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The WoodRat

you soonrealise that the

Wo o d Rat enables the

user to engineer wood in aunique way.Another hard pill of compre-

hension to swa l l ow is that anitem of wo o d working equip-ment that claims quite tru t h-fully as it turns out to assistin the production of just abouteve ry constructional jointingtask known to traditional cabi-net making, comprises of suchfew main, and relatively light-weight, components.

There are no heavy- d u ty castiron tables, no large sheet meta l

panels, no big leg stand and noc o m p l ex electronic gadgetry except for the need to utiliseyour regular router power tool.

It is simply mounted onto as t r a i g h t fo rward to make wo o d-en wall plate fixed to a wo r k-shop wall. Pr ovision for dustextraction can be, and shouldbe, made by the user fo l l ow i n gdirections in the excellent userm a n u a l .

The system operates unlikea ny other wo o d wo r k i n gm a chine or jig, although its

basic principles are straightfo r-wa r d .The router, unlike a router

table, is operated the right wayup at all times. It

e i t h e r

t r a cks back and fo rwards whilstthe work is securely clamped ors ta t i o n a ry while the work is

s a fely fed into and through thec u tt e r.

When joint cutt i n g, no guidebushes and templates are used,so you can usually alwayso b tain a clear view of the cut.One of the great adva n tages ofthe Wo o d Rat, especially whenjoint cutt i n g, is that both therouter and the work arec l a m p e d .

And as the sliding rail isc r a n ked along the channel, theWo o d Rat provides, what is ine ffect, a power feed system!

One of the main compo-nents of the Wo o d Rat is thechannel, which is made of alu-minium ex t rusion anodiseds i l ve r.

This houses a sliding bar thatis operated by means of a crankhandle and Bowden cable (wire)s ystem. Two excellent caml o cks fix the work ve r t i c a l l y,when appropriate, to twofences that are atta ched to ther a i l .

Your router is atta ched to thebase plate, which locates on the

top of the channel. Re s tassured that pretty much all ofthe components are of goodbuild quality; and a testament tothis is the incredibly smoothoperation of all aspects of theWo o d Rat. Ro tating the crankhandle moves the sliding bari n s ta n t l y, with no slack or back-lash, and it becomes a real joyto feed the work and/or cutt e rinto action.

So what can the Wo o d r a tdo? Well, it would be easier toname the ve ry short list of

Awhile ago, I got to gripswith the Wo o d Ra t ssmaller sibling, the

L i tt l e Rat. So impressive did thisexcellent item of wo o d wo r k i n g

equipment prove to be, that wethought that the big Wo o d Ra titself merited closer inspection.Although the basic conceptand working princi-ples of theWo o d Rat iss u r p r i s i n g l ys t r a i g h t fo r-ward, it doesr e q u i r etime, imagi-nation and thewit of the operatorto fully exploit andcomprehend it.

Th e r e fore, I wa sd e s p a t ched to the pictu r e s q u evillage of Godney, set wayd own in the depths of theSomerset levels, to meetMartin Godfrey, the inventor ofthe Wo o d Rat, to fully explain itand to help put the large rodentthrough its paces.

The first, and in fact themain, hurdle for the uninitiatedto ta ckle is to understand whatexactly is the Wo o d Ra t .

M a ny label it, and think of it,as a dove tail jig. Sure, it can

produce the widest range ofd ove tail joints, both in size andtype, than any other jig ava i l-able, but it is much more thant h a t .

The legend under theWo o d Rat logo, in their curr e n ta d vertisements, calls themprecision joinery mach i n e s .This terminology is fairly accu-

rate, but once you learn thatthe Wo o d Rat is capable

of ta ckling a sta g g e r-ing range of wo o d-

working jointing

and mouldingta s k s ,

Text: Jeff Loader

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Ve rd i c t

P r i c e

C o n t a c t

A small price to pay for an almost complete joinery sys t e m

Wo o d Rat: 475.00 inc. VAT & Carr i a g eP l u n g e Bar: 29.95 inc. VATMitre Box 18.06 inc.VAT

0845 458 2033 | support@wo o d r a t . c o m

things it cannot be used toaccomplish. Howeve r, Martinr e ckons that there are about120 named wo o d working jointsand all these can be underta k-en with the Wo o d Ra t .

