Router Boss

Dave Richards

Member
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Location
SE Minnesota
Anyone paying attention to this besides me? Just announced, the WoodRat is going to have some competition. It looks very interesting to me and I can't wait to see it. I am glad I have my WoodRat but I might be swayed to go to the Router Boss when it comes out.

Check out this link.

By the way, I hadn't looked in on the Creek for awhile but I did a few minutes ago. Don't pay attention to the posts there about it. Both posters (as of this writing) posted incorrect information. It is not an upgrade of the WoodRat and it is not being made by WoodRat. I don't participate there anymore or I would correct them. ;)
 
Well this certainly is interesting. Just got done doing a brief look-see and reading thru the thread on the Woodrat forum and looking at the Aldel site. I missed the SMC thread so I'm glad you posted this. You might recall I had a strong desire to figure out a way to modify the Rat to cut diagonally. The Boss has it built-in though at only 30 degree swing each way, I'm not sure it gets me what I was after. Seems like they should have kept going with the design until you could get 45 each way.
Heard anything regarding someone else taking over selling the Rat in the US or what prompted the split (amicable or otherwise?)?
 
Doug, I don't know the details and probably shouldn't repeat the hearsay. I don't know who is going to be selling the Rat. I think Lewis is selling off what he has left of WoodRat accessories at a discount.

There is a fellow who made a new base plate for his WoodRat that allows it to swivel to an angle. I think aldel has it on his site. I have the CAD drawings--was going to do SketchUp drawings of it. If you are interested I can either send the CAD files or finish up the SU drawings.

FWIW, the information on the Boss is not based on production. It might be that things will change and the angle might be increased. I don't know that of course but who knows. It might happen.
 
Dave
I just looked around the Aldel site and couldn't spot anything. Do you know where it's located there? If it's Mod5, that wont work for me. I picked up the multi-angle clamping jig from CG to take care of that angle, but wanted a diagonal router travel as well. If it's an actual swiveling plate mod, I'd love an SU file if you have the time.
 
Who knows? I certainly wouldn't be dumping my Rat right now. I'll have to wait to see the Boss. Besides, right now I need to start saving my shekels again to restock the coffers. A Festool RO150EQ with a CT22 really bites into the shop fund. :D
 
...
Heard anything regarding someone else taking over selling the Rat in the US ...

Just noticed this yesterday on Woodrat's site when you click the USA flag:
We're pleased to announce that Bob Baker has joined us to spearhead the marketing and distribution in North America. Located in Des Moines, Iowa, Bob has 14 years experience in all aspects of the woodworking market. Most recently he was the operations director for the Woodsmith Store. Bob has considerable woodworking experience so whether you're an amateur or pro he can help answer any questions you may have about the WoodRat.

As well as being a mail order service, we are building a network of dealers across the States. So ask to see WoodRat in your favorite woodworking store.
If you are a retailer and need dealer information or customer ready to place an order, contact Bob now:


http://www.woodrat.com/usa.html
 
Yeah, that happened a while ago. Don't know if anything ever materialized from that. I've never run into anyone who has actually dealt with the guy when buying a WoodRat. Perhaps he's selling them but I wonder.

It seems that WoodRat in the UK has some problems right now. Hopefully they can get them sorted out and continue in business.

I haven't heard of any retailers in the US stocking the Rat. Lee Valley is (was) in at least some of their Canadian stores. I got the impression from one of our Canadian members, maybe Frank, that he'd seen a demo of it in a Lee Valley store. From what he said, it was clear the person demonstrating it either wasn't familiar enough with the machine or maybe wanted to sell Leigh dovetail jigs instead because the demonstration wasn't positive.

I think it is unfortunate that the WoodRat hasn't done better in this country. The machine has so much capability as you know. For me it is the go to machine in my shop for all sorts of jobs. So much so that most of the time my router table is stacked up with stuff. I think right now there's a stack of woodworking magazines on the RT because I was sorting them for storage.

