Router Boss

[SketchUp Guru]

Well, I've had my Router Boss for a few weeks now but with the holidays and all I haven't had much time to work with it and I haven't gotten very many photos taken.

Here's a picture of the machine mounted on the new wall mount. I'm in the process of assembling it at this point.

And here's a shot of the first dovetail joint. It was a test joint so the wood isn't very pretty. I colored the ends of the pins so they are easier to see. Evidently I hadn't cut the end of the tailboard square. Still, the joint is properly aligned. There's no joggle between the edges of the two pieces and no gaps. I used a 3/8", 8° HSS dovetail bit from The Craftsman Gallery for this. (You can use absolutely any dovetail router bit you want because there's no template to follow unlike every dovetail jig out there.) The stock is 3/4" thick.

No photos yet but the Mortise Rail is a great accessory for the Router Boss. It allows the you to hold the work horizontally for cutting things like mortises (no kidding) in stiles. There's a hole in the rail to allow the rail to be clamped up for cutting the tenon with essentially the same set up. You can use the same plunge depth setting for both mortise and tenon and use a simple stop set up to locate the router for both sides of the joint. Since the tenon is made using a climb cut, there's no breakout along the shoulder.

Since I don't have photos of that, here's a couple of sketches.

If you're thinking about getting a Router Boss, I can highly recommend the X-axis digital scale. Very handy. I would also suggest that you order the machine with it installed.

A few more photos.

First, that skinny dovetail bit.

The Boss set up to cut dovetail pins.

The lighted router plate makes it easier to see what you're doing. Sorry for the camera movement. I shut the flash off so you can see the LED light.

And with the crosshair turned on.

 

[Philly]

Cool! Look forward to hearing how you get on with it in use. Love the led light - a handy feature,
Cheers
Philly

 

[maltrout512]

Looks good Dave, I had bought the Woodrat some eight years ago and find that it quite some piece of kit and ok i don't know what the price is for Boss, but looks as if it's on the same play field to me. Not what you have but how you use it. Results look good. All the best.

 

[mrwilby]

hmm... I'm salivating at the prospect of a new toy ;-). Looks a lovely bit of kit. Is that router plate part of the package or did you buy that elsewhere (sorry, probably a stupid question). Is the plate router-specific or do you have to adapt it yourself to fit whatever router you decided to use the 'boss with?

Thanks for sharing your photos and review!

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I'll report when I have time to use it more, Philly.

maltrout, I had a WoodRat for quite a few years. I gave it away because I needed the space for the Boss. The Rat is good but I think the Boss is better.

mrwilby, the router plate is part of the package. It is pre-drilled for the DW625/DW621 routers. There is an adaptor plate that is drilled to attach in those holes and it can be drilled to match your router. You might be able to drill the router plate for a different router but the wires and LEDs could be in the way. Thus the adaptor plate.

 

[Escudo]

Nice Dave, I'm sure you will have lots of fun getting the best from this machine.

It looks smaller than the rat, and a bit more sophisticated. I wonder what the cost will be over here? The weakness of our £ to the $ won't help.

Keep us posted of your progress. Thanks, Tony

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Tony, the Rat is 36" long. The Router Boss box extrusion is 32" long but the moving rail on mine is 42" long. There's a shorter one and a longer one available.

 

[TobyB]

I have been learning to cut dovetails by hand (and have done "reasonable" M&T's that way), but have been looking at router methods and am very struck by the Woodrat. Read lots - seen it has its devotees and its detractors ... and then there's this Router Boss that looks even more expensive and could be better by engineering, or just have a whole lot more metal and gadgets to pay for ...

Has anyone used both enough to offer a comparison? Better or just different? Worth the apparent extra cost/hassle? Also, it seems to me that some of the detractors of the Woodrat may be talking about the older models - have newer revisions improved things?

I may stick with the router in a table, but interested ...

Cheers

Toby

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I had a Rat for about 7 years. Last year I replaced it with the Router Boss. Probably makes me qualified to respond. I'll answer your questions when I get home from work this evening.

 

[RogerS]

At first sight, it looks to be very similar to the Rat. Aren't there any patent issues?

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Nope. No patent issues.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Toby, as I said, I had a WoodRat for about 7 years. Late last year I switched to the Router Boss. Here are a few thoughts.

In general, I think machines like the Rat and Router Boss make a great deal of sense for router-based joinery. They offer a great deal of flexibility in the way joints are cut. Most people tend to fixate on cutting dovetails with these machines but, while they are excellent for doing that, there is so much more that can be done.

As far as dovetails go, these machines are a good choice because you aren't limited to a template nor to any specific dovetail bit. If you want to cut dovetails with a 14° bit, you can do it without any trouble. If you want to eyeball the dovetail joint, knock yourself out. The pins will be cut to match the sockets no matter how you cut them. Actually, I think it is pretty easy to make the jump from chopping out the waste between pins with a chisel and cutting it away with a router on the Rat or Router Boss.

