The Acme Woodrat play eliminator

[RogerS]

The most annoying feature of the Woodrat is the play or slop in the carriage. One reason why this is annoying is that when you hang a mortice rail underneath, the play allows it to droop and so anything fixed to it is no longer at 90 degrees to the router bit and so all your cuts are slightly askew.

There are some elegant solutions to this - many of which are featured on Aldel's site. I needed something quick and dirty and in a rare :idea: moment came up with this.

It pushes the mortice rail snugly against the underside of the router plate maintaining a perfect 90 degree angle. The added bonus is that I can leave my router overnight anywhere on the plate as the whole thing is supported. Prior to this I used to religiously undo any clamps and move the router to the rear to avoid long term weight pulling the router plate downwards.

 

[Anonymous]

The most annoying feature of the Woodrat is the play or slop in the carriage. .

What? More annoying the the joke clamps they come fitted with? :lol: No way! Those little flexible pieces of plastic are so poor, tha I didn't use the Rat for months due to inaccuracies introduced by the clamps lifting away from the rail


Not had the problem you describe, but nice cheap fix :wink:

 

[woodbloke]

Rog - read the title of the post properly now....thought it said 'Woodrat Eliminator'..... :wink: :lol: - Rob

 

[Ratter]

Roger, that's so simple that it's brilliant.

Rat droop is a major pain - even if the base plate hasn't moved you always fear it has, causing endless wasted time checking the set-up.

A shame my rat has a fixed workbench underneath it - might be time for a workshop redesign.