Josh frequently discusses his experiences with his lathe, a critical tool in his wand-making business. His journey with the lathe has been fraught with challenges and highlights the complexities of using such potentially dangerous equipment as a barely-functional autistic adult.
Cobra uses his lathe to craft intricate wands for his Wand Business. The lathe, gifted to him by his fans, and set up by his dad, has been both a boon and a source of frustration for Cobra. He often mentions how the lathe allows him to create more professional-looking wands, which are more uniform in size and design compared to those he used to hand-carve from sticks.
Cobra's struggles with the lathe are not just physical but also emotional. The frequent technical difficulties and the need for precision can be overwhelming, leading to bouts of frustration and despair. In recent years, Cobra has been producing less and less wands, and it may be that the increased technical challenge of using the lathe compared to his older method of processing sticks by hand may have contributed to this.
Cobra's community has generally not seen the lathe as a positive tool. It poses a significant danger to him, as he tends to lose control of himself when he drinks heavily, and even when sober, he isn't a person who most would generally trust with power tools. And while he believes that the wands he can produce with this tool are of higher quality, some feel that the wands have lost their authentic autistic touch, now that they're no longer crafted by hand.
At this point, thankfully, there have been no major incidents of Josh injuring himself with the lathe.