Router Boss

[Weekend_Woodworker]

I was reading Steve Maskery's thread about horizontal drilling and noticed Custard's comment about a Router Boss, so looked up to see what one was. I was intrigued because despite investing in a Festool OF1400 which is a very nice router (and so it should be for the money) I struggle sometimes as to how do I hold smallish bits of wood and how do I start and stop cuts accurately. I have found myself making some jigs, but they are not the best. The idea of having the degree of accuracy a Router Boss seems to offer without the need for lots of jigs sounds great.

Does anyone know if it is possible to purchase a Router Boss in this country (the UK) or do you need to import them from the US. I saw some reference to Peter Sefton and Woodworkers Workshop, but couldn't find them on his website.

I was also interested in the routers it will work with. It seems to be set up for a Dewalt 625, but having invested in a Festool OF1400 I would like to be able to use that, but don't know if it would fit or work with a plunge bar.

Any thoughts from those more knowledgeable would be gratefully received.

 

[Alf]

*goes for a quick look at the Router Boss*

Urm, certain I'm missing something, but is that not a WoodRat with a 'Murican accent? :eusa-think:

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

Yerr Alf, but wiv 'better'(?) bits cobbled in like.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Alf, Yes I think it is very similar to a Woodrat, but understand the digital readout gives it much greater repeatability. Is there a better way of controlling a router to get repeatable and accurate cuts on small(ish) bits of wood?

 

[Steve Maskery]

The bloke you need to talk to is DaveR. He knows all things Router Boss as he did all the illustrations for it. Yes it is the Woodrat, but on steroids. All the annoying things about the WR have been ironed out. Or, at least, that is what I understand (I've never used either one myself).
Why not give him a shout, he is very approachable.

 

[Woodbloke]

Some folks like the Woodrat, some don't. I've worked in two pro shops and each had a 'rat' on a wall which were only every good for gathering copious amounts of dust; ergo they were never, ever used. I've not used one and never seen the need to use one, but other users swear by them. C'est la guerre :eusa-whistle: - Rob

 

[Alf]

The WoodRat's a funny rodent - as I understand it the idea was to take out the need for scales and wotnot, so you were effectively working from pencil lines and the work itself, much as you'd (traditionally) do with handtools. But of course it involves electrickery, and the Normite tendency is to measure everything to nought point on every scale available. Thus some people click with it, and some really don't, and even if you do it can take time for the potential to really dawn on you. There used to be lots of clever ideas and add-ons knocking about generated by users to provide all the numerical measurement you could want but I suppose, at the price point, it's fair enough to want the thing equipped with such things from the outset.

Mine also gathers dust (as does everything just now) but over my slightly productive years it just about kept earning its board and lodging for being able to do things that other methods really couldn't, particularly, as you say, with small pieces where otherwise things can get dangerous PDQ. Besides, I have a fondness for it as the WoodRat Yahoo Club was effectively the beginning of fora for UK woodworkers.

 

[MJ80]

I had a Woodrat for about a month before I got rid of it and bought a Leigh. It is a nice idea but just has too many floors and wasn't really up for proper all day production. My main gripe was with the measuring system as you get horriffic parallax error depending on how you look at the scale. The American one has a proper dependable scale that would mae a difference and the positingins system looks a lot better. I seem to remember the backlash on it was irritating. Plus the tiny dovetail bits, while nice were very very fragile.

 

[Dave R]

Steve alerted me to this thread so I'll chime in a little.

First to the OP's question, I understand that you can purchase the Router Boss in UK. I'm sure it can be shipped from the US but I recall there is/was a UK distributor. If you want I'll see if I can find out who that is although I expect you could use the Contact page on the chipsfly.com site, too.

I will say that while at first glance it looks a little like the WoodRat, there are many differences. I had a WoodRat but switched to the RB when it came out and I've been happy I did.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Steve alerted me to this thread so I'll chime in a little.

First to the OP's question, I understand that you can purchase the Router Boss in UK. I'm sure it can be shipped from the US but I recall there is/was a UK distributor. If you want I'll see if I can find out who that is although I expect you could use the Contact page on the chipsfly.com site, too.

I will say that while at first glance it looks a little like the WoodRat, there are many differences. I had a WoodRat but switched to the RB when it came out and I've been happy I did.

