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In the past two years, I have enjoyed setting up and using the
WoodRat and the LittleRat machines. There are 50 pages on this website already — so
what more can be said? Lots. Most of the pages are as applicable as the day they were
posted, but, as with any active product, there have been some changes made, improvements,
new accessories and instructions. And most importantly for me and all my American fellow
woodworkers, WoodRat has setup a truly great US dealer that demonstrates the machines at
many woodworking shows and has a super website. What's more, you can order every WoodRat
item from their Ohio warehouse and not have to pay for the import fees and international
shipping. They keep a very good inventory. All important considerations.
The photo at left shows Martin Godfrey (left), WoodRat inventor, and at right,
Lewis Stepp, director of The Craftsman Gallery, the new US dealer for WoodRat. This shot
was taken at the Nashville Show in 2002.
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May I introduce Andrea, a friend of my wife's and
mine. She had wanted to learn bandsaw box art, but I convinced her to help me in the shop
and learn a number of things, starting with the WoodRat. We will do some bandsaw boxes
when we get further along with our "to do list." Andrea has no woodworking
background but promises to be a quick study.
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We will install the WoodRat
and then start a project making use of some of it capabilities. If you want to "read
ahead", I invite you to visit the WoodRat/LittleRat Product Menu click
here.
We will be adding to
this menu as Andrea and I do more of these WoodRat projects.
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This is the final project that I did last time I used the WoodRat, I
think I called it an Apothecary Chest. It was my way of making a chest using the
variability of the WoodRat dovetails. Actually, I think I was using the LittleRat, but
either machine would be able to do the same.
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This
time, Andrea and I will make a similar type chest, but I am going to call it a "Tansu
Stepped Chest" styled after a Tansu Stepped Chest that I "borrowed" from a
Tansu book. The picture at left is what I want to do, but the plasma flat screen TVs are
so expensive I may have to change the scale slightly to house my current 27"
regular TV.
I really like the Tansu style.
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Andrea is
looking over my early sketches and notes. Here are some of the differences. The outside
"skin" will be of spalted maple and we will miter fold the corners so that the
"wrap" will have a continuous grain pattern. The drawer fronts will be from a
resawn piece of Brazilian Rosewood. We will keep the pieces in order so that it will be
matched fronts in the final. Lastly, the drawer sides will be 1/2" wide resawn
cypress that will actually be resawn from wide glued up stock
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We had better get back on track. We can't do any of
that until we get the WoodRat up and running. Andrea reads over the first steps of
assembling the unit.
The Manual for the WoodRat is now a published book with everything from
installation to cutting each and every joint.
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To mount
the WoodRat, we have to make a mounting board. As in the past, I make it from ripped
pieces of 3/4 plywood. I show Andrea how to change blades on the table saw. She has
removed the CMT ripping blade and is installing the CMT cabinetmakers blade.
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She
clamps the GripTite auxiliary fence in position.
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She
adjusts the fence to rip 5" wide pieces.
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