Anyone use the woodrat?

[crazylilting]

Now that i've recovered from several tool thefts I am looking at some tools that i've always wanted to try out. One of them is the Woodrat also something similar called the router boss. I've watched the online videos and have ordered the manual to have a closer look at what it can be used for. Has anyone got one or had one?

I'd like to know how anyone has gotten on with one. Thanks

 

[SVB]

Hi,

I have one and really enjoy using it and find it very good.

There is a forum on the woodrat site that is worth a read although recently re-hosted losing the history.

Also, adel's site (member here also) is well worth a read.

Simon

 

[crazylilting]

I was begining to think no one ehad heard of one...

Thanks for your reply.

adel's site

???

I found one for £250, seems like a good deal, just wanted some feedback before buying it.

 

[pren]

just wanted some feedback before buying it.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ....

 

[Anonymous]

Now that i've recovered from several tool thefts I am looking at some tools that i've always wanted to try out. One of them is the Woodrat also something similar called the router boss. I've watched the online videos and have ordered the manual to have a closer look at what it can be used for. Has anyone got one or had one?

I'd like to know how anyone has gotten on with one. Thanks

I've had a woodrat for a couple of years.

Don't waste your money, it is OK but not worth the money and VERY, VERY flawed. The Router Boss looks to have solved many woodrat issues and if I could buy a router boss in UK, I would sell my Rat and buy the Boss.
I don't mean to be too critical, the woodrat is in principle a good idea, just very badly engineered (I am an engineer) - when I do use it, it is so useful but I have spent most of my time fixing issues and modfying sections.

If I am honest, i use the router table 10-5 times for every one time i use the woodrat and a handheld router 2 or 3 times for every time I use the woodrat.

Build a router table and buy an Incra fence for it - much more useful (at least mine is!!)

 

[JonnyD]

I bought one about 10 years ago but probably havent used it for about 7 years. I used it quite a bit when i first bought it for tenons/ sliding dovetails and dovetailing / combjointing. I should probably get it out and have another go with it or sell it.

It depends on what work you want to do but I found I used the router table much more and as tony has said it has certain engineering issues with it. Having said this it is capable and unique (apart from the router boss) and can produce all manor of joints and do things a router table cant.

cheers

Jon

 

[crazylilting]

Hi Tony,
You mentioned that the Router Boss has fixed some of the engineering problems the woodrat has. Which problems are those? On fist glance they look very similar is there something i'm missing? I'll have a look at the video's again in the mean time.

 

[woodbloke]

I've worked in two professional 'shops and in each one the Rat sat on a wall gathering dust. Need I say more? - Rob

 

[maltrout512]

i've had mine over eight years now and do use it a lot. In my blog you can see the kitchen that I made, the rat was used for joints, mouldings, panel work, dove tails, etc, etc.

I think that it's a great piece of equipment.

 

[ivan]

I've had mine (Woodrat) for getting on for 10 years, and still like it. Also its versatility compared with other dovetail jigs etc.

The machine works as the designer intended - for small scale cabinet making - until they introduced moulded nylon fences, which were not a succes*. They have reverted to a very solid ali design about 18 months ago, which solved the problem.

The machine is a bit Zen - but I actually prefer to use it with pencil marks as per 'Rat DVD. The R'boss is all digital scales to make a sort of xyz digtital mill, which I assume will go down well in the pub wizzo stakes in the US hobby market.

Both machines encourage you to extend their use, sometimes into areas not intended by the designer, and this is the main source of criticisms (see woodrat forum). The R'boss is more proof in this regard, but quite a bit more expensive.

The Rat is not perfect and you do have to make stuff like the mortice rail (having to make acessories for it - by woodwork - seems to upset some folk) I wouldn't be without mine unless I had more room and quite a bit more cash to spend.

* The nylon fence could squirm a bit so the work was not clamped tight up to the face of the machine. This meant that the job could move a few thou during cutting. This is what is called "rattle" in the carriage.
Have a good read of Aldel's website with this in mind. (www.aldel.co.uk)

 

[crazylilting]

Well i'm glad to hear a few people are getting on with theirs. I am awaiting delivery of mine now and was getting quite worried with all the reviews. But i have seen them sell for more then i paid so if i had to i could just sell it on if i didn't like it.

This one was new October of 2009 so i'm hoping mine will be Ali model, crossing my fingers. I will review it when i get it as well. I have looked at the woodrat forum and also Aldi's site, which seems to mostly cover the Router boss, but educational non the less. I'm not so good at working with aluminum but have a few pieces if i need to make some refinements to make it better.

 

[Tony Spear]

If you've managed to buy a current model Woodrat for £250, I don't think you've done too badly.

Opinions on the 'Rat are extremely polarised, I know people who've had one for years and hardly ever use it and others who swear by it.

