Opening the box

Assembly is very simple and straight forward-a nice change from some of the jigs I have had to put together. The main body of the jig is an aluminium extrusion. It has an integral sliding rack, which comes pre-assembled and ready to go. You have to mount your router on the plate, which comes with a couple of holes pre-drilled. I had no problems fitting two of my routers with the supplied holes, although it is simple enough to drill the plate to suit your router.

Mounting the Rat for use.

The manual recommends that you mount the jig on a wall. That may sound weird, and at first I was not convinced. I built a holder out of ply that I could clamp to the bench to carry mine. But after using the 'Rat I could understand the reasoning behind it. Needless to say I then mounted it on the wall. All necessary info is given in the manual on how to do this, including built in dust extraction.

Using the Littlerat

So-what can you do with the Little rat? It is actually marketed as a "joinery machine" as opposed to a dovetail jig. I recommend watching the video/DVD. It is very entertaining (if a little homemade!!) and simply shows the concept behind the 'Rat and all the joints that can be cut with it. Pretty much everything! Work can be held in the built in clamp vertically or you can clamp work horizontally to the router plate. You can also feed work under the router to run profiles and cuts through longer work than can be held in the clamps.

Clamped to the router plate

The "Power Feed"

A secret weapon that the 'Rat features is the power feed function. The lever on the top left moves the front face face (including the clamp) left to right underneath the router. This allows you run pieces past the cutter "backwards", giving a very clean cut (normally on a router table this would through the piece out of your hands as you normally run against the rotation of the cutter. So no breakout occurs-very handy and safe too!

The power feed allows you to move the work piece wherever you need it-the router can also be "pulled" towards you, through the piece. This is how you cut dovetails, tenons, box joints, etc.

So the Littlerat gives you east-west, north-south and up-down (using plunge of the router), giving you a mini-milling machine!

Cutting Joints without Guide Bushes

The 'Rat doesn't use guide bushed like most other router jigs-marks are made on the face of the machine with a pencil and a marker aligned with this to ensure accurate cuts. This sounds pretty in-accurate but in use is ridiculously easy and very precise (for woodworking tolerances!) Describing this method is difficult to do convincingly, but once you see it done it hits you as genius! (I truly recommend you get a copy of the video/DVD from Woodrat to watch-it demonstates the principles behind its use and in a couple of minutes clearly shows what a 1000 words would still not describe!)

Needless to say, amazing results are there from the get-go. I cut beautiful tiny dovetails in a box after 5 minutes playing with the jig.

Conclusions

How do I rate the Littlerat? Is it worth the money? Is it any good?

The answer is a resounding "yes!" The concept behind it is brilliant and it works very well. The learning curve is remarkably shallow and you will be finding new ways to use it almost immediately. The manual shows different jigs and workholding methods you can build to enhance your 'Rat. Tenons, mortises, dovetails, grooves, box joints-these are the simple but necessary joints that the 'Rat excels at-but this is just the beginning. Pretty much any joint can be fully or part cut with the 'Rat (a little clean cup of corners with hand tools may be necessary due to the "round" nature of router bits). You can lay out the spacings of dovetails and joints anyhow you desire-limited only by cutter and stock size. Woodrat also manufacture the finest profile dovetail bits in existence-I fully recommend them!

I haven't gone into too much details on the actual cutting of joints-I am amazed by how simply the video puts across all necessary information, so if you are interested in the 'Rat buy the video/DVD first-it is only a few pounds (direct from www.woodrat.com). Also a first for a router jig-the dust extraction really works! I guess having the router the right way up helps, but using a couple of cheap poly fitting from B+Q allowed me to hook up my dust extractor for a flawless operation. It takes up little room in the workshop-hanging on the wall it is always ready for action too! Safety is very good-you can see the bit but your hands are safely out of the way, and the built in vise hold the work securely.

So the Littlerat is a great success-it is straightforward to use and the results are fantastic! If you make furniture this is the one for you.