Of interest to WoodRat owners

[aldel]

Dave R. has already demonstrated his SketchUp skills with the previous post of his stop design ideas. Well, he has been experimenting and has now modestly come up with his first attempt at a CAD Animation. I am truly impressed by his first attempt and feel that the short sequence simply explains the "flip and flop" method of cutting tails. Dave admits it needs some fine tuning to smooth things out and perhaps reduce the file size. Once he gets fully conversant with the method then he hopes to produce some more.
I am hosting the file which is at the moment is about 3,4mb. in size and in Windows AVI format.
Please give Dave some encouragement and feedback as I for one find his idea exciting.
I will test the file in quicktime to make it more universal.

The file can be downloaded here

http://www.aldel.co.uk/woodratDovetails.avi

or in quicktime 900k
http://www.aldel.co.uk/woodratDovetails.mov

Thanks Dave
Aldel,

 

[Good Surname or what ?]

Very impressive.

 

[Alf]

Coo. "Woodrat, the Animated Motion Picture"! Cool. 8) Hah, top that you Leigh-ites :wink:

Seriously though, that's really, really good. =D> Dave's drawings are so clear and helpful and he obviously knows how to explain how the 'Rat ticks, an animated version will be even better. My only gripe is "why haven't Woodrat done this?"

Cheers, Alf

 

[RogerS]

Very, very good...so clear and shows the method to perfection. Well done, Dave =D>

 

[stewart]

Really useful, Dave. Thanks for the time that must have taken. I've had exactly the problem you're helping solve. I've also made a rod for my own back by making my centre plate less than a snug fit! New one sitting on my desk waiting to be installed.

My only gripe is "why haven't Woodrat done this?"

Hear, hear - I'd love to have more AV material from woodrat. I find it's the easiest way for me to learn something - like the excellent links to saw sharpening videos in the Hand Tools section at the moment.

 

[Paul Chapman]

I'm not a 'Rat user (can't afford one ) but that's really brilliant. It makes it all so clear. I imagine the same idea could be used to good effect to explain the operation of other woodworking machinery - in particular safe and unsafe methods of working.

Paul

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Thank you all for the nice comments. And thanks especially to Aldel for making this thread. I don't know why WoodRat hasn't done this. It isn't terribly difficult to do and I think being able to see what is happening without the base plate, router plate or router blocking the view is useful.

Out of curiosity, has anyone here used the cut-flip-cut-rotate method when cutting tails? I sure like the way it ends up.

 

[Adam]

Out of curiosity, has anyone here used the cut-flip-cut-rotate method when cutting tails? I sure like the way it ends up.

Yes. I do them this way. Picked it up from Mike Humphries.

Adam

 

[aldel]

Yes Dave.

I cut them this way too. Makes the top and bottom half tails equal and vary-space in between. Results in all four corners being the same and (in theory) with the sides inter-changable.

Aldel

 

[aldel]

What do you think of WoodRat's new flash animation on their home page?

http://www.woodrat.com

ensure your sound is turned on.

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Aldel

Results in all four corners being the same and (in theory) with the sides inter-changable.

It gets more like the Leigh everyday. :lol:

Cheers
Neil

 

[aldel]

Yes, I also own a leigh but it takes longer on that!!

:lol:

 

[Newbie_Neil]

Hi Aldel

Yes, I also own a leigh but it takes longer on that!!

ROTFL. :lol: :lol: :lol:

You've ben spending too long with those 'ratters. :wink:

Cheers
Neil

 

[devonwoody]

Thnaks DaveR and Aldel for the movie.
I am not a rat convert yet myself but can I assume when cutting joints you must always have a backing piece to stop tear out?

 

[Adam]

Thnaks DaveR and Aldel for the movie.
I am not a rat covert yet myself but can I asume when cutting joints you must always have a backing piece to stop tear out?

No, you can take a part cut one side, hop the router over, and take a full cut through from the opposite side. This can also be done on the Leigh, and possibly other dovetails jigs.

Adam

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Adam is correct although I didn't do that for the dovetails I showed the other day. I also didn't do it for those but I have thought that you could also score the edges with a marking guage as you would for hand cut DTs. This would probably also make some folks think you did a great job of hand cutting them. well, it would make it look like I did a great job of hand cutting. You're much better at that than I.