As far as a comparison goes, first, while there is a superficial similarity between the two machines, they really are quite different in construction. The re are alos a lot of added capabilitiesin the Router Boss.

One thing I was never able to do with my WoodRat is remove all of the forward and back "slop" in the carriage. This is a common complaint among WoodRat owners. I was able to reduce it but never eliminate it. WoodRat now sell a kit that can be added to the back of the sliding carriage to further reduce that play. It didn't come in time for me to get one and try it before I gave my Rat away so I don't know how well it works. I was a little put off that I would have to buy something to fix a problem that was there from the beginning but that is another story. With the router Boss there is no slop in the rail whatsoever. And if there was, the machine is designed so that can be adjusted out of it.

As far as dovetails go, After working with the WoodRat for a little while and spending some time understanding the geometry of cutting the pins, I was able to work out a correction factor that had to be applied to the Button Setting value to get the pins to be the proper size. This seemed to vary from one machine to another. I had purchased a second router plate and centre plate for the Rat. Depending upon the combination of plates, the correction factor was anywhere from +2mm to +8mm. Without going into a lot of detail, this variation was due to variations in the application of the scales on the router plate and the label on the centre plate. With the Router Boss, there's no need for figuring out a correction factor because the scales used for setting the pin width are 'zeroed' when you assemble the machine.

The aluminum base plate on the Router Boss is less prone to sagging which probably wouldn't be an issue for dovetails but it might for some other work. The transparent router plate makes it much easier to see what you are doing. The travel of the sliding bar on the Router Boss is limited so that the trailing end can only get near the center of the box beam but not beyond. That might seem like a limitation but it isn't since the sliding bar is longer. Well, depending on which machine you are talking about. The sliding bar won't sag because it can't get far enough out to the end of the box beam. With the mid-sized machine I have about 35-12" inches of clamping capacity.

One noticeable difference between the two machines is that the Router Boss has only one clamp. Instead of clamping up the opposite side of the joint you can do any of several other things. You can mark out alignment on the story boards, you can record sewttings off the analog scales mounted on the front of the box beam or you can use the optional DRO and record the values from it.

Lest anyone think I dislike the WoodRat, I don't. I still think it is a better choice for me than a single purpose dovetail jig. I've never been a fan of those fat dovetail sockets that TCT cutters make and I especially dislike the dovetail joints that look like zipper teeth. The WoodRat and Router Boss aren't limited to those TCT cutters and the HSS dovetail cutters make more slender joints. they'd be more like you'd cut by hand.

I think that a dovetail joint is as much about aesthetics as it is about strength. Maybe more so. It seems to me that there are easier joints that can be cut and with today's adhesives, they can be everybit as strong as a dovetail joint. Why go to the trouble of making a dovetail joint if it isn't going to look nice?

I realize that with the exchange rate as it is, and your VAT, the Router Boss is not as attractive as far as the price goes. I think that is unfortunate but what are you going to do? Still, I would give it some serious thought if you are leaning toward this sort of machine. If you divide the cost difference out over, say, five years, how much extra per year would it cost?

Either machine will give good service. The fact that it is mounted on the wall means it is always put away but it is always ready for use. You can do almost anything you'd do with a router table plus some extra things so you might not need a router table. You couldn't say that about a Leigh dovetail jig. that sort of thing ought to figure into your calculations.

So that was all very long winded. I hope there was something useful though.

Dave

 

[Johnboy]

Interesting stuff Dave.

How do you change the angle to match different dovetail cutters? The pictures show the green bits guiding the router but at a fixed angle.

John

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Johnboy,

The "green bits" pivot at the center. You pull the pins and reposition them to place the wings at the desired angle. There's a photo in my first post showing the Router Boss set up to cut the pins for a dovetail joint. It's right below the picture of the dovetail bit.

 

[Johnboy]

Thanks Dave. Must look more closely at the pictures before asking questions

John

 

[SketchUp Guru]

John, no worries. And you're welcome.

 

[ivan]

Early 'rats had solid plastic runners and no slop; it's not difficult to make such up for yourself. Woodrat doesn't seem to worry much about the slop, for if you clamp the wood in as reccomended the job itself removes any backlash. This is true for lighter work and if you have aluminium fences. Unfortunately the nylon fence squirms under clamping and allows a bit of movement, although this is not serious unless the job is heavy. The problem is the thing is so versatile you're tempted to take it beyond the designers original intention and use it as an xyz mill.

The new Woodrats (600/900) have an extrusion designed to let the carriage hang forward under load at the correct angle (Martin says) so the play is still there - Martin told me the cost of tooling up for production of a Boss type arrangement would be too high for a UK based company (ie not operating in the USA where the biggest market is)

I assume the 'rat's original US patent has expired.