Router Boss

Nice!!!

Cheers,

-- Matthew Weatherly

Dave, once I saw your SU post on here I knew you you were the same guy on the chipsfly forum. I’ve got my RB set up and have been using it with some very good success. Have you received your mortise rail yet? I think mine is supposed to be here this next week.

-- Let's make some firewood!

Thanks Matthew.

Boyneskibum, yes, I have my mortise rail. It’s definitely a good thing. Glad to hear you’ve been having success.

Dave

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

nice set up! Next time could you use some more detailed sketches? lol That’s some nice sketch up work.

Thanks. I’ll work on it. I do have some more detailed drawings of the new version of the Mortise Table. I got the new real one the other day. It’s an excellent addition to the Router Boss.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

very interesting

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

I just bought a Router Boss and have it mostly set up. I can’t wait to use it. Do you guys have any tips before I make my first attempt? All i have left to do is attaching my Bosch Router to the plate. I’m waiting for the transition plate so it’s not permanently attached to the RBoss.

Really COOL looking Jig. To be honest I’ve never heard of them. What do they cost? When I went to their site the price is not posted?

Ted, congratulations! I think you’ll really like it. As to tips I would suggest the following quick ones. check to make sure the sliding bar moves freely with the crank but with no sloppiness or rattle. Don’t over tighten the cable. Watch the videos on the Craftsman Gallery site. Frank Mutchler has done a very nice job showing how to do various operations. Make sure the zero point on the small scales on the base plate are aligned with the front of the machine. If those are set accurately, your dovetail pins will come out sized correctly the first time. I created an Excel-based calculator that will give you the proper settings for cutting pins based on your combination of router bits.

David, the prices are listed on this page. Here’s a screen shot of them.

By the way, the drawings above show the original Mortise Table. The new one is much nicer. You can see it at the site under Accessories.

Cheers,

Dave

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Dave
I just ordered the mortise table last week and it should be here in a couple of days. I can’t wait to become an expert on this awesome tool. I’ve performed a few dovetail test runs (no pins yet) on some 1/4 inch mdf just for fun and it worked great. I noticed in Frank’s video that he suffered from some breakout and was wondering if you use a sacrificial piece to prevent this?

Ted

BTW – thanks for the tips Dave. I’m going to make some drawers this weekend using the boss and my new Sawstop table saw. I can’t wait. :)

Ted, that’s great. You’re going to like the Mortise Table.

As to the break out thing, you can clamp in a sacrificial piece if you want. I really haven’t had much trouble with that but I suppose it depends upon the wood and the sharpness of the bits. I’ve heard that some folks. when cutting the sockets, will pull the router ahead, plunge down push the bit back into the wood a little to start the sockets from the front. Then cut them as normal from the back. Remember the back side when the stock is clamped up is the outside.

Are you going to be using real wood for your drawers? If so, I would use a different bit than the one you used on the MDF.

Good luck. I look forward to seeing your drawer boxes.

Dave

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

I’m sure there’s an interesting story to tell of the relationship between the guy in the UK doing the Woodrat, and the guys doing the Router Boss who i gather were orginally his distributor. It’s a hard old business….

-- Late awakener....

Dave,
I was going to go with some inexpensive wood like Poplar for starters. I’m building a cabinet with drawers for the garage so it doesn’t have to be too fancy. I have my Router Boss mounted on the wall so the space below the RBoss is perfect for a couple of rolling cabinets and a rolling workbench for when i’m not using the RBoss. I’m using the bits that I purchased with the Router Boss. I think it’s the same bit you show in your post above (a set of 5).

Ted

ondablade, the story isn’t all that interesting. Let’s just say that Lewis, after years of using and selling the Rat, had some ideas about how to do a few things differently and, in my opinion better. When the US patents related to parts of the WoodRat expired, he used the opportunity to introduce a new machine.

The release of the Router Boss has garner interesting responses from some WoodRat owners. They call “foul” because they see the Router Boss as a copy of the WoodRat. While the machines share ideas about how the work is held and the router is controlled, the ROuter Boss is not a copy. Curiously, I’ve never heard anyone make the same comments about other tools. I’ve never heard anyone cry out against Jet or Grizzly for copying the Rockwell/Delta 14” bandsaw nor LV or LN for copying Stanley’s handplanes. the list of examples could go on forever.

