Replies

1. 
   Rich14 | Feb 08, 2007 12:10am | #1

   doorboy,

   Used it.

   The plus side:

   It's an excellent piece of equipment. It does exactly what it's advertising says. It does it very well. Very accurate. It satisfies any craving for a specialized, well-made piece of equipment. Once you learn how to use it and set up your work, it's very fast. Very satisfying to use.

   Neither plus or minus:

   It takes a bit of understanding how to measure and mark the reference line. There is a learning curve.

   The minus side:

   It's expensive. Base price US $600 - more with accessories. It does nothing you couldn't learn to do easily, entirely by hand, every bit as accurate, almost as fast. It does nothing you couldn't just as easily do with a router and shop-made jigs, or with a router and a table saw.

   Rich

2. 
   DonaldCBrown | Feb 08, 2007 12:28am | #2

   The Woodrat does many things well, including mortises and tenons, but I wouldn't recommend it solely for those two tasks. There are much cheaper ways if that is all you want the machine for.

   The Woodrat, as you probably know, has a hand-cranked power feeder. That makes it especially useful for cutting tenons. Using power feeding, you can climb cut the cheeks without the splintering that you would experience using the normal feed direction. Mortises are cut in the way of most router-based mortise jigs; plunge to full depth at each end, then take successive shallow cuts in between. Alternatively, you can plunge a series of overlapping full-depth holes and then clean the sides with one full-depth sweep. The standard Woodrat does not have adjustable stops to limit the router travel, but you can rig up your own. Or there is a new accessory mortising fixture available for the Woodrat that does have stops included.

   As with any router-based mortising machine, you will have rounded ends on the mortises. You will have to square the corners with a chisel to fit the square-sided tenons or round over the tenons with a rasp to fit the mortises.

   I recommend that before you buy a Woodrat, you view the CD which demonstrates all of its capabilities. The machine does require a moderate bit of practice before you will feel comfortable with any of its operations. But the CD will get you familiarized, and the manual is excellent.

1. 
   Rich14 | Feb 08, 2007 12:39am | #3

   Don,

   The Woodrat is capable of squaring the ends of tenons.

   Rich

1. 
   DonaldCBrown | Feb 08, 2007 01:53am | #5

   Rich-I'm not sure what error you are correcting. I thought I indicated that the mortises (as produced by the Woodrat) had rounded corners and the tenons had square corners. Sorry if I was confusing things.

1. 
   Rich14 | Feb 08, 2007 03:24am | #6

   Don, Sorry. I misread your post. I corrected something that needed no correction. Hard day at the salt mine. Rich

3. 
   doorboy | Feb 08, 2007 12:46am | #4

   I appreciate the quick responses! Thanks for the thoughtful answers and the sage advice.

   "Roger Staubach for President"

4. 
   philip | Feb 08, 2007 09:48am | #7

   Boy, I am sure you will get an informative , unbiased opinion on this from the Pied Piper of Galgate, also known as the Jolly Biscuiteer or Lataxe. It is just a matter of time.

   Philip Marcou
5. 
   bladeburner | Feb 08, 2007 04:49pm | #8

   I've had a WoodRat about a year and think that compared to the cost of Leigh DT($500.00) & the mortise jig ($800.00)  the 'Rat is a good value. There is a learning curve but it's not a show stopper. Just keep in mind that it is a tool to help you control the router. I like to think of it as a indexable, sliding table, overarm pin router.

   This from another poster is step #1:

   I recommend that before you buy a Woodrat, you view the CD which demonstrates all of its capabilities. The machine does require a moderate bit of practice before you will feel comfortable with any of its operations. But the CD will get you familiarized, and the manual is excellent.

   While you're waiting for the CD browse these:

   http://www.chipsfly.com/

   http://www.woodrat.com/ikonboard/ikonboard.cgi

   and the 'Ratters number one web site:

   http://www.aldel.co.uk/

   Joe

    

    

   
   

   ---

   Edited 2/8/2007 9:03 am ET by bladeburner

6. 
   Lataxe | Feb 08, 2007 09:06pm | #9

   Door,

   I endorse what the others have said about the rat and its ability with M&Ts.  If you search on "Woodrat" and "from Lataxe" you'll find many a post of mine from past discussions that mention and extol the Woodrat's virtues.

   Funnily enough I was today reading Paul Richardson's book, "Making Classic English Furniture". He is an English maker of largely 18th Century styles and also the former editor of the British magazine Furniture & Cabinetmaking. 

   He has a very high opinion of the Woodrat, particularly its ability to quickly make piston-fit MTs of any normal cabinetmaking size.  His words are something like, the M&T-making ability alone would justify the machine.