It's really a matter of "horses for courses" but I don't know of any other piece of kit (I don't regard it as a "machine") that can do so many things whilst occupying so little space.

If you've got a billion M&T joints to make, then buy a morticer and a bandsaw, if you've also got to do a load of dovetails, buy a Leigh jig etc. etc. etc..... How much is all that going to cost?

I've only got a 12' x 8' shed, and how on earth would I cope with a bench, saw table, bandsaw, 30inch lathe, morticer etc. etc. etc? So I use a Woodrat for dovetails, grooving, morticing, comb joints (I can make a comb jointed box, including the grooves for the base in about 20 minutes).

I wouldn't dream of using it for some of the things they claim it will do (raised panels for instance are terrifying, so I use the Router table on my Triton workcntre for that!)!

I know that you've been looking at Aldel's site, but here's a link to a specific example of what I mean:

http://www.aldel.co.uk/feed_back.htm

It's not perfect, but it's about as good a compromise as I can think of for a total amateur who does some "bits and pieces" woodworking and doesn't have the space or money for lots of dedicated machines. If I had the space and money I'd buy all the stuff that loads of people on here have, but I'd still have a 'Rat on the wall!

Hope you get on with it' it takes some time to get the hang of but it's worth persevering.

 

[Harbo]

I dusted off my Woodrat this morning to cut and shape a circle in oak for a friend. He wanted a base to wall mount a ships clock and provided the wood.
Now I know there's several ways to do this but my other router was fixed in its table and the Woodrat method seemed a good and reasonably safe way of doing it. To the uninitiated you rotate the timber around a central spike held by a scrap piece clamped to the Woodrat. The router does not move except towards the centre to cut to the desired diameter.
This is where the Rat fails there's too much slop in the system.
The plan was to use a straight cutter to cut gradually to the correct diameter and follow that with a nosing cutter to give the desired profile.
Things started well until I slackened my grip slightly then wham the timber shot out my grasp and tore chunks out! I was rotating it the correct Rat way!

Cuts on fingers are from the wood not the router. I gave up on the idea of doing a repair and two new oak planks now glued up and waiting to dry. Things you do for friends?

Tomorrow my other router is being "freed" and a trammel will be used!

Rod

 

[Chems]

On certain aspects of slight end grain like that you should actually route the wrong way, climb cut. I can only barely make sense of it myself in my head and have done it in practice a few times most recently with a semi circle cut out. But I'm sure someone else will come along and explain the science behind were a climb cut on a round item is acceptable.

 

[wizer]

Reminiscent of what happened to me. Routers and end grain don't mix.

 

[crazylilting]

That's a nasty piece of work!!!

I've seen that happen without a woorat though. I don't know how the woodrat explains to set up for cutting circles as i haven't got my manual yet. That must of hurt and shaken you up at the time.

 

[ivan]

If you look through Aldel's woodrat mods, you can see one pro who uses his as a tennon machine. The new style ali fence includes a ply facing, which can be adjusted to remove all the rattle in the carriage, even with no work cammed in. If you use the manual technique to rout circular items, you have to cam in the work support "jig" very firmly as per manual, to eliminate any slack, and take very light cuts. Hope it doesn't hurt too much!

 

[Harbo]

Ivan the support was cammed in very firmly but the weight of the wood (310mm diam. oak) over the overhang pulled the end away from the top plate and allowed some movement.
I overcame it today by making an acrylic piece similar to the centre marker and screwing through this, through the timber at its centre into the support.
Tightening it so that the timber could just rotate. That kept everything solid and it worked fine.
The problem came when I switched from the straight cutter to the noising type - is was too big to fit through the top plate hole so it was out with my other router and trammel. I actually drilled through the trammel, through the timber's centre hole into a scrap board which I could clamp down.
Taking very light cuts it worked well.

Fingers not too painful thanks, but even more spectacular today as the bruising has come out!

Rod

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony,
You mentioned that the Router Boss has fixed some of the engineering problems the woodrat has. Which problems are those? On fist glance they look very similar is there something i'm missing? I'll have a look at the video's again in the mean time.

Too many to lsit

Mainly in areas of DT cutting (I don't use the rat for that as it is too much hassle to change the guides to cams and back again), workpiece holding, accurate positioning and measurement of position and repeated cuts along a piece such as multiple mortices along a rail.

To my (engineers) eye, the Boss has set the bar twice as high and this si clear form the sudden changes to the woodrat when the Boss was released- this after years of the woodrat remaining unchanged despite hundreds of complaints all over the web and pleas for improvements that went ignored.

 

[crazylilting]

how can you tell the difference between the WR5 and the WR 900?

Edit: ummm never mind figured it out there the same