Why Woodfast went out of business? I don't think that they are out of business, just no
longer making lathes.

Some guesses why they are no longer making lathes? Competition -- their machine is pretty
much unchanged for many years. Excellent machines from Vicmarc and Omega Stubby for
shortbeds and Omeway for longbeds, strong Australian dollar in relationship to US and
Canadian dollar, ineffective sales effort by US/Canadian distributors -- all just guesses.
Another guess -- all of the above.

Bill

In article .net,
says...

"Bill Rubenstein" wrote in message

Greg has pretty much nailed it. On a shortbed you can stand at the end of
the lathe and keep
the tools near your body where you have more control. On a longbed you
need to extend your
arms, it is tiring, you lose control, etc.

Which is probably why I choose to rotate my headstock 45 degrees outboard.
But your point is well taken. I've often thought I'd replace my Jet 1442
with a more advanced lathe, but perhaps I'll just keep it (it wasn't that
expensive at $767) for the occasional long project, eg--baseball bat, etc.

The reason I posed this question is that I'm considering upgrading. The
shortbed Vicmarc and Woodfast lathes are appealing, but as you've said the
Woodfast is no longer available. Any idea why the company went out of
business?

Max