lathe?

[cameron bailey]

I have never turned and am looking at lathes and there is an auction this weekend with a woodfast m408 I will post a picture of it. Is this worth bidding on and if so what is it worth? I have looked and have not found much info on this lathe.
Thanks, Cameron

[John Keeton]

Cameron, there is a thread (a few years old) on the AAW forum about these lathes. A Google search for Woodfast CSUSA will give you the link.

[Andrew Kertesz]

I found some references that say it was about 3K new with all the attachments.

[Bob Haverstock]

Hi Cameron,

As I recall watching older wood turning videos, Woodfast was used alot. I'm not a spindle turner, this lathe would interest me. I have no idea what thread the spindle thread is orwhat the tapers are. If the spindle is an 1.25" X 8 tpi and the tapers as #2, tooling will be readily available. Condition is everything, perhaps you could see it under power. I'd likely bid on it.

Bob Haverstock

[J.D.Redwine]

Have you seen this page?
http://books.google.com/books?id=oPYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA105&lpg=PA105&dq=woodfast+m408&source=bl&ots=Hf2FipKOUu&sig=FRYU9exi6n_6njPVf10z9uF5m34&hl=en&ei=vXPmTJvCF8e1nwf1tKztDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=woodfast%20m408&f=false

[Stephen Cherry]

One thing to consider, if you haven't used a lathe before, is that you may not know exactly what you want to do. This is very normal- how would you know what you like unless you have tried it for a while.

That said, this is not really a general purpose lathe. If you want to do turnings that fit within it's parameters, it may be great, but if you want to make a table leg, it doesn't look like it would work.

[Wally Dickerman]

The Woodfast lathe shown in pic is an excellent lathe. It isn't made anymore but parts are still generally available. Made in Australia. It was about $3000 new. I don't know what it might be valued at today. My guess is that anything under $1500 would be a good price.

Our community woodshop has 6 of these lathes and they have been in use for around 15 years. I taught classes for 10 years using these lathes so I've had a lot of experience with them. In a community woodshop they get a lot of use and are a rugged lathe. Also, my club has one for demos.

The lathe show is a shortbed version of the lathe. 16 inches between centers. This makes it not a good lathe for spindle turnings longer than 18 inches max. However it makes it a very good hollow form lathe. It is variable speed with a 1 1/2 hp motor. It has a 20 inch swing, so that makes it one of their later models. The older ones had a 16 inch swing.

Wally

[Gene Hintze]

There was one of this same model just listed on CL in VA for $700. Sold in less than a day so that should give you some idea of the price point.

[David Walser]

Hi Cameron,

As I recall watching older wood turning videos, Woodfast was used alot. I'm not a spindle turner, this lathe would interest me. I have no idea what thread the spindle thread is orwhat the tapers are. If the spindle is an 1.25" X 8 tpi and the tapers as #2, tooling will be readily available. Condition is everything, perhaps you could see it under power. I'd likely bid on it.

Bob Haverstock

It has a 1.25" x 8 tpi spindle and #2 tapers.

[David Walser]

Cameron,

The Woodfast m408 was considered a top-of-the-line lathe less than 10 years ago. It is very durable and stable. The lathe is comparable in quality to the Vicmarc VL300.

The model you pictured has a swing over the bed of 20" (mine has a 16" swing). The lathe was designed to be able to turn outboard by removing the handwheel. That gives you the capacity to turn something a lot larger than 20".

As for a price, I think somewhere between $1,500 and $2,000 would be fair to both sides (depending on condition). Less than $1,500 would be a very good deal.

[alex carey]

my club also has 2, its a pretty sweet lathe for the modern turner. Not much good if you plan on doing long spindle work but it should handle bowls, platters and hf just fine.

[cameron bailey]

Well someone got a deal. I was unable to bid on the lathe today and it went for $600. It also had a large steady rest a lot of extras. It looked like it was almost new. :(
Thanks for the replies