Thread: The Woodfast Universal Woodworker Assistance

Firstly welcome to the forum.

About 5 years ago I was given one of these machines in very good condition along with a bunch of accessories; bandsaw, planer/thicknesser, mortise attachment. I sold the bandsaw attachment to bueller. This machine and the rest of the accessories have been in storage and I was going to get around to restoring it but last year the Mens shed I go to was also given an identical machine and most of the accessories and after using for about a year we got rid of it.

While the men's shed Woodfast machine was at the shed I had occasion to use it a number of times and my experience with it has led me to seriously considering getting rid of mine as well as I think they are one poor compromise after another. Honestly I would rather use my cheap chinese machinery than work with one of these on a regular basis.

Here are the list of things that I noted while using it
- changing over the accessories is a nuisance
- instead of the blade moving up and down the table moves up and down - this changes the work height which is very annoying, maybe you can get used to it
- the blade cannot tilt, that doesn't worry me that much, but it's still a compromise
- the fence is hopeless
- the work area of the table is too small
- the blade guard is poor and there's no dust extraction. These are generally hopeless on most table saws anyway
- the planer and the table saw are connected to the same spindle so both rotate at the same time i.e. a major safety issue - I notice yours has a wooden cover over the planer which is a good idea.
- the dust extraction from underneath is ordinary but the same applies to all table saws
- the planer has a very short bed otherwise it works well, but the thicknesser attachment is fiddly.
- the mortise attachment is fiddly (difficult to adjust) but works well once it is set up

If I had nothing else (and you could live with the non-tilt and change in table height) I would forget the attachments and just use it as a table saw.
The fence and blade guard would need to be rebuilt, the area of the top increased, and the dust extraction improved.