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gloswood

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Does any one else own one of these, this must be one of the most infuriating tools I own, I've just finished making a batch of tenons 24 in total, I set it up with a half inch cutter for 10 mm Mortice using a block to give 22.7 as per the book, so why do I get discrepancys in the tenons enough to have to result to plane them. I've owned this thing for the ten years plus and must admit I wouldn't recomend it to any one,it should be such a useful tool but I'm dammed if I can get on with it I've tried loads of joints over the time with very mixed results it now is very much a last resort machine any one else got any thoughts on it or is it just me
 
discrepancy caused by not using the same reference face I would guess and possibly creeping cutter?
 
Do all the tenons come out the same or are the errors different on each? I have a woodrat and have had a batch of tenons that were all to large, discovered that my half in cutter was actually 12.4mm. Once I realised and allowed for this they were ok. If they vary then I would suspect clamping issues. The clamps work much better with drawer liner or sand paper attached to them
Paddy
 
Thanks for the quick reply Wildman but I am always carefull to use the same reference faces I must admit I questioned that one myself first of all and if it's all locked down and set against the stops I can't see it can creep it takes me longer to set up than it does to do the job
 
Thanks Paddy no the discrepancys seem to be different I've done the cutter size and it is 12.7 and I agree with you it does need Somme sandpaper on the clamps I did that years ago,I think the problem is in the track I did speak to Martin Godffery about this and I assured me that the little bit of slack was normal !!!and nothing to be concerned about
 
Don't know what the book says for making tenons but is the carriage creeping during the cut? If so two ways to improve this is one tighten the wire a bit and secondly use an upcut spiral cutter. The upcuts are great with a Woodrat for doing tenons. I built a carriage for the router to simplify making tenons but it is not a 5 min job. For me the Woodrat is the best invention to go with a router but it does seem to be a bit like Marmite to many.

A couple of pics of the carriage and the tenons are not made in the orientation that the finished tenon is displayed.
 

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I've read on this forum that the American version - the Router Boss - is pretty good.

Jonny
 
I have a WoodRat and while it is a great idea, the sloppiness of the carriage has been a major problem. It is just one of a number of problems inherent in the design. The Rat is in a box now. I've replaced it with a Router Boss. There is no sloppiness in the sliding bar on the Boss and I find it is much better all around.
 
Beau":3ltyys50 said:
Don't know what the book says for making tenons but is the carriage creeping during the cut? If so two ways to improve this is one tighten the wire a bit and secondly use an upcut spiral cutter. The upcuts are great with a Woodrat for doing tenons. I built a carriage for the router to simplify making tenons but it is not a 5 min job. For me the Woodrat is the best invention to go with a router but it does seem to be a bit like Marmite to many.

A couple of pics of the carriage and the tenons are not made in the orientation that the finished tenon is displayed.
Agree with the Marmite point - I think the Woodrat does need a certain intuitive approach so it probably just works for some and not for others. For me, I wouldn't be without it and I have never faulted its accuracy (once you have mastered all the points covered in the earlier discussion; however, I am prepared to spend [too] much time fiddling about when sometimes a saw and chisel would do the job....

Sorry to divert the original thread, but I would be very interested to see more of your carriage Beau - please.

Cheers
 
scholar":2qt48zgv said:
Beau":2qt48zgv said:
Don't know what the book says for making tenons but is the carriage creeping during the cut? If so two ways to improve this is one tighten the wire a bit and secondly use an upcut spiral cutter. The upcuts are great with a Woodrat for doing tenons. I built a carriage for the router to simplify making tenons but it is not a 5 min job. For me the Woodrat is the best invention to go with a router but it does seem to be a bit like Marmite to many.

A couple of pics of the carriage and the tenons are not made in the orientation that the finished tenon is displayed.
Agree with the Marmite point - I think the Woodrat does need a certain intuitive approach so it probably just works for some and not for others. For me, I wouldn't be without it and I have never faulted its accuracy (once you have mastered all the points covered in the earlier discussion; however, I am prepared to spend [too] much time fiddling about when sometimes a saw and chisel would do the job....

Sorry to divert the original thread, but I would be very interested to see more of your carriage Beau - please.

Cheers

Yes I wouldn't be without one either but have made a fair few mods to make life easier/accurate. The chap who runs the Aldel site came round many years back and did a fairly good summary of it here http://www.aldel.co.uk/Mods14_2.htm. Happy to try a short video of it in action if it would help.
 
Having owned a woodrat, I found there was just too much work involved in setting it up, and it became a dust collector. If you have plenty of time I'm sure it could be useful to you if you have production batches to knock off once set up. But for ones and two's it's so much quicker with a saw and chisel to produce dovetails. Thats my experience with it. Whoever described it as a marmite tool is right!!
 
I used to have a Woodrat and now I have a Router Boss. I use them to try and replace some of the dozens of jigs that are required for chairmaking. They both delivered against that brief, but the Router Boss does it better. In fact the Router Boss does it much, much better.

A key part of the problem was that the original Woodrat's moving carriage simply wasn't engineered to a high enough level. It wasn't too bad for my applications because I only need a small amount of travel, say 350mm or less, and it was possible to shim the carriage to be accurate over that span, but if it was accurate at one end of the full travel it would be out at the other end, which must have made many users tear their hair out with frustration! In fairness I believe a later version has a beefed up design which should certainly help. I'm surprised though that you're having so many problems with M&T joints, are you sure the components were accurately machined before jointing, that your router cutters are really sharp, and that you're not trying to plunge too deep with each pass?

By the way, the Router Boss isn't without its problems, for example the laser guide is woefully inaccurate and it also suffers from the same "stiction", tooling, and capacity issues that limit the usefulness of the Woodrat. However, it's inherent rigidity, and the superbly engineered tilting table that makes quick work of the complex compound angles you find in chair construction, means I find it's worth persevering with. It's not cheap, but given that it genuinely allows repeat machining to better than a tenth of a degree and better than 0.1mm, makes it pretty good value for money.
 
Thanks to all for their views and opinion I defiantly agree with marmite thing like I said I've had this one for years I think it might be time for it to make an appearance on e bay as I can't be bothered with the continual setting up and fiddling about I'm sure it's a good pice of kit in the right hands just not mine I'm afraid.
 

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