Thread: Wood Rat Router Table

Clint
Dont let the price put you off for the woodrat. I have had one for 3 years and love it. Its the only way I can acheive the hand cut profile for dovetails and the jig makes mortice and tenons a breeze.
Firstly you would classify the woodrat as a jointing jig, not a router table although woodrat claim it will replace a router table. It is designed to be hung on a wall but I have made a mounting jig that lets me to put it under a bench when not in use. The thing can be used to cut almost any joint you care to mention. I have used it to cut through dovetails, half blind dovetails, sliding dovetails, trenching, edge moulding, various types of mortice and tenons and several variants of a joint know as a show case joint (three peices of timber coming together on a mitre reinforced with a mortice and tenon). One of the better things I like about woodrat is their cutters, very expensive but hss and this means I have no down time as I sharpen them myself. The other accessory woodrat make which is very useful is the plunge bar which enables you to plunge the router single handed.

G'day Clint,

Tell us where you are at with your 'woodwork' addiction.

There's a lot of blokes with cash burning holes in their pocket (creditcard)
that have expensive 'white elephants' hanging on the wall.

There are also a lot of blokes that don't have the ready cash & still
get by just fine with something they dreamt up themselves or copied
off someone else.

I have my fair share of expensive piles of rust :mad: & a collection of homemade
stuff, some of which collects dust & some of it makes dust.

Don't get me wrong, I have the odd bit of gear that Santa couldn't afford
that I reckon was worth every cent....

Just don't get caught chucking ya cash at a glossy brochure. :eek:

Thanx to SSGT and Cliff for info from both sides of the bench. Cliff, I have been working as a carpenter for QUITE some time now, I've always wanted to turn my hand at WW and now I've finally done it. So the incomne I had from being a carpy, now has to be replaced by my WW efforts. Yeah, I've gone the whole hog and totally changed proffesions.
I've got buyers for my furniture( shops around town) I just want to be able to do the best work possible and if the wood rat is going to let me do that, well I think it is worth the money?? I hope you can see where I'm coming from Cliff, cuase I can definately see where you are coming from.
Anyway SSGT, you told me pretty much what I wanted to here( anyone else gonna back him up, I'd love to here it!) Tell me more about putting yours under the bench though.
Thanx Guys
Clint

Clint,
My way is very basic. 2 pieces of 50 x 250 pine, skipped dressed and joined at right angle to form a L shape with 4 x 250mm coach bolts.The rebated mounting strips of timber which actually support the rat (run from nyatoh) were then glued and screwed to the pine. This is then clamped to my work bench.

SSGT

That sounds great, maybe one day I'll mount mine like that when Santa brings it
Have a great day!

Gooday, Clint. Cool name, same as mine.

Anyway, if your still keen to learn some WoodRat stuff I can highly recommend that you check out this site http://www.woodshopdemos.com/wr-prod.htm.

Within the pages of this web site, the fella shows us step by step right from pulling the Rat out of the box through to cutting fancy joints, raised panels and every thing inbetween.
Along with the written intructions he also has step by step, clear photographs of the whole process.

Not only can you see how the WoodRat works, you can also check out many of the other jigs and fixtures he reviews.

All up a brilliant site.

There is also a woodrat forum at the woodrat .com site , sorry I dont know the full url address.

Originally Posted by Dusty

Gooday, Clint. Cool name, same as mine.

Anyway, if your still keen to learn some WoodRat stuff I can highly recommend that you check out this site http://www.woodshopdemos.com/wr-prod.htm.

Within the pages of this web site, the fella shows us step by step right from pulling the Rat out of the box through to cutting fancy joints, raised panels and every thing inbetween.
Along with the written intructions he also has step by step, clear photographs of the whole process.

Not only can you see how the WoodRat works, you can also check out many of the other jigs and fixtures he reviews.

All up a brilliant site.

Thanx for that link Clint. It has a great deal of info on the Woodrat and is probably going to cost me $1200 as a result. But the rest of the site was way cool to. He's a pretty clued in guy, sure knows his stuff and very honest about the products he's testing which is good to see. Hope to talk to you soon on the forum. By the way I am a former Melbournite myself (Fitzroy) best city in Oz.
Thanx, Hellacopter1

I decided to take the plunge (pun intended) and buy a Woodrat and set of plunge bars a couple of months ago. Although I have relatively limited experience, I have found the 'Rat to be a superb asset in joinery types of work.

One of the limitations I have found (but it may just be me!) is in working with long (>500MM) stock. Has anyone had similar issues, and managed to overcome them?

I'm now thinking of buying another router to replace the Bosch GOF1300ACE I have monted on the 'Rat, as the Bosch's baseplate forces it to be mounted a few degrees off on its vertical axis, and rather far back. I do like the Bosch for its quietness and good depthe adjustment though, so would want something at least as good. I like the look of the Festool range, but couldn't justify that kind of expense for what's a hobby (

Hello Steeve,

I am a frequent visitor to this forum from the U.K. and note your interest in the woodrat. We have a keen fan of woodrat in the UK at this site:
http://www.aldel.co.uk/

Regret the site takes a while to load and what your are looking for is at the bottom of Mr.aldels site. There is an index and I'm sure you will get some good reviews of the rat equipment and usage.

Anyway welcome to the forum from a UK member.

Hi Woody!

Thanks for the URL to Mr Aldel's site. I've only had a quick look so far, but it looks to be helpful. I'll certainly be going back there.

Steve B
I note that you are having trouble with 500mm long stock in the woodrat. What are you attempting to do, dovetails, edge moulding etc. Please let me know what technique you are having trouble with either via this means or a email to me, [email protected] and I will see if I can help you.

Originally Posted by carbatecwa

Steve B
I note that you are having trouble with 500mm long stock in the woodrat. What are you attempting to do, dovetails, edge moulding etc. Please let me know what technique you are having trouble with either via this means or a email to me, [email protected] and I will see if I can help you.

Hi Garry,

I've been trying to do some edge moulding on some stock up to 1.2m in length. My issue is that the stock had a tendency to sag downwards (probably because the stock was too heavy for the brush). However, by clamping two 'L' shaped sections under the routerplate with just sufficient vertical clearance for the stock (occasioned by the horizontal element of the jig), and positioned such that the stock is fairly tightly held against the extruded WR box section by the vertical element of the jig, this issue has been overcome.

The lesson here, it seems, is that one has to think laterally or "out of the box".

I'd still be interested to know what your suggestion(s) would be though!

Cheers!

Steve,
The last time I did edge moulding using the woodrat I did it the following way.
Using 90 x 19 jarrah, 2 pieces at 2.4m, a beading cutter and a 12.7mm round nose cutter. I clamped the brush in the right hand vertical cam clamp positioned high enough to leave a gap of approx 13/14mm between bristles and the underneath of the base plate. The brush was then positioned slightly to the left of the cutter, this then acts as safety stop so that when hand feeding it stops you from hitting the cutter. A block is then clamped in the left fence to act as a support for the infeed side. If necessary you can use a roller support stand on the outfeed side of the woodrat. Depth the cutter, lock the router into position using the star knob and hand feed the timber past the cutter. Ensure to provide inwards pressure towards the face of the woodrat while feeding the timber from left to right (if the cutter is behind the timber). If the timber is flexible enough to catch in the cutter gap insert the cutter/infill block to prevent this. You can also use the mortice rail in a similar way for this technique ( see page 37 of the manual). Hope this is of some help and I havent managed to confuse the issue. If I can be of any more help dont hesitate to contact me.
Garry.