Ted, rolling cabinets below your RB sound like a great idea. I’ve thought about doing something similar with the idea that one would hold accessories for the RB and provide a handy surface for laying out parts or whatever while working with the Boss.

Those HSS dovetail bits are sweet, aren’t they?

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

Thanks Dave, i wasn’t being critical or anything. I guess in truth too there’s not that much about the WR that uses unique principles anyway. I suppose it’s just that it had the field to itself for so long, whereas most types of woodworking machine have been around that formats are almost generic…

ian

-- Late awakener....

I’ll second that Dave,,, I nearly bought the WoodRat until a blog took me to chipsfly.com and it was Pencil markings vs DRO that sold me on the Router Boss. There are quite a few differences between the two but this is what truly sold me.

Yes Dave,, that’s exactly what I’m building ~ a rolling cabinet with drawers and a roll-away shelf with a tray on top for holding tools and accessories while i’m working on projects.

and yes the dovetail bits are SAW-WEET.

Ian, I didn’t think you were being critical. I was just commenting on what I’ve heard/seen.

Ted, The pencil marks are actually very usable for many things. You might find that you’ll use them with the story boards that were included with the ROuter Boss. On the last DT joints I did, I used a cursor and analog scale because I thought my DRO battery was dead. The joints turned out perfectly and it was just a dirty battery contact on the DRO.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

That’s good to know that there are options to cut perfect dove tails.

Dave,
How do standard straight bits perform for cutting the pins? Is there a big difference between them versus the spiral bits?

Ted

Ted, the HSS straight bits that I have are so sharp they make shaving instead of dust. I usually use a spiral bit though when cutting pins unless I’m doing something really special. Unless the spiral bit is really dull, they cut work fine. Of course the spiral upcut bits pull the chips up or at least they’re supposed to so you want to use one of them for trenching cuts.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

hello Dave,
If I want to plunge route a dado slot on the drawer sides and front and back pieces for the drawer bottom is the mortisse table the best bet? What is your recommendation for successfully doing this? I started to use the router boss for this along with the mortisse table but the piece sits below the mortisse rail since the piece is only 3/4 inch thick.

thanks,
Ted

Hi Ted,

I guess I would use the Mortise Table for that. Mount it so it is as high as you can get it and, if it is in there, remove the riser plate. Pull the router out to the right position and lock it in place. Set the plunge depth and go at it. The bit will be fairly close to the spine of the Mortise Table if the work is pressed up against it but it won’t hit the spine if the router is locked in place with a knob. If you’d feel more comfortable doing so, you could put a piece of scrap between the spine and the work to space the work out away from the spine. Just make sure the edges on the scrap are parallel to each other.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

thanks Dave…. for my first set of drawers I setup the mortisse table to do this and it was a long reach to get to the work piece so I was left wondering if this was correct especially since it would be the mortisse “spine” that was hugged up against the router boss base plate. I did notice after posting my question to you that the online manual does have an example of this and shows exactly what I attempted. I guess I need one of those spiral bits to be able to reach the piece or build the piece up so it’s flush against the router boss base plate. I ended up using the router table to create my slots in the first set but will try what you mentioned above for my next set. BTW – the dovetails came out perfect. I had to do a few adjustments of the recommended numbers to get them perfect but I don’t think that’s uncommon ~ is that correct? example it says use 8degrees for the bits I chose but after cutting a test piece I found 7.5 degrees would close up the gap on I believe the top.

Hi Ted,

A short bit would give you a reach problem I guess. I forget that I have that longer chuck that Lewis sells on my router. This adds some useful reach to the router. It’s been on there long enough that I forget it’s an option.

The work doesn’t have to touch the underside of the base plate. It’s a handy reference for some things like when you are cutting dovetails but with the Mortise Table in place, the horizontal surface becomes the reference.

Certainly building up under the work is a good option, too. In some cases you might find that what you use to build up the height might also be helpful for holding the work down. One thought that occurred to me as I was typing is that you could use some flat head screws and fender washers to clamp down the work to a baseboard. Just put a scrap on the opposite side of the screw and make sure the metal isn’t in the path of the bit.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.

wow does that come with the light on the bottom of the router like that or is that from the jig itself?

-- Ike, Big Daddies Woodshop,www.icombadaniels@yahoo.com

Hello Ike, there are white LEDs and the red cross hair LEDs built into the clear router plate that comes with the Router Boss. Makes it easy to see in there.

-- Until you spread your wings, you'll have no idea how far you can walk.