Well-known bandsaw expert Alex Snodgrass will share his passion for the bandsaw with Woodcraft customers at retail stores all over the US in 2023. Woodcraft will be partnering with JET, POWERMATIC and Snodgrass to present a seminar about keeping a bandsaw running at optimum performance level and to offer a class in making a 3D End-Grain Cutting Board from maple, cherry and walnut.
In the seminar, Snodgrass will cover bandsaw tune-up, blade selection, guide adjustments and selection, resawing, scroll cutting, and the latest bandsaw accessories. In the cutting board class, designed for all ages and skill levels, Snodgrass will teach students about bandsaw tune-up first and then building techniques that include how to make dead-on straight cuts and accurate angled cuts, and how to plane, sand, glue, and clamp the cutting board.
For more information about participating in an Alex Snodgrass seminar or class, contact your local Woodcraft store.
“Alex Snodgrass brings an enviable level of bandsaw expertise to his seminars and classes. Woodcraft is fortunate to have him share his knowledge and skill with our customers,” President and CEO Jack Bigger said.
Snodgrass’ connection to Woodcraft began 20 years ago when he started coming with Carter Products to the Woodcraft Vendor Trade Show. Over the years, he said he got to know people at Woodcraft stores who started asking him to come in.
For over 30 years Snodgrass has been working with bandsaws and bandsaw companies. At 25, he became a manager of a hardware store in Hawaii where he became interested in tools. In the late 1980's he moved to Athens, Georgia, and began a career selling scroll saws and bandsaw blades. His work with the scroll saw led him to begin woodworking, and selling bandsaw blades led to an interest in discovering what all he could do with a bandsaw.
While demonstrating bandsaw blades, Snodgrass found that people were really interested in how they could make their bandsaw do what his did during demonstrations – a reflections of his continual search for improvements to make demonstrations easier. So far he has collected 7 US patents for guides, blades, and fence alignments, as well as a quick release for the POWERMATIC bandsaws.
“I was the first one to come up with a Quick Release,” Snodgrass said.
From Demonstrations to Teaching, DVDs and a YouTube Channel
In addition to demonstrations, over the years Snodgrass began teaching classes about creating art on the bandsaw – like the amazing 3D Cutting Board that students will make at Woodcraft stores in 2023. He has made how-to DVDs with Carter Products about bandsaw art and how to operate and maintain a bandsaw.
Snodgrass has also shared his considerable knowledge and skills in videos on his Bandsaw Life YouTube Channel and in the relationships with his partners, JET, POWERMATIC, Carter Products and Titebond.
He said he enjoys teaching: “I love the ‘aha’ moment when a student realizes they put a board together and says, ‘I did that!’”
“I do 100 percent of my work on a bandsaw,” Snodgrass said.
His most popular creation is his signature Reindeer, which he has reproduced thousands of times. His daughter, an ICU nurse, told him she has to hand deliver ones she takes to patients or they have a way of disappearing because they are so well liked.
Alex also made DVDs about building boxes, including a Push Button Box.
This DVD offers Alex’s guidance for tuning his favorite woodworking machine.
One of three DVDs Alex made about cutting board projects.
Moon Wood Project
In 2020, Snodgrass represented Carter Products and POWERMATIC Tools on a team that was tasked with resawing part of the Kennedy Space Center Moon Tree into lumber.
Snodgrass made reindeer from the wood he was given, and Martin Guitar made two guitars with the wood he cut up in his shop. He is still contemplating what to make with the remaining 35" x 8" x 2" piece.
The story began in 1971 when Astronaut Stuart Roosa took a canister of tree seeds on the Apollo 14 trip to the Moon. According to a NASA website post, traveling with the seeds was an experiment to determine the effects of deep space on seeds.
When the Apollo 14 returned, the seeds were distributed around the U.S. and planted, including a sycamore at the Kennedy Space Center in 1976. After Hurricane Erma took the tree down in 2017, most of it was destroyed, but one section remained. It was given to Scott “Shuttleman” Phillips, a retired NASA engineer who worked on the Space Shuttle program until it ended. He is also a woodworker. Phillips gathered a team to help him turn the tree into usable wood.
Snodgrass lives in Christiansburg, Virginia, with his wife Sandra. He teaches classes in his shop and helps his brother-in-law, Robert Rakes, on the family farm with hay and cattle maintenance. The family sells cattle at the local livestock market, as well as providing meat for family members.
As he approaches his tour of Woodcraft stores, Snodgrass said, “More than anything, I just want people to know that bandsaws are as good as any other cutting device. I can make a bandsaw do what a table saw can do mostly and in some cases what a table saw can’t do and do it safer.”
