The Woodfast Universal Woodworker Assistance

[Brettf]

Hello All

I was lucky enough to purchase from Gumtree (Absolute bargin by the way) a woodfast universal woodworker from im guessing 1960-1970.

The plan is to restore back to its former glory and into use .

If anyone has a manual for this that they can copy or is happy to sell please let me know.

And in that same note if you have nay of the add on accessories or general knowledge on this I would be very interested to hear from you.

Cheers
400903400904

[BobL]

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.