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Wanted to find out your opinions on the WoodRat. They seem to be making a concerted push here in the states now.
I haven't seen a bad review of this thing yet (all glowing reviews), but wondering if anyone here has any experience with it?
Very expensive, but an incredible variety of joints it can cut compared to other dedicated jigs on the market.
http://www.woodrat.com
Wallace
http://www.woodrat.com/wr_r3_c1.jpg
I know that John Lucas here on the board uses one, and has a big pictorial writeup on his "Woodshop Demos" website. It looks like a nice machine, and John liked it.
I have one Wallace...and I think it's pretty amazing. I haven't had a lot of shop time since I got it so I have only had a chance to cut some dovetails and box joints but I think it has endless possibilities. I can't see using a table mounted router again.
Dave Richards has one and I'm sure he'll comment on it when he ses this.
Glenn's right. I've got one and I'll comment. :D He's also right that it's pretty amazing.
The WoodRat has been around for probably 15 years in England. It wasn't until a few years ago that they started distributing them in the US. The Craftsman Gallery was the only US supplier and Lewis Stepp has an amazing amount of knowledge about using the Rat. He's also coome up with a bunch of accessories for it that add more to the Rat.
Now that Lee Valley and others are selling the Rat, I think we'll see even more interest.
Dovetails are easy with the Rat as are M&T joinery, box joints and on and on and on. With the router and the work securely mounted climb milling is safe.
The Rat does need to be mounted on the wall although some folks have done other mounting things. With it on the wall it is always ready for use without taking up space on your bench and it's always put away, too.
Back when I bough the Rat I was looking primarily at router-based dovetailing. I was almost sold on the Leigh D4 and had gotten to the point of typing in my credit card number for an order from LV. I decided to have one more look at the Rat and realized that made more sense for me.
With a finite amount of shop space, the wall mount of the Rat made sense. There aren't any templates to store with the Rat, either. If I figured out buying jigs or machines to do the other things I could do with the Rat, the cost would be considerably higher than the Rat.
Glenn is right, there's little need for a router table if you have a Rat. Since I already had a router table before I got the Rat, I do use it once in awhile but it sure is nice to walk up to the WoodRat and bang out whatever it is I need. I think I can set the Rat up faster than the router table.
The Plunge Bar is also a cool invention and hasn't been off the router since I installed it.
If you haven't done it, order the DVD from the Craftsman Gallery and take a look at it. http://www.thecraftsmangallery.com/M...2/merchant.mvc
By the way, I have no affiliation with WoodRat or the Craftsman Gallery other than being a happy customer.
Thanks Dave, that certainly sounds like a vote for the Woodrat system.
Once Lee Valley started selling the Woodrat, I became interested. The Lee Valley "seal of approval" means a lot to me.
Before this, I was debatong between one of the Leigh jigs and the Festool VS 600 jointing system, Now there is another contender.
Dave, one of the very best things about the Leigh products is their manuals (the best I have ever seen on anything). How does the Woodrat documentation comapre?
So you know there is a Tool Close-UP articl on the Woodrat in the Workbench August 2004 issue. I will admit that the article was more of descriptive of what it does and not as helpful on what they think of it. However, They seemed generally pleased.
Joe
Frank,
You addressed your question to Dave...but I'll jump in with my comments.
The manual is excellant...but with the DVD it's even better. You can see the 82 page manual here...
http://www.woodrat.com/manuals.html
Thanks Glen, I downloaded the manual and galnced through it and it does appear to be very good. I look forward to reading it in more detail before I make my decision.Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn Clabo
Thanks for the link to the manual, I have downloaded it as well!
Glenn took the words right out of my mouth. :D
I've spoken to a number of woodworkers about the Rat. The one problem I've noticed is that initially it seems so strange to many of them that they have a hard time making heads or tails of the instructions. For some reason having the router right side up and pivoting and sliding for dovetails seems foreign. Once you get your head wrapped around what it is doing, though, you'll take off and find all kinds of other things to do with it.
By the way, I made an Excel-based button calculator for the Rat. If anyone is interested in having it, I will e-mail it. (can XLS files be posted here?)
In the current version of the manual there's also a drawing of a mount I came up with for the Rat that includes dust collection with 4" pipe. Most anyone here here could come up with a better arrangement but if you want, I can send or post drawings that make it more clear. the drawing in the manual shows a blast gate but I have eliminated that. It came in a fit of over engineering for which I seem to have a proclivity.
May also want to check out the demo video..
http://www.woodrat.com/video.html
Here's another link that I found of interest that shows some jigs built to enhance the WoodRat. http://benchmark.20m.com/tools/Littl...eratindex.html This guy is using the Little Rat, but most of what he says and does applies to the larger model.
Larry
There's also some interesting things here: http://aldel.co.uk/