[Tony B]

I was looking in the $500 range at both a Grizzly and a Jet. Both got pretty bad reviews.
Both of them had lousy reviews.
I currently make my mortises with a drill press and a cross-slide vise. That works out very well for me but thinking of a change.
Then I looked at the jury rigged versions and saw one for around $150 for the kit. This is the kind that is mounted on a drill press.
Does anyone here have any experience with these type of devices. I would like to know how well they work and how long to set up on a drill press and also remove.

 

[woodnthings]

No experience with a drill press mortiser, but I do own a Powermatic 701, the "best bench top mortiser" available.
I used it on the Mission Style Quilt track build in "my Photos" and found it was not the "smooth as butter" mortise cutter I had hoped it was.
The first hole required way more down pressure on the long, heavy duty arm than I was prepared for.
After the first hole, the adjacent holes took only half as much because they were 1/2 the distance over from the first.
I got discouraged and made a self-centering router jig for a plunge base router and that was a game changer!

 

[Rebelwork]

The only problem with the Jet was the hold down. Not sure if they repaired that problem.

We broke the handle on a Powermatic 701. Never found out how it ran in production, it was returne..

 

[BigCountry79]

The difference between a routed mortise and a plunge mortise machine is night and day.

I would recommend against getting one, and the drill press attachments are even worse.

Use a router all day and don't look back!

 

[Rebelwork]

I like the mortiser for depth. It won’t leave my shop..

Im old school, may make a difference..

 

[DrRobert]

Thought about building your own horizontal mortiser and going with floating tenons?

If you’d be interested in a floor mortiser and dont mind driving 12 hours let me know 😀

 

[Tony B]

12 hours is a long way off. But if I make it to Mississippi in the next few months, then Fl. is not that far away.

 

[Leo G]

I bought a Delta drill press 15 yrs ago and as a promotion it came with the mortising kit. It works very well. It's not quick. When I was working for others we had what we called the stomp and squeal. It was a full size mortiser but essentially the same thing.

The only thing you might need to be aware of is it puts a good deal of stress on the handles that move the spindle up and down.

It takes about 10-12 minutes to setup, not hard at all. I have 1/4", 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" bits and they all work well. I've never sharpened the "chisel" in any of them. I've broken one of the 1/4" bit and got a replacement from WoodCraft.

If you don't plan on using it a lot then it's a good thing to have. If you plan on using it a couple times a week for a good period of time get a dedicated machine.

 

[Olwoodguy]

I also had a delta. And as Leo wrote, good machine. I did a lot of square holes n clean them up with a chisel.

 

[LilMtnDave]

12 hours is a long way off. But if I make it to Mississippi in the next few months, then Fl. is not that far away.

I picked up both a new (to me) delta drill press to augment my little WEN this winter and later picked up the mortising kit (assume it to be the same one @Leo G talks about above). I also hit some negativity about it when discussing the possible purchase of the kit...but a couple youTube videos showing it in action and the price had me picking it up anyway. As soon as my pole barn commits to staying above 40F I will be giving it a try. (We just had 4 more inches of snow yesterday land it was 0F last night). When I was running dogs every day this would have been a blessed winter...when not..its just a long one. As I will be using it mainly in pine/douglas fir I am hoping it will be less "stress"ful.

 

[Tony B]

I definitely will look into the Delta. I dont mind tieing up my DP for the mortises because when I am at the 'mortise stage' in a project, I usually dont do anything else. Right now I will have to put that on hold because my HF Drill Press dept adjustment is not working and I would have to extend the DP all the way till it bottoms out. That is a bit far for typical mortise. I could figure out how to fix my DP and then be OK except I usually dont have time to experiment and dont want to buy a second one. That is why I started looking at a dedicated Mortise Machine. Not sure what I will do. Yesterday I did 24 mortises just for the chair back rests for 4 chairs. Three vertical strips going into 2 horizontal strips for a total of 4 chair backs.

 

[Rebelwork]

I think the prices on mortiser s have gone up since I bought mine. Think I payed $270 with three chisels ..

 

[woodnthings]

While some folks have OK results with a drill press mortising attachment, keep in mind the rack and pinion gears and track were NOT designed for the excessive force you need to force the chisel into the wood, unlike a dedicated mortise with a gear system roughly 2X the size and a handle 2X as long and 2X the diameter.
It may depend on the hardness of the wood you are using which determines how much force is required.
The router mortiser approach doesn't care what the wood is, and is much easier and faster in my experience.
There's no need to sharpen the router bits, just hone them occasionally.
However, the mortise chisels must be kept sharp on all 4 sides and the edges. And there's 4 or 5 sizes to keep sharp.
If shop space is at a premium, the router will take up far less space, and if you already own a plunge router, just make the jig at virtually zero cost.
I don't think I'll be getting rid of my dedicated bench Powermatic, but it has doubled in price since I bought mine "on sale" 10 years ago.
The one "advantage" I can think of in favor of the benchtop, is you don't have to chisel the ends of the mortises square to accept the square ended tenons.

