Ready to rout

[Keith Hankins]

Pretty dang cool tool

http://shop.nextwaveautomation.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=87

[Myk Rian]

I suppose it's OK if you have that kind of money to throw around. No different from a cnc.

[John Sanford]

Simpler than a CNC, not as versatile, and much less expensive.

[Edward Oleen]

Why????? I enjoy woodworking because I enjoy handling the tools and the wood. Any more mechanization of the craft/hobby and we all might as well give up and buy the junk from the big-box store.

I could see it if we were all running production lines, but for the one-off stuff that we'all do? No way!!!

And if I were running a production line... I damn well would be using P-E-O-P-L-E, not a bunch of automated machinery and a few numb-skull machine tenders; the machines and handlers take no pride in their work. The machines won't be buying any product, and the numb-skulls wouldn't be able to afford it.

And lots of good ideas come from P-E-O-P-L-E - not machines and not numb-skulls. Those ideas can make money for a company - as long as it is shared with the crew.

Ah to 7734 with it.

[Wade Lippman]

Its nothing more or less than a clunky but versatile jig. Looks like more trouble than its worth, but interesting.

[Brian W Smith]

Watching the vid,the first thing that popped into my pea brain was...........dang,that table sure is shakey?So to pursue that,fix/manage the "basics",in this case a solid platform...before moving twds more technology.There are ways or methods of work,if ones goal is to max out the accuracy of a machine....that don't need to be,"plugged in".Learning these will build in the necessary foundations and make your life easier once stepping up to more sophistication.Just an opinion.

[Charles Bender]

It is pretty cool. I used it for a few months in the PWM shop before I wrote a review for the magazine. They just came out with the Ready 2 Lift that goes along with the Ready 2 Rout making a complete system. I'm pretty heavily into hand tools, but the complete system is fairly reasonably priced for what it is and what it can do. It puts some basic CNC technology within the grasp of the single person shop. While I'm not into routing my through and half-blind dovetails, there are those out there that don't mind making the joints that way. What I like best about the whole system is the accurate repeatability of just about any process. You can set it to run a 3/4" groove 2" from the edge of a board at 31/64" deep and come back days later (after you've torn down the setup) and remake the exact same groove in the exact same place at the exact same depth...just in case you screwed up the first and needed to make the part again. There's lots of other standard uses for it and, with a little creativity, I'm sure there are things that can be done with it that no one else has thought possible.

[Bill White]

Made my head hurt.
Now I've gotta throw all my hand tools in the trash.
Just think of all the old and great hand tools that will be replaced by a 'bot.
BTW< it ain't gonna happen in my shop, but it is pretty cool to see all the new production stuff that's available.
Bill

[Charles Bender]

I'm right there with you Bill. It's not for everybody, but then neither is working entirely with hand tools. Different strokes...

[Jim German]

Looks pretty awesome to me... sept for the price tag. Build quality and such doesn't seem so hot either. But the concept is fantastic.