gulldurnit - now I've got a varmint too

[Doug Shepard]

At first I though this was the common Allegheny Woodrat (Neotoma magister).
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But closer inspection reveals this to be an English Woodrat (Megabujjit Rex).
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Fortunately Gidget knows just how to handle such critters.
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Much thanks to the premier Rodentologist Dave Richards for help in identifying the varmint.:D

[Eric Mims]

just wondering if yours is the new style, with the extra t-slots. I don't even know if they have them over here yet or not.

[Jim Becker]

Well...if ya gotta find a rat in your shop, that's certainly the right species! Congrats!

[Doug Shepard]

just wondering if yours is the new style, with the extra t-slots. I don't even know if they have them over here yet or not.

I dunno. Since I dont know what the older style looks like, I wouldn't know which one I've got. If I take some pics of the extrusion tomorrow would you be able to tell?

[Kevin Scott]

Please post your impressions once you have a chance to play with the rat a little. I have been looking pretty seriously at them and would love to hear your thoughts. Regards.

[Doug Shepard]

Please post your impressions once you have a chance to play with the rat a little. I have been looking pretty seriously at them and would love to hear your thoughts. Regards.

Will do, but unfortunately that's going to take a while. Much as I'd like to start playing with it, I'm going to resist temptation and leave it in the box for a couple months. I've got to finish up a cyclone DC instalation before I start a new project. The shop has been in winter hibernation but it's starting to warm up enough to work on the DC again. I mainly went ahead and bought it now to avoid a slight price increase that kicks in at the end of the month. I'll be sure to post pics and comments as soon as I start using it though.

[Frank Martin]

Please post your impressions once you have a chance to play with the rat a little. I have been looking pretty seriously at them and would love to hear your thoughts. Regards.

Kevin,
I bought one couple years ago and have been very pleased with it. I have done dovetails, box joints, mortise/tenon, floating tenon joinery, and other odd shaping. It has worked very well for me. People say it has a steep learning curve, but my experience has been otherwise.

[Frank Martin]

Doug,

You are in for a treat with the Woodrat, enjoy it. I certainly consider it one of my best woodworking related purchases.

One note of caution when doing dovetails, the manual would tell you (at least my version did) to cut the tails with the rails in the base plate installed and then cut the pins with the spirals (adjusted for proper angle). In my case it resulted in offset at the corners. I solved the problem cutting both tails and pins using spirals. Only difference is when cutting the tails make sure the spirals are set for 90 degree angle simulating the use of rails on the baseplate. This way the joint will come out perfectly flush on the edges.

Let me know if it is not clear.
Again, enjoy it.


At first I though this was the common Allegheny Woodrat (Neotoma magister).
59826

But closer inspection reveals this to be an English Woodrat (Bigbuckicus spendicus).
59828

Fortunately Gidget knows just how to handle such critters.
59829


Much thanks to the premier Rodentologist Dave Richards for help in identifying the varmint.:D

[Corey Hallagan]

Congrats Doug! That's a great piece of equipment!

Corey

[Doug Shepard]

Frank
Thanks. Initially at least I wont be doing any DT's with it. What drove me to buy it was for putting spline slots in angled profile pieces although I'm sure it's going to get used for a lot of other things (DT's included) too. I struggled with making jigs to accomplish what I want to do but that approach was going to need a separate jig for every angle and profile I want to do and was just going to eat up way too much time. Here's where I left off last summer before starting my DC install
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showpost.php?p=406630&postcount=3

The Woodrat looks like it's going to really make this easy although I'll need to make a mod to it that will let me go at angles to the extrusion rather than just fore/aft. Dave. R. gave me a lot of good ideas for doing this but thought I should just get it in my hands to see what it's going to take. I also got the MultiAngle clamping jig for it that will take care of the miter angles on the ends of the profiles. Cant wait to get back on track with that project and other similar ones.

[Eric Mims]

Here's an article on the new extruded channel. Like I said, they may not even be out yet. http://aldel.co.uk/Reviews10.htm

[Doug Shepard]

Eric
Thanks for the link. I think I must have the older style. Mine has what look to be some mini T-slots but I dont think it's the same as the one in the pics on your link.
Here's a pic of mine - Old Style right ?
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[Doug Shepard]

Oops - I didn't originally notice the side by side shot of the old vs new on your link. I think I do have the new style.

[Eric Mims]

yes you do have the new style. The old style that I have is a little 'beefier' but only has one t-slot on the underside. If you have a good square, could you tell me whether the face is square..as in, if the top strip of the front face and the bottom strip of front face are in plane. On mine, the top strip actually angles in slightly which causes occasional problems with small pieces.
Because if I hold a piece to the fence that isn't long enough to rest on the full face, then it angles in slightly (about 1 degree).

[Doug Shepard]

Geez. Ya expect a Woodrat newbie to know a front face from a back face already?:D I'll see what I can figure out and put an engineers square up against it.

[Doug Shepard]

Eric
It looks like mine is square. I initially though maybe mine was a bit off too, but that was caused by my Engr. square rocking into the very shallow dished out area on the top. Not sure why it's made that way, but on the top surface, the front and back edges are co-planar but there's a very shallow dishout in between. Once I grabbed a longer square to rest on both edges, the front face checked out fine.

Incidently, I dont often get American Woodworker mag anymore, but picked one up this morning while grocery shopping. They've got a nice review there on the WR by George Vondriska. Nothing new or earth-shattering but it's pretty complete for anyone else thinking of getting a rodent.

[Eric Mims]

Thanks for checking Doug. The old style didn't have that top indention, but the tops all seemed to crown a bit, so shimming the router plate was common with them to get them square to face. Problem on mine is whether to make the router plate square to the top front face or the bottom front face since they aren't coplaner.. I've been sent a replacement, but it is old style too and exhibits same distortion, albeit a little better.

I used it yesterday to rout a rabbet for a picture frame.. the brush 'feather board' setup works great. You're gonna love it!