   M&Ts can be made well in lots of ways - even by hand!  :-)  However, the Woodrat is a high-value machine because it can do so many other things as well.  It takes that learning curve to get the most out of it; and more input from you than does a jig like the Leigh.  But contrast its abilities with a good mortising machine of the same cost: the rat will do much whereas a mortiser will only make square holes.

   I think the Woodrat is the natural partner for a router. The rat makes what is already a very versatile tool (the router) into one that is almost a universal joint-making machine.  But unlike a CNC, you still get to do the actual guiding and cutting.  It's still woodworking as we know and love it.

   Lataxe

1. 
   philip | Feb 09, 2007 10:02am | #10

   Squire, merely academic interest on my part as I am forced to make filings these days without excuse to endulge in the pleasant aromas of fine timbers: can this Rat do tenons on long posts eg for house front doors , with the matching through mortice? And does it round the edges?
   I don't believe it is known here-how about some pictures?Philip Marcou

1. 
   Lataxe | Feb 09, 2007 02:56pm | #11

   Philip,

   Unfortunately I have no handy pics of past Woodrat opertions; and the 'rat is presently quiescent as I am doing handcut everything for a while.

   The rat mounts on a simple wood bar on the wall, with the rear lip of its aluminium box frame hanging inside a shallow rabbet in the top/back of the bar where it abutts the wall.  I have two bars - one that puts the rat just below eye level and another higher up so you can hang long pieces from it (like big table aprons, door stiles, bed rails and such) to route either a tenon or a mortise in the end.  You stand on a platform to use the the rat in its higher position.

   Imagine a plank hung vertically from one set of the rat's jaws, with the top end of the plank snug to the underside of the platform on which the router sits.  The router bit plunges through a long slot in this platform, so it can cut the end of the plank; and also be slid front to back with the bit through the slot. 

   The plank can be hung vertically or (with the aid of a wedge between it and the rat's moveable front face) at at angle, eg for chair parts.

   The rat has two sets of jaws fixed on a captive, horizontally-sliding faceplate travelling across the front of the rat, just below the router platform.  The jaws move horizontaly left or right and in unison, when you wind the rat's handle connected via a thin platted wire (like a bicycle brake cable) around pulleys.

   The router can be slid back to front at right angles to the travelling jaws, within aluminium rails; or without the rails, if the sliding needs to be at an angle (eg to cut pins in the end of a plank).

   And of course, the bit can be plunged up and down.

   Thus you can move the bit with reference to the plank in all three axes; all at right angles or at various angles, to one another.

   With a 6 - 19mm upcut spiral bit, you can move the router and the rat-jaws to create either a square-ended tenon on the end of your plank; or cut an elongated hole to form a round-ended mortise. As the plank and router are captive, all cuts can be climb cuts, so avoiding breakout.  It is easy to adjust movements, plunge depth and so forth to widen mortises, to narrow tenons or to create more complex tenons such as twin or haunched.

   To make mortises in the side of long pieces such as table legs, you mount a simple carriage to the two rat vises then the workpiece is clamped along the carriage (QR clamps are useful).  The router is positioned over the mortise site then locked in place.  A mortise is then plunged and routed via the winding of the rat's handle, which moves the workpiece left and right under the now fixed bit. 

   Depending on bit size, you make several left/right passes at various (ie safe for the bit diameter) but increasing depths until you have reached full depth, between the two full-depth end holes you have initially plunged to define the mortise length and position.

   If your table leg or whatever is short enough, you can remove one of the rat's jaws (the left hand one) and just clamp the leg ends between the resulting single-but-larger-capacity vise.  No carriage needed.

   This basic operation can be varied in many ways to cut all sort of joint shapes.

   The really clever thing about the rat is the double jaws which move in unison.  This allows you to cut a set of tails, fingers or whatever then use that cut piece as a template in the other jaw to locate and guide the cutter into the mating piece within the second jaw, thus cutting perfectly fitting pins or fingers. 

   Various DT and straight cutters are available in super-sharp HSS, which (with climb cuts) create the most precise joints you can imagine. The HSS DT cutters include some that have ultra-thin necks, to emulate those thin-pin handcut joints.   There are many DT cutters of various size and slope.

   There is a learning curve to understand how to set up and operate the router against a template cut in this way, to make its matching part.  But once you have got the principle, it is easy-peasy and very rapid.

   You can gang-cut many DT or finger parts at once (not very practical to do with pins - but possible, if you believe the manual).  The DTs or pins can be any shape or (variable) spacing you like.  Flipping the initial workpiece when you cut the tails provides an easy route to symmetry but with variable spacing within the symmetry.

   And then there are the 101 other joints.

   Oooh, I have rambled!

   Lataxe