 

[Terry Q]

I have a General International bench top mortiser and after making a bunk bed with over 100 mortises I switched over to doing mortises with routers and I now only use the mortiser when I need a deep mortise or have a large workpiece that would be more stable on the mortiser when working it.

One of the reasons people have bad experiences with a mortiser is the tendency to try plunging too deep on the first plunge, you need to plunge a little, move and plunge a little deeper and continue until you get to the end of the mortise, by then you should be near full depth. Then work your way back to the beginning.

 

[DrRobert]

Good points by WNT, except forget about squaring a mortise. Round it over or do floating tenons.

@Tony B So you’ve got them done? How many more chairs? I wouldn’t use a drill press for a couple reasons. First, forces on quill, second power, third I’m betting a donut the table flexes on that HF. I guess that’s three 😁. That said, you’ve done 24 with a DP, right? How accurate are they?

I’ve never used one, from what I’ve seen benchtop mortisers can do the job, you just have to work within the limitations. Being one if those infrequently used machines they can be picked up at a reasonable price. An XY table is a big plus. I was going to buy a Rikon at Woodcraft and the night before I saw the ad for a PM floor mortiser. I ran down there that night and bought it.

Seems to me a router and floating tenons would be a better option than a drill press. Might take a little longer but the cuts are so clean and accurate.

Any thoughts on building the horizontal? Not enough room?

 

[Tony B]

@ Dr Robert
All the parts are cut to finish size and all the mortise and tenons are done. Next step is gluing.
BTW, I saw somewhere on here you posted some photos of your chairs. Mine are the exact same by pure chance. In reality, there ain't a whole lot of different designs one cant think of for wooden chairs.
This has been my 1 week job that has been extended for several months. All of a sudden, my GF and her sis are constantly seeing doctors and specialists and I am the designated driver. Been screwing up my shop time but I really have to help. Then for several weeks we have been plagued with fog all night and into the late morning hours. My shop is a steel building with no heat or AC. Just what mother nature provides. The last several weeks, what little time I have in the shop, I have bringing home the parts every night.
Everyone keeps talking about tools on Craigslist and Facebook. I never see them in my area. Everything in my shop is new.
I have always made my mortise and tenons with the drill press and a cross-slide vise. They come out just fine. I ought to make a short video of it in action. Sometime this week I will glue them all together. I am going to wait until mid April to spray because on the 18th of April I will be taking a factory sponsored 1 day class on Waterborne finishes. Then I will determine if that is the route I will take.
The mortises are pretty accurate with a drill press and a cross slide vise. I use a router bit at about 3,000 RPM.

 

[DrRobert]

After taking care of our 3 elderly parents for several years we realized the caretakers are often the forgotten ones, especially when someone has disabilities, is sick or hospitalized.

My hats off to you, I’m not so sure I’d be as dedicated to the craft in your working situation.

 

[Tony B]

Sometimes I go to my shop at 3AM just to get a few hours of sanity back in my life.
Last week was 3 days of PET Scans, Specialists and whomever. The rest of the week was somewhat adverse weather (fog and high humidity) which kept me out of the shop. Right now the chair parts are in my Apt. because I dont want them to sit in a un-climate controlled metal building. Seems like Dr appointments only happen on good weather days.

 

[LilMtnDave]

...
Everyone keeps talking about tools on Craigslist and Facebook. I never see them in my area. Everything in my shop is new.

Thats too bad...around me, ever since you posted interest in a drum sander and ever since I bought an older Delta 16-32, I have been checking my FB for them and some nice
units (Jet, S/M) keep showing up. They usually only last a day or two but this also has me thinking that by summer I will sell and recoup what I spent on the Delta and replace with probably a Supermax. Need to justify first with an ability to sell a couple things. I previously had no interest in cutting/charcuterie boards but a friend of my wife is selling them at a high pace and her supplier just doubled her cost. So those and selling a couple of my slab ceiling lights

would make the call. (I have only made a couple of the lights (one for me and one for a brother) but they garner a lot of attention from visitors. If I could replace my time with ROS getting them nice and smooth with a few runs through a S/M drum, I could crank them out pretty quickly. I have already bettered the electric components, from the original I modelled mine after. My next, using cut Belvenie scotch bottles enclosing the Edison lights is shaping up nicely. I am thinking they would make nice pool table lights and could be marketed as such. That same friend has an etsy site that I would test market on.

...
I have always made my mortise and tenons with the drill press and a cross-slide vise. They come out just fine. I ought to make a short video of it in action. Sometime this week I will glue them all together. I am going to wait until mid April to spray because on the 18th of April I will be taking a factory sponsored 1 day class on Waterborne finishes. Then I will determine if that is the route I will take.
The mortises are pretty accurate with a drill press and a cross slide vise. I use a router bit at about 3,000 RPM.

Pardon my ignorance but I had not heard of this method. I like it. Found a video on youTube where similarly a guy, using a roughing end mill bit, drill fence, and stop block created some really nice mortises. Although he said it was slower than using a router...it created router like mortises (pretty clean) and would seem to be great for small parts.

 

[Rebelwork]

I think if you want a mortising machine, router or a Domino, etc , it’s a project and personal choice.