Thanks Dave. I will contact chipsfly to ask about a UK dealer. What sort of a router do you use in yours? Do you know how well it works with routers other than the Dewalt 625? Would it still work well without the plunge assist bar as I don’t think they will work with my Festool OF1400? Many thanks. Mark

 

[Dave R]

Hi Mark,

I have a DW625 on my Router Boss. That router, or the ELU equivalent if you could find one, just has the perfect geometry for the Plunge Assist mechanism. They do offer a "Universal" Plunge Assist option. You can see how it sets up compared to the DW-625 version here. As for using it on the OF1400, I don't know. It might work fine. I bought the DW-625 way back when I got the WoodRat so I just moved the router over to the Boss when it arrived. I think it's best if you can dedicate a router to the machine so you don't have to mount it every time you want to do something with the RB. I've collected three other routers over the years. One is set up for the router table but it rarely gets used. (I have a handheld oscillating spindle sander that occupies the router table much more that the router does.) And I have a trim router and another router for hand held uses.

After half a pot of coffee I thought I'd add the following:

I have all of Steve's DVDs and am thoroughly impressed with the various jigs he has come up with. Sometimes I think I should build some of his router jigs but then reason creeps in and I remember I can do that with the Router Boss. Smallish, crowded shop--not much room for a bunch of jigs. That said, the Router Boss isn't much as a horizontal boring machine.

For those who are only after something for doing dovetails, there are probably better options. The place where both the Rat and the RB shine is the flexibility and their relative compactness. My RB doesn't require bench space. It's always ready for use mounted on the wall. Not only will it do dovetails (through, half- and full-blind) with absolutely any dovetail router bit you can buy (which can't be said for the dedicate dovetail jigs) but also sliding dovetails, mortises, tenons, grooves, dadoes, box joints, edge profiling, panel raising, dowel making...

One of the things I see frequently in the various woodworking forums is users trying to figure out why the dovetails cut on their Leigh Jig or the comb template jigs aren't correct. They are not intuitive to set up and often you'll see the advice to keep the manual out when using those jigs. The Router Boss is very intuitive and I think much easier to set up. I don't need to pull out the user manual when I want to cut dovetails or do anything else with the RB.

MJ80 made a comment about switching from Rat to Leigh Jig for dovetails for production dovetails. For anyone who needs to do production type work, I wouldn't recommend either the Rat or the RB but I would also suggest that for production work maybe it's worth considering something other than dovetails. In this day and age with amazingly strong adhesives, it seems to me for a production shop, there are faster and less fussy joinery methods available. Also, IMO, dovetails cut with the common TCT router bits are fat and not pleasant to look at. The HSS dovetail cutters available for both the RB and Rat a slender and, for machine cut DTs much nicer to look at.

As for the tiniest dovetail cutters being too delicate for production, I would agree 100% however I think you would be hard pressed to find more robust dovetail cutters of that size.

More blather than anyone needs. Sorry about that.

 

[Custard]

If you want to take a look at a Router Boss you're welcome to drop by my workshop (on the south coast midway between Southampton and Bournemouth). I'll be happy to show it in operation but I'm no expert, for example I never use it for dovetailing or 90 degree mortice and tenons. I do however find it very useful for joinery at compound angles, so the type of thing that's common in chairmaking for example. Normally this would require a dedicated jig, but the great thing about the Router Boss is you can do repeat compound angled cuts with either no jig or just a couple of very small and easily stored angle setting templates.

Someone mentioned using it with the DeWalt 625 router, yes that's the machine I also use and I agree it's a pretty good combination.

However, I never like to sound like a fanboy when it comes to tools or machinery, so I should point out that the laser device on the Router Boss is no where near accurate enough for quality work and dust extraction (which is supposed to be one of the major advantages over the Woodrat) isn't all that great.

 

[Dave R]

I would agree with Custard regarding the laser but then again, I've never seen a laser on any woodworking machine that I would consider accurate enough for quality work. There are other ways of managing that on the Router Boss, though.

As for dust collection, I find it better on the Router Boss than on my router table, especially if I use both the front and read collection ports at the same time. I find with the HSS cutters, because they are so much sharper than carbide cutters can be, though, I get small curls instead of dust and the curls are heavy enough that those not caught by the dust collection just fall to the floor where they are easily swept up.