David Snodgrass

[David Snodgrass]

My journey to becoming a woodturner indirectly began in 1987, when I purchased a used Shopsmith. Somewhere in the process of learning that machine I discovered how fascinating the lathe was, and found myself using the lathe to the exclusion of the other Shopsmith functions. In ‘89 I sold the Shopsmith and purchased a Woodfast M408 short bed lathe from Dale Nash at Craft Supplies. 1989 was also the year I joined the AAW. In 1990 I joined four other AAW members from North Carolina form what became the first AAW affiliated Woodturning chapter in the state, the North Carolina Woodturners, or NCW.

I still have and use the Woodfast, it’s been a great lathe that I’ve used to scratch my creative itch thousands of times since 1989. Including shipping from Utah, I paid $2004.30 for the M408, which works out over the years to just pennies per creative scratch. For a young man with big dreams and a small budget 2k was a lot of money in 1989. Looking back now spending the money on the lathe and joining the AAW were undoubtedly some of the best investments I’ve ever made. My membership in the AAW has made my creative journey a corroborative process, through the skill and knowledge willingly shared by other AAW members.

I’ve attached a couple of photos my faithful M408 and a Woodfast (Richard) Raffan Collet Chuck that came with the lathe.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Welcome aboard. I have never seen a Woodfast but a friend had a General that looked much like your lathe . Wonder if General was a knockoff

 

[David Snodgrass]

Thank you for the welcome Gerald!

I’ve spent sometime turning on a General model 260, but that one is much larger in length and overall size compared to my Woodfast M408

I like the short bed configuration on the Woodfast. While 15 inches is about the longest spindle I can turn, the short bed has other advantages for me. I primarily turn left handed, which for me can prove awkward while hollowing vessels. With the Woodfast’s short bed configuration I‘ve found I can stand at the end of the bed while doing hollowing, and even occasionally even move to the backside of the lathe bed while following the cut along the inside of a Bowl or hollow form.

In the early 90’s I was the assistant to an instructor at a couple of elder hostel woodturning classes at Arrowmont. Some of the lathes in that studio were the Union Graduate in pedestal configuration. I was really impressed by the Union Graduate as a bowl/vessel lathe, especially by the nearly unlimited body English it offered a left-handed turner. Toyed with the idea of acquiring one, but they weren’t relatively common (or affordable) at the time.