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woodezine - Volume
II - Issue VIII - August 2004
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Journeyman Jigs
Each month, Woodezine will profile a woodworking jig or fixture
which is designed to make your woodworking more enjoyable.
The Woodrat
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The WoodRat was invented in 1988 by Martin Godfrey, who is a passionate woodworker. Intuitive and fun to use, WoodRat machines are ideal for both amateurs and professionals. Whereas other machines give you fixed templates, these supply a manual power-feed. They use no guide bushes and have no expensive add-ons. The Woodrat features infinitely variable dovetailing plates - as well as the means to make tenons, mortises, laps, grooves, rabbets, sliding dovetails and much more. The WoodRat comes with all necessary parts, a comprehensive manual and a no quibble guarantee. The router (unfortunately!) is not included. It makes any kind of dovetail, can handle stock up to 2"x30", and has a street price of $650. The LittleRat (right) features dead-easy dovetailing plates, 2"x24" capacity and manual power-feed. It, too, makes any joint in the book and is ideal for the home-shop hobbyist. Street price is around $475. |
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Profiles & Grooves The WoodRat acts as a router table, profiling any length of work with the advantage of having the router the right way up. To keep the wood against the fence, it uses a simple brush clamped beneath the cutter. This allows variable pressure and no kickback. It is low-tech, but it works very well. Any router bit can be used for decorative or functional profiles. |
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Sliding Dovetails and Dado Joints The essential sliding dovetail is simple to mill on the Woodrat as it can cut housings and tenons with ease. The housing is cut with the workpiece clamped under the plate and supported by blocks in the cam clamp (top photo). To cut the tenon, the wood is tracked through the cutter, held in the cam clamp (lower photo). Straight walled dado (housing) joints can also be made in this way. |
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Mortises & Tenons The Woodrat is both a mortiser and a tenoner. Because there's no machine bed, mortises can be carefully placed in all kinds of awkward pieces. Accurate, square, breakout-free tenons are achievable in seconds. You can chop any type up to 2" deep.
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Dovetails The WoodRat is the most versatile dovetailer on the market. It can make dovetails in stock up to 2"thick x 30" wide, with an elegant classic shape throughout the size range. You can place the joints exactly as you need, as there are no limiting templates. The LittleRat is similar and will dovetail stock up-to 24".
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Drawer-front Dovetails Both the WoodRat and the LittleRat make elegant lapped dovetails for drawer-fronts. The sides can be cut in batches for mass production runs. The WoodRat can make drawer-front dovetails that closely match classic hand-cut needle-pins. It uses special 1-in-9 slope HSS bits. |
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Newest Upgrade The Plungebar is a device developed by WoodRat to set the cutter depth of a router smoothly with just one hand. With two new types of PlungeBars WoodRat recently made available, there now is a PlungeBar for virtually any type of router. |
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The PlungeBar makes depth setting easy: the bit is raised by squeezing the bars together with one hand and its height above the table is measured with the other. Using the PlungeBar puts no pressure on the work and so avoids marks. It allows making sequential cuts that simply cannot be done accurately by pushing against the springs with the conventional handles: you can make a deep cut in several passes very easily. Street prices are around $40. |
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In North America, visit
the Craftsman Gallery for more info
(http://www.thecraftsmangallery.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc)
Or you can visit the manufacturer's site
at www.woodrat.com
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