And when you get to gripswith the tool you can we l lb e l i eve this incredible claim.

The Wo o d Rat can be used for am u l t i tude of profil ing and groov-ing tasks and when hand-fe e d-ing the work, a scrubbing bru s h(it has to be seen to beb e l i eved!) ensures the work iskept stable to the cutter andd o e s nt kick back. Incrediblythis works a treat!

Tr e n ch i n g, sliding dove ta i l s ,halving joints, bridle joints andmortice and tenons of all va r i-eties are all readily ach i eva b l e .The process of cutting sometenons is particularly interest-i n g, as a tenon can be

m a chined in four cuts, due tothe fact that the work is ve r t i c a land the cutter used can bel o n g. Some types of jointsrequire a simple add-on acces-s o ry or two, but these can beshop made inex p e n s i vely out ofMDF and a block or two ofwo o d .

The only main accessorythat Wo o d Rat sells separatelyis a mitre box that can be usedfor a va r i e ty of work includingsecret dove ta i l i n g. A l u m i n i u mGuide Rails which are espe-

cially useful for mass-producingtenons.

Of course, the Wo o d Rat isfamous fo r, and quite rightly so,for being able to produce justabout any type and practicals i ze of dove tail joint. Due to theway in which this type of jointis wo r ked the Wo o d Rat utilis-es a marking system whicha l l ows one half of the joint tobecome the template for theother half no guide bushes orf i xed fo l l owing finger templateaccessories need be purch a s e d

or used.As a consequence, thed ove tail joints may be spacedas you wish and cut in even thethinnest of wood pieces.

Regular TCT dove tail cutt e r sm ay be used, or you can usethe ones obtainable direct fromWo o d Rat. These are a fullrange of graded HSS dove ta i l sc u tters that enable finishedjoints that ve ry much match theappearance of hand cut ones.

Wo o d Rat has chosen high-speed steel for the cutters as it

a l l ows for ve ry slim and elegantd ove tail profiles to beproduced. The surprisingly longc u tters appropriately enablelong tails to be formed and thereally small ones can producetails that defy the casualo b s e rver to believe that theyare machine made.

On learning more about theWo o d Rat, what became clearto me was that the range andscope of the jointing work itcan ach i eve is mainly depen-dant upon the imagination ofthe user and his/her timberb u d g e t !

U n l i ke any other mach i n e ,m e chanical aid or system, theWo o d Rat promotes, and in fa c tp e r forms, tried and testedwo o d working practises.C r a ftsmen of ye s t e ryear haved eveloped certain specific waysof jointing wood, as this wa s

the best way for the stru c tu r eof the wood and the constru c-tion of the item, or piece off u r n i ture, itself.

The Wo o d Rat enables thewo o d wo r ker to produce theproject with the best timehonoured methods and not tom a ke compromises due tohis/her lack of skill or the short-comings of regular mech a n i c a ljointing machines, jigs, sys t e m sand aids.

The potential for the profe s-sional wo o d wo r ke r, such as the

f u r n i ture designer/make r, isincredible. For ex a c t i n gc o n s t ructional methods can bec a rried out to match theaccuracy and delicacy of hand-tooled work, but in a fraction ofthe time. Fully mastering theWo o d Rat will ta ke quite awhile, but there is no questionthat this will be time ve ry we l ls p e n t .

At the beginning of this arti-cle, I discussed the diff i c u l ty ofdetermining exactly what theWo o d Rat is. A fter finding out

more about it, I would simplys ay its a wo o d working tool and a darn good one at that!