Wing motorcycles arrived on a tour, making for a colorful display in our parking lot. Though they share a lot of different interests, everyone enjoyed seeing the miniature engines and models.

Alfa Romeo club members watch as Tom Boyer runs the 4-cylinder Seal engine in the museum machine shop before starting their tour.

August 29, 2009

Mild to wild, some fine vintage hotrods  met up in the museum parking lot for a club picnic with a nice mountain view and ocean breeze plus a museum tour. Ben did the cooking (Tri-tip sandwiches) while the club members toured the museum exhibits.

Membership in the Vista "60+ Club" is open to anyone over 60 who likes to get together with others and meet at interesting places. Thanks for visiting, and we hope you found our museum both different and interesting!

Meeting up before a group ride to the museum and then lined up in the museum parking lot ready for a tour of the exhibits.

Wow! Now that's a classy parking lot!

This Los Angeles area club for machinists hosts a lot of talent. In addition to monthly meetings, they also attend shows like the Western Engine Model Exhibition in Vallejo each year. This group could really appreciate the fine examples of miniature machining exhibited in the museum.

Craig's blue Harley is parked out among a group of visiting BMW riders. Though they are made up primarily of BMW owners of the non-water cooled variety of the brand, others are welcome on their rides too. Our museum was one of a couple of stops for them that day.

March 7, 2009

Car guys love engines—big or small. Our second Saturday tour was from members of a local hotrod club.

Tom explains our current shop engine project downstairs, while Larry shows visitors the engine collection upstairs and the Manitowoc crane he built and donated.

The Ocean Hills community features a large woodshop and over 120 members in their woodworking club. Tom and Craig attended one of their meetings to tell them about our museum, and they responded with a well attended visit to our museum by their members.