I look forward to the introduction of the Router Boss and I hope it'll do better than the Rat in the US. The basic premise of both machines make so much sense but for many of those who've not seen one in person, they can be difficult to convince.
 
The Router Boss is shipping now. I haven't got mine yet but early reports are good.

I look forward to seeing your report Dave; I nearly bought a WR last year but time ran out and of course this year Craftsman Gallery stopped selling them. The chief attraction - to me - of the RB is the record of support that craftsman built up, along with all the useful looking extras they developed. If the same though has gone into the RB it should be very useful.
 
HI Frank, welcome to the forum.

Alan sent me your review to review. Very good. We're working on the instruction manual to make improvements. I still have a bit of drawing to do for it and would like to communicate with you directly about that.

Dave
 
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Thought I'd bring this back up to the top.

The Router Boss looks pretty good from my viewpoint. Mine should be here later this week. I spent today building a mount for it from oak. Got as far as staining it. At least I actually got to do some woodworking.

Review coming.
 
Router Boss Update

Well, I've had my Router Boss for a few weeks now but with the holidays and all I haven't had much time to work with it and I haven't gotten very many photos taken.

Here's a picture of the machine mounted on the new wall mount. I'm in the process of assembling it at this point.

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And here's a shot of the first dovetail joint. It was a test joint so the wood isn't very pretty. I colored the ends of the pins so they are easier to see. Evidently I hadn't cut the end of the tailboard square. Still, the joint is properly aligned. There's no joggle between the edges of the two pieces and no gaps. I used a 3/8", 8° HSS dovetail bit from The Craftsman Gallery for this. (You can use absolutely any dovetail router bit you want because there's no template to follow unlike every dovetail jig out there.) The stock is 3/4" thick.

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No photos yet but the Mortise Rail is a great accessory for the Router Boss. It allows the you to hold the work horizontally for cutting things like mortises (no kidding) in stiles. There's a hole in the rail to allow the rail to be clamped up for cutting the tenon with essentially the same set up. You can use the same plunge depth setting for both mortise and tenon and use a simple stop set up to locate the router for both sides of the joint. Since the tenon is made using a climb cut, there's no breakout along the shoulder.

Since I don't have photos of that, here's a couple of sketches.

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If you're thinking about getting a Router Boss, I can highly recommend the X-axis digital scale. Very handy. I would also suggest that you order the machine with it installed.
 
A few more photos.

First, that skinny dovetail bit.

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The Boss set up to cut dovetail pins.

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The lighted router plate makes it easier to see what you're doing. Sorry for the camera movement. I shut the flash off so you can see the LED light.

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And with the crosshair turned on.

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Greetings all. I thought I'd make an early report on on the Multi-angle Work Holder which showed up on my door step at about 5 pm yesterday.

I got it assembled in short order today and mounted it on the Boss. This is a nice accessory and I think well worth its cost.

Assembly is straightforward but there are a couple of details to watch for. The bushings for the pivot pin are a hard press fit into the holes in the aluminum front plate. I used a bar clamp to drive them in one at a time because I tend to wreck things when I get a hammer in my hand.

The box is intended to be mounted between the fixed and moving fence and hang on a couple of yellow pins. I would glue some sandpaper to the ends of the box to make it more secure in the clamps. As an option, you can drill some additional holes in the back to align with one of the T-slots in the sliding bar and use the T-bolt, neoprene washer and knob for added security. The instructions show the locations for these holes for the Router Boss.

The holes on the aluminum plate allow for the insertion of pins to set the work at various angles similarly to Power Feed Work Holder.

The clamp is a beautiful piece of engineering. I've been thinking about building a work bench for my shop and I've decided I'm going to add a row of 1/2" dog holes between the 3/4" ones so I can use this clamp as a hold down, too.

Here's a few pictures of the thing on the Router Boss. I haven't had time to cut anything with it yet. When I do I'll report.

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I had missed your pictures from January 2009. Looks like a slick rig. I couldn't use one in my current shop due to having zero wall space, but I can see it'd be a handy tool to have in the arsenal.
 
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